At the end of practice at St Ives tonight we rang a touch of Bob Doubles, and I volunteered to call it. I rang the 5 bell and called three ‘Homes’, i.e., called ‘Bob’ each time I came back to do my 4 blows in 5th place. The third time brought us straight back to rounds. This is the first time I have called a touch, and it was reasonably successful. I probably should have called ‘Bob’ fractionally earlier — when the treble was at backstroke before leading, rather than when I was about to pull at backstroke. And although I was unaffected by the bobs, I still managed to get slightly muddled in between so that I half missed a dodge. Fortunately I was able to recover and hadn’t lost my place. Of course, I could have chosen any of the inside bells (2,3,4 or 5) and still called three Homes. Must try and remember that next time — a disadvantage of ringing 5 with this touch is that the final bob brings the bells immediately to rounds, which doesn’t give much time for saying ‘That’s all’.
Next time!