I need to get my head around bobs in Grandsire Triples.
In Grandsire, the treble always plain hunts, and in a plain course one other bell plain hunts after it — bell 2 when starting from rounds. This other bell is said to be ‘in the hunt’. At a bob this bell leaves the hunt and joins the other bells in hunting and dodging, and one of the other bells joins the hunt in its place. How does this work?
If we are ringing bell 3, then starting from rounds we ring one blow at handstroke in third place and then hunt down to the lead, up to the back, and down again. Then we dodge in 4–5 down. The plain course continues with dodges in 6–7 down, 6–7 up, and 4–5 up. Then we make 3rds place, which brings us back to rounds.
When a bob is called the dodges are changed in the following way: the bell making 3rds place is unaffected and each of the other bells skips the dodge it would have done and instead double dodges the next dodge, so to speak. This has the following effect:
but:
and conversely
In this bob, two bells each make 3rds place — first the bell which would have dodged 4–5 up, but which makes 3rds and goes into the hunt. This bell makes ‘first 3rds’ at the bob. Secondly, the bell which was going to make 3rds anyway — it does so and continues in the normal way, unaffected by the bob. This bell makes ‘last 3rds’ at the bob.
When set down in this way it is fairly easy to remember. All that has to be done is to remember this in the heat of the moment: that is, know which dodge you are about to do next, and consider in advance what you must do if a bob happens to be called. There, touches of Grandsire Triples made easy! Except that we have not yet considered the question of calls of ‘Single!’.
Footnote (24 August 2004): A further point about bobs in Grandsire Triples, is that when a bob is called you double-dodge in the place you are in at the moment of the call (unless you were going to dodge 4–5 up, in which case you make 3rds and go into the hunt).
1 CommentHad a few more attempts at ringing Stedman at Hemingford Grey last night. We rang a couple of plain courses of doubles: first time I rang bell number 2, and afterwards I tried number 3. Both times I got it right. Later in the evening — after more ringers had turned up — we rang triples. I rang bell 4, and started off making a mess of things. I was immediately put right by the conductor (‘lead now!’), and from then on I was okay. I realized at the time that I had probably gone wrong in exactly the same way as I had done the very first time I had tried to ring Stedman. But I could not see at all what I was doing wrong.
Later, when driving home, I worked out what I had probably done on both occasions. Bell number 4 starts by dodging once with 5 (i.e., from ringing in 4th place at rounds, you ring one blow in 5th, one blow in 4th, and then ‘go in slow’, that is, two blows in 3rd place and down to the lead). I had forgotten to do the dodge with 5, instead trying to go in slow immediately with the two blows in 3rd place. Obviously something to remember — not just ‘go in slow’, but ‘dodge 4/5 down’ first.
We also tried to ring a touch of Grandsire Triples, with me ringing bell 6. In a plain course of Grandsire Triples there are dodges in 4/5 up, 6/7 up, 6/7 down, 4/5 down, and then make 3rds. But I haven’t got the hang of bobs in this method yet. Ringing 6 the first dodge is in 6/7 up, but a bob called before this means do a double-dodge in 4/5 up; another bob was called as I was about to make 3rd — which is unaffected by the call. We did this a couple of times, then a bob was called in some other position, and I was somewhat lost. We struggled to the finishing post which was by then in sight. More work needed to understand bobs in Grandsire…
0 CommentsAfter some hints at last Wednesday’s practice at Hemingford Grey, I have spent a while getting to grips with Stedman, a method (or rather a principle) devised in the 1670s. A couple of things helped me. First, when I began to learn to ring, Stedman was the first method that I learnt to ring a cover bell to, and one of the things I did was to learn the pattern in which pairs of bells come to the back. In a notebook I had sketched this out, writing out a plain course of the last two bells — the first time I had done this. The second help was that I spent an hour each way on the train to London, and decided to use it to work out the full plain course for Stedman Doubles. Turning to the back of the notebook I had with me I found my notes of 18 months earlier which I had entirely forgotten about.
Stedman is based on the two orders in which you can arrange six bells. There are only six ways you can arrange six bells, and in ringing there are only two ways of arranging these six different changes, since a bell can only exchange places with its nearest neighbour (or stay in the same place). These two ways can be considered as: ‘forward hunting’ in which the bell in first place hunts to third place, and then down to the front again; and ‘backward hunting’ where the bell in third place hunts down to the front, leads, and hunts back up to third place again. Stedman consists of each of these ‘sixes’ performed alternately. At the end of each ‘six’ the bell in third place moves out of the front three into fourth place, and the bell which was in fourth place moves down to take its place. And during each ‘six’ the bells in fourth and fifth places dodge with each other.
Armed with this information, you can then work out a plain course of Stedman Doubles, or indeed Triples.
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Then came the moment of truth, this Wednesday. ‘Did you have a look at Stedman?’ I am asked. ‘Right, we’ll ring Stedman Triples.’ So we rang Stedman Triples — and I made a complete hash of it. Very annoying, having put some effort into thoroughly learning the ‘blue line’, and knowing exactly what I was supposed to be doing — but actually trying to remember that and ring at the same time was too much. Later in the practice we had another go, with me again ringing bell number 4. This time — I got it right, and we rang a plain course of Stedman Triples without me going wrong. I guess my striking could have been better, but I never lost my place, knew what I should be doing, and was always more or less in the right place. Phew! Now to do it a lot better.
0 CommentsFor quite a while now practice has involved ringing touches of bob doubles, minor, triples, and even bob major, in which the conductor has called various bobs. So it came as something of a surprise tonight when a ‘single’ was called a short way into a touch of bob triples. Of course, I had no idea what to do, and as I was (or should have been) affected by the call, since I would otherwise have been dodging 3/4 up, the whole thing went wrong. Oh well, that’s what practice nights are for.
So we had another go, after it was explained what I should be doing: if dodging 3/4 up then instead make fourth’s place, hunt to the front, and next time dodge 5/6 down; and if dodging 3/4 down then make third’s place, hunt to the back and next time make second’s place. In other words, the bells that would otherwise be dodging 3/4 up and 3/4 down effectively swap places. And it worked! We got through the touch without further errors, a single being called twice with me affected. Phew!
So in theory I can now ring any touch of Plain Bob. We shall see.
0 CommentsThis evening for the first time I had to lead bellringing practice. We only had six ringers (seven ringers for the first half), and just one of those was an experienced ringer, former tower captain Bob King. So we rang rounds and call changes for the seven of us, and plain hunting on four for the five of us. Our two less-experienced plain hunters had only done this on the treble before, so after a few goes at this, we had each of them have a try at the second bell, with me ringing the tenor behind. After a little while at this for each of them, we were able to plain hunt on five without the tenor covering. And I got quite a bit of practice at calling ‘go’ and ‘stop’ — the latter being the harder one to know when to call!
0 CommentsFor some time now I have been practising ringing touches of bob doubles, and even bob minor, bob triples and bob major. I have mostly got the hang of the necessary dodges, and can start on any bell, and I can usually cope with the calls of bob, though I can only do this by remembering the sequence, or cycle of work, and not by noticing signposts such as when I cross the treble’s path (although this is occasionally obvious, especially when making 2nds’ place). And in the even-bell methods, where there is no cover bell always in last place from which to lead, I can now usually see the last bell rope go down, so that I can lead appropriately.
Tonight I got to ‘call’ various plain courses of bob doubles, bob triples and bob minor. The hard part at this stage is to know when to call the end of the method — calls should be made when the lead bell is at handstroke, a full stroke before the method ends, and where your bell is at this point depends on which bell you are ringing. Of course, harder than this is calling a touch with bobs (and singles) and getting back to rounds at the end of it; and being able to correct other ringers if they are about to go wrong. I’m definitely a long way from that. Still, progress is being made.
Now we have two of our ‘new’ ringers who can just about ring touches of plain bob doubles and triples, and we have four who can, with varying degrees of success, plain hunt to these (and other) methods. We need to get some of these other ringers to be able to ring ‘inside’ to plain bob — then we will be able to try plain courses on Sunday mornings and weddings when we are not assisted by more experienced ringers.
0 CommentsAfter a few more weeks practising ringing the no 2 bell at Bob Doubles, I have for the last couple of Mondays been trying to ring a different bell. Tonight I was ringing the number 5 bell, which has the advantage of only having to look one way (except when leading off the tenor cover). Then after a couple of plain courses a bob was called, and I had to cope with this alteration to the pattern. First time was easy, because I knew what to do — instead of making 2nd’s place, continue plain hunting up to the back, down to the front, and make 2nd’s next time. Then a bob was called when I was dodging 3/4 up, and I was lost completely. Apparently I should have made 4th’s, then plain hunted back to the lead and dodged 3/4 up next time. I’ll have to check this — I fancy I might get asked to do something similar on Wednesday! [Correction: after making 4th’s, I should have hunted down to the lead, and next time lain four blows in 5th place; that is, by making 4th’s place you become the bell that is dodging 3/4 down, and that bell’s next variation from plain hunting is four blows at the back. Got that?]
In other bellringing news, our captain has indicated his intention to stand down, which means I get to be captain. Gulp.
[Update: at a ringers’ meeting held before practice on 8 December, I was elected tower captain, and Chris Armes as new vice-captain.]
0 CommentsFor a few weeks, stretching over the interrupted practices of summer, I have been ringing bell number 2 at a plain course of bob doubles (with a tenor cover). Tonight I had a go at bob minor, where the interruptions to plain hunting are dodges at 3/4 down, then 5/6 down, 5/6 up, 3/4 up, and make 2nds. We did two courses — I pretty much kept my place throughout the first, and began to lose my place halfway through the second. That is, I knew where I was, but I was mis-remembering where to dodge. I knew I was doing this and also realized that if I carried on I would come to lead in the right place, which is indeed what happened. Fortunately the ringers around me knew pretty much what they were doing.
Earlier in the summer, another ‘landmark’ reached was supervising a less-experienced ringer ringing up — I did this on two separate occasions (for two different ringers), and each time I first helped them control the rope, and then more or less took over from them. Perhaps not the best thing for them, but good for my hand-eye co-ordination!
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On Sunday morning, 6 July 2003, at the Church of All Saints, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, a Quarter Peal of 1260 Doubles (Grandsire and Plain Bob) was rung in 52 minutes. |
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| Weight of Tenor: 12–0‑4 in G | |||
| *Susan Bates | Treble | Michael V White | 5 |
| Marianne Baker | 2 | Christoper R Armes | 6 |
| Richard C Smith | 3 | *Simon Kershaw | 7 |
| Harold S King | 4 | John Marlow | Tenor |
| Conducted by Michael V White | |||
| * First Quarter Peal. Rung with 7,6,8 covering. | |||
| Rung for the Confirmation and Sung Eucharist celebrated by Keith, Bishop of Richborough |
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Practice at H Grey. Amongst other things I plain-hunted on treble to: Plain Bob Triples (easy by numbers); Stedman Triples [Correction: I couldn’t have been plain hunting on the treble in Stedman Triples, because Stedman doesn’t have the treble plain hunting; probably I meant that I was ringing the tenor cover to this method — rather different! perhaps Grandsire Triples?]; and hardest of all, to St Simon’s Triples.
In St Simon’s the order of the bells is different coming down to the front from the order going up to the back, which means that I had to do it by ‘counting my place’ rather than by numbers. I more or less managed it (and didn’t lose my place), which must mean that my ‘rope sight’ in Triples is nearly there. Going up to the back is fairly easy (using the principle ‘follow the bell that followed you’). On the way down to the front I can see 7th place, 6th place (only one other rope left), just about see 5th place (two other ropes left), 2nd place (one rope gone down), and just about 3rd place (two ropes gone down) — and try and ring somewhere right for 4th place!
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