Thinking allowed

Calling Plain Bob

on Thursday, 20 September 2007 at 8.51 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, conducting

Over the last few of weeks I have been call­ing simple touches of Bob Major and Bob Triples.

First was Bob Major, three weeks ago. ‘Call a touch of Bob Major’, asked the cap­tain at Wed­nes­day prac­tice. ‘What do I call?’ I respon­ded, already hold­ing the rope of the num­ber 6 bell. He thought for a moment and replied ‘Call a bob at the end of the first lead, and then at the end of the fourth and the fifth; and then repeat.’ Okay, I thought, can I remem­ber that at short notice? So off we went, about to dodge 7–8 down so call ‘bob!’, then 7–8 up, 5–6 up, about to dodge 3–4 up so ‘bob!’ and make the bob, next is 5–6 down and don’t for­get to call ‘bob!’ first. That’s half way, now we just have to call a sim­il­ar pat­tern of bobs. So, ‘bob!’ at 7–8 down, then 7–8 up, 5–6 up, and now I’ve lost count of how many leads there have been — is there a bob next time or not? A nudge from anoth­er ringer and I man­age to call the bob at exactly the right point, and make the bob. Then ‘bob!’ again, dodge 5–6 down and ‘That’s all’.

After­wards, at home, I look this up, and find it is the most com­monly called touch of Bob Major, which when called from the Ten­or is: ‘wrong’, three ‘befores’, ‘middle’ and ‘home’, but can be rung from any bell by remem­ber­ing the leads: bob, plain, plain, bob, bob; repeat.

Last night the request was sim­il­ar: ‘Call a touch of Bob Triples’. Again, I have to ask what to call, and this time the reply is, ‘Call plain, bob, bob, plain, and repeat.’

I am hold­ing the rope of num­ber 7, and off we go. 5–6 up at the end of the first lead, then about to dodge 3–4 up, so ‘bob!’ and make the bob. Then about to dodge 5–6 down, so ‘bob!’ and dodge unaf­fected. Next time it’s four blows behind and I see that I am simply back at my start­ing pos­i­tion, so the calls of the second half will be exactly the same as the first half, and when we get to the four blows behind then ‘that’s all’.

more Stedman

on Thursday, 2 August 2007 at 9.54 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, conducting

Since that first suc­cess at call­ing a simple touch of Sted­man Triples, I have called sev­er­al more touches. The next touch to learn, after the ini­tial 2 Qs is Q & S twice (or S & Q twice, depend­ing which bell you are ringing).

An S call, is a pair of bobs, the first called when you are dodging 4–5 down and about to go in slow, and the second called 6 blows later (at the hand­stroke lead of the first whole turn). This con­trasts with a Q call which is a pair of bobs called as you are about to go in quick, and at the hand­stroke in 2nds place after leading.

Sted­man has a couple of oth­er places to call pairs of bobs that leave you unaf­fected by the call. Each of these pairs occurs dur­ing the slow work, and they are labelled ‘H’ and ‘L’.

H is a pair of bobs called either side of the first half turn. L is a pair of bobs called dur­ing the last whole turn.

Of course, it is also pos­sible to call bobs in 6–7 up and down, and in 4–5 up. But in this piece we will look at the bobs called dur­ing the slow work. And we will look at the way that the Sted­man front­work is constructed.

Sted­man front­work, we recall, con­sists of altern­ate ‘sixes’ of for­ward hunt­ing and back­ward hunt­ing. When learn­ing Sted­man we worked these sixes out then recast them into the tra­di­tion­al Sted­man chunks of work — first whole turn, first half turn, second half turn, last whole turn. But it can also be help­ful to ring it as altern­ate sixes of for­ward and back­ward hunt­ing. This helps to keep the sixes dis­tinct, and to remem­ber which is a quick six and which a slow six (which helps you tell anoth­er bell how to come in, quick or slow, if neces­sary). In addi­tion, calls of ‘bob’ (or ‘single’) are made at the pen­ul­tim­ate stroke of each six, so remem­ber­ing where the sixes are helps you know when to call the bobs, without hav­ing to over­lay them on the whole and half turn structure.

–x slow six = back­ward hunt­ing, so lie in 3rd place
–x
-x-
x– and lead at back­stroke and handstroke
x–
-x-

x– quick six = for­ward hunt­ing, so lead at hand and back
x–
-x-
–x lie in 3rd place, back and hand
–x
-x-

x– slow six = back­ward hunting
-x-
–x lie in 3rd place, hand and back
–x
-x-
x–

-x- quick six = for­ward hunting
–x lie in 3rd place, back and hand
–x
-x-
x– lead at hand and back
x–

-x- slow six = back­ward hunting
x– lead at back and hand
x–
-x-
–x lie in 3rd place, hand and back
–x

learning Yorkshire Surprise Major

on Wednesday, 1 August 2007 at 9.22 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, learning new methods

Home­work time again. This time we’ve been told to learn York­shire (York­shire Sur­prise Major) for next week. It’s been a while since I set out to learn a new meth­od – per­haps it’s becom­ing easi­er. We shall see.

York­shire is sim­il­ar in parts to Cam­bridge (the meth­od, not the geo­graphy, that is). Where­as Cam­bridge con­tains ‘Cam­bridge places’, York­shire has a short­er form ‘York­shire places’ or ‘short places’ of dodge, make places, dodge (where­as in Cam­bridge it is: dodge, make places, dodge, make places, dodge). Places are made in 3–4 and in 5–6 up and down. Here for example is how you ring York­shire places in 3–4
up:

-x——
–x—– York­shire 3–4 places up
—x—-
–x—–
—x—-
—x—-
–x—–
–x—–
—x—-
–x—–
—x—-
—-x— and carry on up

The back­work is identic­al to that in Cam­bridge – and indeed, York­shire is identic­al to Cam­bridge if you are above the treble. This means that whenev­er you pass above the treble you do whatever you would have done in Cam­bridge if you had passed the treble at that point, and this con­tin­ues until you pass below the treble. Now if only I could ring Cam­bridge by the treble this might be some help!

York­shire also includes the front­work of Cam­bridge, but it is split into two sep­ar­ate halves, and you don’t get to dodge or make seconds over the treble in either half.

First thing is to try and remem­ber the order of work, which looks like this, assum­ing we are ringing the 2.

dodge down with the treble
treble bob up
triple-dodge in 5–6 up
2 & 1 at the back (double dodge 7–8 up, lie, single dodge 7–8 down)
dodge 5–6 down

straight down to the lead
second half of front­work (dodge down, lead, make 2nds, dodge down, dodge up)
straight up

York­shire places in 5–6 up
treble bob at the back (dodge 7–8 up, lie, dodge 7–8 down)
York­shire places 3–4 down
dodge and lead
York­shire places 3–4 up

dodge 5–6 up
backwork
dodge 5–6 down

York­shire places 3–4 down
lead and dodge
York­shire places 3–4 up
treble bob at the back
York­shire places 5–6 down

first half of the front­work (dodge down, dodge up, make 2nds, lead, dodge up)

dodge 5–6 up
1 & 2 at the back
triple-dodge 5–6 down
treble bob down to the lead
dodge 1–2 up with the treble
make 2nds place

Armed with this inform­a­tion we can write out a plain course of York­shire, here giv­en for the 3 …

(more…)

a golden quarter peal

on Sunday, 29 July 2007 at 8.18 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, peals and quarter peals

Calling Stedman Triples

on Wednesday, 4 July 2007 at 9.37 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, conducting

Sted­man Triples is a meth­od for which I have a par­tic­u­lar affec­tion. When I began to ring it was almost the first meth­od to which I rang the ten­or behind — the double dodging of bells in 6–7 mak­ing it easi­er than many meth­ods to see which bells to ring over. And a couple of years later, in 2004, I began to learn to ring an inside bell.

Now I can gen­er­ally ring touches of Sted­man Triples, cop­ing with bobs (even odd bobs) and (usu­ally) remem­ber­ing all the details of the slow work.

Last week at prac­tice at Hem­ing­ford Grey I called a touch of Grand­sire Triples, and check­ing this touch after­wards in Cole­man, I read on into the next chapter, about call­ing Sted­man Triples. There I dis­covered that actu­ally it was quite easy to call a simple touch. And so tonight when the tower cap­tain sug­ges­ted a touch of Sted­man I asked if I could call it. Choos­ing the 6, I inten­ded to call ‘Two Qs’, that is, to call two pairs of bobs — each pair con­sist­ing of a bob just before going in quick and then in second place after lead­ing. So off we went, and I called the first bob a whole pull too early, and shortly there­after asked for rounds. Off we went ago and this time I got the first two bobs right, ran through the rest of the course and called the third bob, and then it began to go wrong. The two bells in 6–7 appar­ently didn’t hear the call of ‘bob’, and with them awry I landed on the front and went a bit wrong too. Rounds again. Enough for that attempt, so we stood and rang some­thing else.

Later we had anoth­er go. This time we got to the fourth bob, and on past there until I went in slow and there clearly weren’t enough bells on the front! Rounds again, and then try once more: dodge with the 7, then double dodge with the treble, ‘bob’, in quick, ‘bob’, out quick, double dodge up to the back and down again, in slow, out slow, double dodge up to the back and down again, ‘bob’, in quick, ‘bob’, out quick, double dodge up to the back and down once again, in and out slow (nearly there now), double dodge up to the back (we’re going to make it), dodge 6–7 down, and ‘that’s all’ — we’ve done it, and I have suc­cess­fully called a touch of Sted­man Triples. Yay! A real sense of achieve­ment, and smiles all round.

a quarter peal on eight

on Saturday, 5 May 2007 at 5.15 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, peals and quarter peals

This after­noon I took part in a quarter peal of Plain Bob Major, my first quarter peal on eight bells.

Progress report

on Thursday, 29 March 2007 at 3.53 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing

It’s been a while since I have pos­ted here, but a few things have been happening.

I have con­tin­ued to try and prac­tise Cam­bridge Major; I occu­pied a flight to New York by learn­ing the blue line for Double Nor­wich and I have occa­sion­ally had an oppor­tun­ity to try and ring it — ‘first, treble bob, last, near, full, far’, the aide mem­oire for Double Nor­wich, has become firmly planted in my head.

More recently I have begun to call touches of meth­ods oth­er than Bob Doubles. I can call simple touches of Bob Minor, and this has become some­thing we try to ring on a Sunday morn­ing, since we usu­ally have six ringers avail­able. This touch leaves one bell unaf­fected, a bob being called whenev­er the obser­va­tion bell is dodging 5–6 up or 5–6 down. This can be your­self, but it is more use­ful to have a less-exper­i­enced ringer unaf­fected by the bobs, which means that call­ing the touch is slightly more complicated.

I am also mak­ing pro­gress at work­ing out what oth­er bells should be doing in Plain Bob Minor, and attempt­ing to put them right. On a really good day and at the right moment, I can just about tell where two oth­er bells should be!

In the last couple of weeks at prac­tice I have star­ted to call touches of Grand­sire Triples. The par­tic­u­lar touch is really quite simple — ‘in and out at one, three times’ rung from the 7. This means that you have to call bobs so that you make thirds and go into the hunt, and then call anoth­er bob at the next lead so that you come out of the hunt after just one lead; and repeat this three times, which brings the bells back into a plain course. Unlike in Plain Bob, bobs in Grand­sire are called at hand­stroke, and in this touch that means at the hand­stroke of second place after lead­ing — at which you make thirds and go into the hunt — and then at the hand­stroke of fifth place on the way down from the back (but really just before your own pull, because it should be timed with the pull of the bell that is in the lead) – at which you double-dodge 4–5 down to come out of the hunt. After com­ing out of the hunt you next dodge 6–7 down, then 6–7 up, and then next time call a bob to make thirds.

ringing in Philadelphia

on Tuesday, 6 June 2006 at 9.22 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing

A couple of weeks ago I spent some time in the USA. I had to be in Pennsylvania for a few days and took the oppor­tun­ity to do a couple of oth­er things too. One of them was to vis­it St Mark’s Church in Phil­adelphia. We stayed overnight a few miles out­side the city and drove in on Sunday morn­ing, find­ing a park­ing place just around the corner from the church (which is in Locust Street) — coin­cid­ent­ally right out­side the War­wick Hotel where I had stayed on my only pre­vi­ous vis­it to Phil­adelphia in Sum­mer 1976.

After the Sunday morn­ing ser­vice (very high-church Anglic­an, with excel­lent chor­al music) I was able to join in ringing the bells — St Mark’s is one of only 43 act­ive towers in North Amer­ica. It was a pleas­ure to ring these bells, and to enjoy the hos­pit­al­ity of the Phil­adelphia ringers. Although sev­er­al of their more exper­i­enced ringers were away we were able ring some call changes, as well as touches of bob doubles. The only tricky moment was when I pulled at hand­stroke and noth­ing happened, and then the rope bal­looned and shot up — the rope had slipped off the wheel. For­tu­nately I was able to con­trol the rope, which slipped back onto the wheel, and bring the bell back up and under con­trol. The touch of course was lost.

A nice set of bells — but I’m glad that I don’t have to ring in that heat every week!

Cambridge Major

on Thursday, 6 April 2006 at 8.46 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, learning new methods

Finally a Wed­nes­day night prac­tice at which there were enough exper­i­enced ringers to try Cam­bridge Major, with a reas­on­able expect­a­tion that we could man­age it. In fact there were even enough for one of them to stand behind and give guid­ance – not for me but for someone else who was not too sure about Cambridge.

So we set off, with me ringing the 3 — dodge 5–6 up, back­work, 5–6 down, 3–4 places down, and on we went, and even­tu­ally I got to 5–6 places up, dodge up and down and the back, down to the front, dodge down and up, and just about to start 3–4 places up, when the con­duct­or, a vis­it­or from anoth­er tower, called ‘go rounds’. I wasn’t sure what had gone wrong, and we were with­in about a dozen strokes of the end. How frustrating!

Later in the even­ing we had anoth­er go. This time I chose to ring the 2, just for a bit of vari­ation  — start by dodging down with the treble in the middle of the front­work, and then 3–4 up, double dodge up at the back and single dodge down, 5–6 down, 1–2 up, 3–4 up, places 5–6 up. And in the middle of 5–6 places up I got lost, won­der­ing wheth­er I had dodged with the treble or not. So I meandered up to the back, and hung around there a bit, and then wandered down to the front and dodge around there, and just about put myself right. Then 3–4 places up, and dodging with the treble in the middle con­firmed that I was now in the right place <phew>.

So on to the back­work (brack­et­ted by dodges up and down in 5–6), 3–4 places down, treble bob at the front, then at the back, places 5–6 down, dodge 3–4 down, 1–2 down, dodge 5–6 up, single and double dodges at the back, <nearly there now, just keep going>, 3–4 down, onto the front­work, and here we are dodging with the treble, <steady> and <c’mon con­duct­or> ‘that’s all’. Yes.

As usu­al, there’s a lot that I could do bet­ter — bet­ter strik­ing, bet­ter dodging, bet­ter ropesight, espe­cially in 5–6. And, espe­cially, not get­ting lost! But on the whole I was quite pleased with myself.

calling Bob Doubles

on Tuesday, 4 April 2006 at 1.50 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, conducting

Two little bits of pro­gress to record, to do with call­ing touches of Bob Doubles.

A couple of weeks ago I called a 120 of Bob Doubles from the treble. When you do this you only have the basic frame­work of ringing to help you know where you have got to. You can­not call a 120 by simply call­ing ‘Bob’ whenev­er you are doing four blows behind, or by call­ing bobs at ‘in’, ‘out’ and ‘make’, because you nev­er do any of these things. Instead what I did was to count leads. I decided in advance that I wanted the 2 to be unaf­fected, so I called a bob just as I rang a back­stroke in 2nd place at the end of the second lead. Then I coun­ted 3 more leads and called a bob again (at my back­stroke in 2nd place); then 3 more leads and anoth­er bob, and finally when tak­ing the 2 from the lead, call ‘that’s all’ as the bells come into rounds.

The dif­fi­culty with this is the two lots of count­ing that must be done: count­ing your own place, and count­ing the num­ber of leads. It is all too easy to for­get how many leads have been rung by con­fus­ing the two lots of numbers.

Then at last night’s prac­tice I called a 120 of Bob Doubles while ringing the ten­or cov­er. Here, there is even less fram­we­work to help you as you are ringing in sixth place at every blow. Instead, you have to watch anoth­er bell. I chose to count the place of bell 2, and to call a 120 which affected that bell (make, in, and out), and then as it was about to make 2nds place the bells come into rounds. In order to do this you have to be able to con­tin­ue ringing the cov­er bell whilst watch­ing and count­ing what some oth­er bell is doing. Ringing the cov­er bell (to doubles, at least) has become an almost totally auto­mat­ic or sub-con­scious pro­cess: my eyes and hands can get on with doing this while I fol­low anoth­er bell and call the 120. It’s nice to have reached this state: it’s not so long ago that ringing the cov­er bell itself was hard and not always accurate!