This years Guild 10 bell striking competition is a set touch of Plain Bob Royal. The Banbury Branch team came to Bicester on Friday 15th November to practice ahead of the competition on Sat 23rd November. As not all their band was able to make the practice I joined them filling in for one of the absent ringers.
Once we rang up we rang half a course of Cambridge Surprise Major until the remaining 2 ringers arrived (most annoyingly I missed a 3-4 dodge! Obviously don’t ring Cambridge Major often enough anymore!).
The competition piece uses a combination of “bobs” and “big bobs” – what is a “big bob” I hear you say? Well, a normal “bob” is a 4ths place bob (i.e. one bell makes 4ths as the treble leads, and the others work around that so 3-4d runs in, 2nd runs out, and 3-4 up makes 4ths, or “makes the bob” as it is called). The “big bob” is a 6ths place bob so the bells in 5-6 are also affected – 5-6down runs in, 5-6 up makes 6ths (“makes the bob”) and 3-4up runs out (instead of making 4ths):
All three attempts of the touch were successful (previous practices by the same team were apparently not so successful!) and it was certainly interesting both to be affected by the “big bobs” and also to hear all 10 Bicester bells rung for a change!
The next branch event is the special practice at Islip on Tuesday night – Grandsire Triples and Single Oxford Bob Triples if we get enough – I know of at least one person who is coming over specifically to try Single Oxford Bob Triples so do come along if you are able 🙂
