On Tues 16th July 7 ringers (2 Bicester, 4 Islip regulars and 1 visitor) banded together for the Special Practice at Islip. On the schedule for this very warm evening was Stedman Doubles and Plain Bob Major. Sadly neither of those methods was on the cards! Some other day perhaps. We did benefit from being in the tower though as it was lovely and cool (2 foot thick walls should be a must in these temperatures).
Anyway, we started with some plain hunt on 5 and plain courses of Grandsire Doubles with the visitor (Alex) taking the treble. Whilst she has only been ringing for 18 months she showed she was quite capable of this (despite her apprehension). AnthonyB arrived and we did the same again with Alex on the two which was slightly less successful.
Next we tried Alex on the tenor and the rest ringing plain courses of Grandsire which worked with a little help and then we tried a touch for Sally to try the observation bell.
We rounded the evening off with a touch of Reverse Canterbury Doubles which was going really well until… someone forgot to make 2nds and everything fell apart 🙁 Better luck (and quicker spotting from the conductor hopefully) next time.
With such a lovely evening there was only one place to go next .. the pub garden for some liquid refreshment.
The next branch event is the Branch Practice at Ludgershall on Fri 2nd August – hope to see lots of you there (and hopefully the weather too, though perhaps just a shade cooler please?)