On Saturday 5th September Islip hosted the 2015 Branch BBQ and Striking Competition. As in the last few years Kathryn welcomed us to her home near the church and the BBQ was started whilst people arrived and teams were formed.
The ringing got underway at 18:30 with Alison and Louise from the Witney & Woodstock Branch judging our efforts. Despite a number of the main Islip ringers being away (Happy Wedding Anniversary Teresa & Richard!), we still managed to muster three teams (two tower teams and a “harlequin” team including two ringers from outside the branch). All teams rang call changes and the first two teams both included recent recruits – Caversfield had two recruits who have been ringing for about 18 months (youngest being 11 years old), Islip had one ringer who has only been ringing a few months.
The competition piece consisted of 1 minute of “rounds” followed by 5 minutes of call changes. There were no big crashes in any of the teams competition pieces and the results were as follows:
Team 1 (Caversfield) – 91%
Team 2 (Islip) – 82%
Team 3 (Harlequin team – apparently to be called “Stratton Audley” if they won, or “Bicester” if they lost!) – 90%
So congratulations to Caversfield (as the tower captain I admit to being very pleased with my students progress and a great result for them).
We retired to Kathryn’s for the remainder of the BBQ, wine, scrumpy etc and puddings! Another lovely evening and my thanks to Alison & Louise for judging, and Kathryn for opening her home once again. Do come over to Caversfield to look at our newly acquired trophy if you get a chance 😀
