On Saturday 16th July we held our annual branch training course. Following successive years of Ringing Up & Down this year we held a rope splicing course.
Stratton Audley hosted the course where 6 students came along to try both short and long splices. I demonstrated a short splice first of all and then (thanks to Steve for bringing some old ropes – unusable as bell ropes anymore due to their length/past breakages) we headed into the sunny churchyard to have a go. Results were mixed – some having difficulties and others finding it easier (and the resulting “fixed” ropes resulted in the odd tug of war to test their strength).
After a couple of hours trying we moved on to long splices (Jeremy had got ahead of us following the instructions printed off the website).. I demonstrated how to do a long splice and then the students had a go, again with mixed results.
It was the first time I had taught splicing so that was interesting and I have picked up some traps to watch out for another time, and the students seemed to enjoy the practice too.
Anthony Cole