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Bletchingdon Special Practice March 2017

On Wednesday 15th March Bletchingdon welcomed 15 ringers from across the Bicester and Witney & Woodstock branches to focus efforts on Grandsire and Plain Bob Doubles.

We started with plain courses of Grandsire Doubles before moving on to plain hunt on 5 and 6 (well done Sue for first attempt on 6). We then tried a touch of Grandsire but that didn’t go quite to plan.

We next had a go at Plain Bob Doubles (plain courses) and then more plain hunt on 5 & 6.

More Grandsire and Plain Bob Doubles followed and more plain hunt for Sue. We managed a touch of Plain Bob Doubles (well done Stephen and Steve inside, and Judith on the treble) and a further touch of Grandsire (well done Steve).

We finished with a shaky but successful touch of Plain Bob Minor (with Singles.. thanks Fay for suggesting Singles :D), and a fairly good down.

Next on our schedule is the branch practice on Wed 5th April at Stratton Audley – see you there!

Anthony Cole

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Kirtlington BP March 2017

On Monday 6th March Kirtlington hosted the March branch practice. We started with just six ringers from Bicester and Kirtlington, but were soon joined by Jan and Richard from Ludgershall and Stephen from Charlton. After some call changes on 8, Judy and Hugh made our number up to 11. We did call changes and several variations of plain hunt on 5 through to 8, mostly very reasonable, including a variant, called “churchyard bob”.

We rang a fairly well struck touch of Grandsire Doubles and two plain courses of Plain Bob Triples, before we were joined by the newly installed rector of Kirtlington Gareth, who very gamely had a go at ringing back stroke. We hope to see Gareth again soon and maybe we’ll see his name on a peal board in the tower, emulating clerical ringers of yore 🙂

After ringing down all 8 in peal, some of us repaired to the Dashwood for a well earned drink.

Anthony Cole

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2017 AGM Notice

This year’s Branch AGM will be held in Kirtlington on Saturday 18th February.

As in previous years the format of the meeting will be:

10:30 Ringing
11:00 Service
11:30 Meeting
12:30 Lunch – at Kirtlington Golf Club Sample Bar Menu *

* The pie of the day and specials will be known nearer the day

Papers for the meeting:

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Bicester BP February 2017

On Mon 6th Feb Bicester hosted the February branch practice. We had 9 ringers (so close to being able to ring 10!).

After ringing up the front 6 and ringing some Call Changes for Sue we rang up the back 4 as a couple of extra ringers arrived. We rang plain hunt on 7 fairly well before giving Sue some call changes on 8.

Grandsire Doubles (plain courses) were next for Helen, followed by a rather shaky couple of courses of Plain Bob Minor.

After more call changes on 8 we tried something a little more advanced.. Spliced Plain Bob and Reverse Canterbury Doubles – the band was skeptical, but by swapping methods half way through a lead it proved easy enough and we managed a touch and were applauded afterwards.

We rang down the front 4 and then the back 6 before heading off home.

Our next event is our AGM at Kirtlington. Do please try to come if you can (it would be good to have every tower represented) – more details on the AGM notice page.

Anthony Cole

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Special Bicester practice Jan 2017

Monday 16th January was reported in the news today as being the most depressing day of the year. From a branch ringing perspective, it was anything but! Bicester played host to the January special practice to which 9 ringers (3 from outside the branch) came along.

After ringing up we started with plain courses of Plain Bob Minor (the first of the nominated methods for the evening). We set a fast pace and the striking was really good 😀 Then following a straw poll of the (then 8) ringers to see the capabilities we raised the back 4 so we could ring 8 bell methods as well as 6 bell ones.

Having raised them we rang plain hunt first on 7 and then on 8. Then whilst Helen came up the stairs we rang Winchendon Place (the other nominated method).

We then rang some plain courses of Grandsire Doubles for Helen before a successful touch of Plain Bob Minor with singles to stretch Jeremy.

Time to push the boat out (so to speak).. with Helen on the treble we rang two courses of Grandsire Triples! We then rang Winchendon Place again with Ian inside. Jeremy then challenged Kathryn to follow suit which she did successfully.

We finished with some plain courses of Grandsire Doubles and then rang down the back 8 in peal (not too bad really). What an excellent practice and a good start to 2017.

Our next practice is slated to be the branch practice at Kirtlington on Feb 6th, but (subject to confirmation) we will be swapping this to Bicester (and the Bicester practice on March 6th will be at Kirtlington) as Kirtlington have work scheduled on their bells early February. Please watch the website diary and emails for confirmation of this revision.

Anthony Cole

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First BP of 2017

On Tues 3rd Jan, the first day back to work for many, Islip hosted the first branch practice of 2017.

We just had enough with 6 ringers and rang plain hunt for Sue, plain courses of Grandsire Doubles for James and Sally, call changes, more Grandsire Doubles and plain hunt. We also had some useful discussions on how call changes work.

Next practice is the special practice at Bicester on Monday 16th Jan – Plain Bob Minor and Winchendon Place Doubles are the proposed methods.

Anthony Cole

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Happy New Year 2017

Happy New Year folks!

Late on Saturday 31st December, 6 ringers pulled themselves away from Kathryn’s New Year party (a first for the Cole kids – though Grace fell asleep about 15 mins before midnight!) to head up Islip tower. We nearly had a lock-out as the visitors earlier in the day had left the key to the ringing room in the wrong place, but thanks to Sue looking at the colonies of ladybirds we spotted the key and made it into the ringing room in time to ring up and have 2 mins rounds before midnight.

Making sure we allowed for the leap second that was added to the end of 2016 the tenor tolled the 12 strikes of midnight (something the church clock hasn’t been doing for a few months) and then rang some call changes to announce the start of 2017 to the village. We then rang down and headed back to the PARTY 😀

New Year 2017- Islip
New Year 2017- Islip

Did any other branch towers ring in the New Year? (Let me know and I’ll add details to this page).

The first branch event of 2017 is on Tuesday at Islip – ringing is a great way to exercise off all those Christmas excesses so get ringing!

Anthony Cole

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Ding dong Christmas 2016

On Mon 19th Dec we had 16 ringers representing 6 branch towers, one Oxford City tower and the Bicester Branch Cornwall office attended the final special practice of 2016 which was held at Kirtlington, and followed by a social at Caroline’s house.

We started with ringing up on all 8 (brave.. perhaps a bit too brave) before moving on to rounds and call changes (well done to Ellie and Brenda), followed by plain hunt on 7 (well done Judith, Caroline, Louise and Rachel).

Steve suggested we try something more advanced so we “attempted” one of the chosen methods for the evening.. St Clements Minor.. we didn’t manage a course despite a few attempts. More call changes followed, then plain hunt on 7 and then 8. We were encouraged to ring something more advanced again, but this time opted for a touch of Plain Bob Minor which went much better and was applauded at the end.

We rang down on 8 (good most of the way down) and then headed across the green to Caroline’s house for the Christmas social where nibbles & mulled wine (and other beverages) were consumed and the handbells made an appearance also (see facebook for our rather failed attempts at some Christmas carols!)

It’s been a busy year and we seem to have made some great progress. Have a great Christmas and a Happy 2017 everyone. Our first practice of 2017 is on 3rd January in Islip – hopefully see you there.

Anthony Cole