Author: Gus Bridges

An amazing group of around 25 plus, including some non-ringers and one dog, arrived for the first tower at Great Gaddesden at 9.45am on Saturday 15 April.  Impeccably organised by Richard and Jan Haseldine, they immediately ensured that ringers of all abilities were catered for – we had Grandsire, Bob Doubles, Stedman, Cambridge, rounds, call changes and – to the alarm of some – Kent. Our repertoire was replayed at Little Gaddesden, Studham, Kensworth, Whipsnade, and Eaton Bray with a welcome lunch interval at Studham which included the memorable sight of a string of ringers’ cars following each other in totally wrong directions for the pub!

Thank you to Richard and Jan, and Jeremy, for all the work of organising the towers and the ringing at each – we’re already looking forward to the next outing.

10 members of the Bicester Branch from 4 towers) came to Islip on Tuesday for a Branch Practice – we were joined by our Guild Master, Katie Lane, which made us all perform better! For those of us who usually ring plain hunt on 3,4 or 5 bells, ringing on 7 was a bit of a challenge and forced quite a lot of quick homework!

We were all more comfortable with Grandsire Doubles – and it was great to have enough to stand by to ensure success with some of our less experienced ringers.

Kathryn Grant

Fifteen ringers from six towers came to tonight’s Branch Practice at Bicester, including Sally Cross, Gerald Bushby and Dinah, ringing there for the first time.

We started with some rounds and call changes on six for Pinda and Dinah, then a few plain courses of Grandsire doubles with Sue Carter and Gerald on the hunt bells, Judith Vickars inside and Sue Macready covering.

It was good to see Sally master the six and tenor to plain hunt doubles, before we rang the back four up and did rounds and call changes on all ten, with Gerald getting his first go on that number. We then rang some nice plain courses of St Simons doubles for Kathryn Grant.

On to a touch of Grandsire doubles, with Judith inside, before more rounds and call changes for Dinah and Pinda and an attempted touch of plain Bob minor with Anne inside, getting to the final set of Bob’s before firing out.

Our final blast was to ring all ten again, with Judith and Dinah in the team, before ringing down the front six and back four, with some good striking.

Well done everyone, hope to see people at ringing for the Christmas tree festival at Ambrosden on 4th December and branch practice at Islip on 7th December.

Steve Vickar