Category: Focussed Practice

Fourteen ringers came to today’s Plain Hunt practice at Bletchingdon, where we were very grateful to have Hugh, Jane, Ruth, Christine, Judith and Barbara as helpers (but also to get a bit of a challenge themselves), and Liping, Michael, Sally, Vikki and Charlie to practice their Plain Hunt and trebling.

After raising the bells we had a bit of a theory session where we walked through plain hunt on two out to six, noting the patterns and similarities between even bell and odd bell hunting, also discussing course bells and after bells.

Michael and Liping rang treble to Churchyard Bob as well as to Plain Hunt Doubles and were getting the rhythm nicely at the end.

We warmed up with some regular plain hunt for Sally on the four, then mixed 2, 3, 4 and 5 up, also with Christine and Barbara inside.

Charlie and Vikki rang treble to short touches of Grandsire Doubles, which also gave Ruth some practice at ringing the three half-hunt.

All our regular ringers got practice at Plain Hunt medley, hunting from two to five, then we pulled off in Queens and went Plain Hunt medley again, giving our helpers a bit of a challenge as well!

To finish Judith and Ruth rang inside to a plain course of Plain Bob Minor and Liping and Michael did one final set of courses of Plain Hunt on the three, before a very reasonable lower on six, with Liping and Vikki inside. We took the obligatory photo of the team.

Another really successful practice, many thanks to all our helpers.

Seventeen ringers came to this morning’s doubles daytime practice at Bletchingdon, including eight students aiming to improve their trebling, tenoring and ringing inside to doubles.

We welcomed new helpers Martin and Sue from Bodicote, Jane from Marston as well as Sally, Ruth, Barbara and Dan to their first daytime doubles practice.

After Martin led up the raise on six, we rattled through some plain courses of Plain Bob Doubles and Grandsire Doubles for Sally, Barbara, Sally, Gerald and Dan helped by standers. Sally got some good practice at trebling to Grandsire and Plain Bob Doubles.

Ala, Judith and Ruth rang touches of Plain Bob Doubles, Judith and Ala in the same band for one touch. Several of our students also trebled to doubles methods, including Barbara and Gerald and most students rang covering tenor.

Finally, the helpers rang a touch of Plain Bob Minor before we lowered on six, led down by Michael.

Many thanks to our students who brought tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits for our helpers.

A really productive practice, very many thanks to our helpers.
Next practice is likely to be the week after Easter and I hope that ringers who haven’t been able to make one or more of the last practices will be able to join us.

Sixteen ringers came to this morning’s Doubles Daytime practice at Bletchingdon, where an abundance of helpers enabled us to provide strong support both within the ringing team and also through extra standers to help our improvers.

It was also great to welcome Faye, who used to attend the monthly daytime Bletchingdon practices in the past and who helped by trebling for several touches.

Our band of ringers was therefore able to practice inside to plain courses of Bob Doubles (Sue, Julie and Dan), plain courses of Grandsire Doubles (Sue and Mandy), touches of Plain Bob Doubles (Judith and Ala), much of which were very nicely struck, as well as brushing up on their tenoring (Julie, Dan, Mandy, Sue and Sue) and trebling.

A big thank you to our helpers: Clare, Alison, Hugh, Judy, Teresa, Faye, Michael P and Michael H who made it all possible. Hopefully the offer of tea, coffee, cake and biscuits helped redress the balance!

After a plain course of Cambridge Surprise Minor for our helpers, we got a full band of students to ring a plain course of Bob Doubles before we finished with the obligatory photo-shoot and lower on six.

A very full and productive practice and I hope we see similar numbers at next month’s event (probably 2nd or 3rd week of March).

An amazing thirteen ringers came to this evening’s focussed practice at Bletchingdon, our last of 2022. We welcomed back Ron who brought Philip, one of the recently recruited Kidlington ringers, as well as our stalwart helpers Emma, Laurence, Malcolm and Graham, which gave us enough to form a strong band as well as up to two standers.

After raising, we rang some courses of Plain Hunt on Five, which was a first try out for Philip, by which time we were joined by all our helpers.

We gave Julie two touches of doubles to treble to, which she did very nicely, as well as some practice tenoring to plain hunt and churchyard bob. Definitely ready for a quarter peal, I think.

Sally tenored very nicely to a touch of Grandsire and also trebled to a touch of Plain Bob Doubles, helped by Emma. Really coming on there.

Christine trebled to a touch of grandsire, achieving some very good striking, as well as inside to churchyard bob and plenty of tenoring. Great progress!

Gerald trebled nicely to two touches of Grandsire Doubles and also raised and lowered in peal.

Sue rang inside to two touches of Grandsire Doubles, including moving into and out of the hunt. Well done Sue!

Judith also rang inside to a touch of Grandsire Doubles, gaining confidence in the work at the bob as well as at the following lead. Judith also tenored to a number of touches.

We also managed to give Philip opportunity to treble to plain hunt and to churchyard bob, as he worked hard to master the light treble.

Refreshments were available to reward our helpers, to whom we are really grateful for their tremendous support. Finally, the obligatory photo was taken of the group in the nave.

Nine came to this afternoon’s surprise minor practice at Bletchingdon, where after a delayed start we rang up and attempted a couple of plain courses of Cambridge Minor with Michael and Jeremy inside, before tweaking the band and with reinforcements we were able to give both at least one successful plain course inside.

Richard, Celia’s husband, wanted to ring Norwich Surprise minor, and an attempt was made, getting 1 and a half leads in. After Hugh arrived, we were able to go again and got within a few blows of completing a full course.

After more plain courses of Cambridge we attempted a plain course of Primrose, then finished with a Bob course of Cambridge before lowering and finishing in Queens.

A good practice, which was much appreciated. Big Thank yous to Laurence, Emma, Malcolm and Clare.

See you hopefully this Wednesday at Ambrosden.

Steve Vickars

1.05.2022

We had a great focussed practice this afternoon at Bletchingdon this afternoon.

Our eight students were matched by eight helpers helping us to ring treble and inside to doubles methods, and where several firsts were achieved – Sally, Julie Penny and Christine trebled to touches of Grandsire or plain Bob doubles, David rang five to plain courses of plain Bob doubles, while Sue M, Sue C and Judith consolidated inside to a touch and plain courses of Grandsire, and Bob doubles respectively. Well done to all!

A very big thank you to our helpers, who included Jeremy, branch ringing master and Kathryn, secretary, as well as Ron, Jane, Laurence, Emma and Clare. It really made the difference having a solid team for our students, which for most weekly practices is not possible.

Our students provided tea, coffee, biscuits, cake and sausage rolls for our helpers, and resisted giving in to Dilly, our adoptive mascot (see photo).

During the interval, Sue presented Julie with her Oxford Diocesan Guild certificate. Congratulations, Julie!

At the end, we took part in the obligatory team photo.