Category: Special Practice

Seven ringers attended this month’s special practice at Weston, including a very welcome appearance by Tony Crabtree, visiting the tower to advise on planned improvements to the ring of bells.

Proceedings were led by Jeremy Adams with support from Teresa Carter and Faye. The local Weston ringers were in attendance of course, and the ringing menu was structured around them: being Plain Hunt on 5 and plain courses of Grandsire.

We also had Barbara, a potential new recruit from Weston, come to see what ringing was about and who had a try at backstroke. She was not put off by the experience!
Our next practice is on 5th December at Charlton on Otmoor. Hope to see lots of you there!

Twelve ringers attended last night’s special practice at Souldern, which has a ring of six traditional sounding bells that “go” very well after recent improvements. We gave a special welcome back to Anthony our previous Ringing Master, and Sam, as well as to Charles and Rachel from ONB branch. In charge were Richard and Jeremy, also in attendance were Teresa and Kathryn.

After ringing up we rang a touch of Grandsire Doubles called by Anthony, a touch of Bob Minor, then a touch of Stedman Doubles for Teresa and Anne, called by Charles, followed by a plain course of Kent Minor for Jeremy and Kathryn.

For Sam we rang three Plain courses of Bob Doubles then some more Bob Minor for Anne. Wishing to extend the repertoire and make use of our experienced ringers we rang a touch of Reverse Canterbury Bob Minor, a Plain course of Cambridge Minor, followed by touches of Bastow Little Bob Minor.

After another touch of Bob Minor we had a good lower in peal. A very enjoyable practice, a chance to meet up with old friends and an opportunity to make a good sound in a tower where, unfortunately there is no local team.

Hope to see lots of you at Branch Practice at Bletchingdon on 6th November.

A special set of seven ringers attended tonight’s Special practice at Kirtlington, somewhat fewer than the multitude that descended on Launton at the beginning of July. Perhaps partly due to the fact that this practice had been re-scheduled from its original date of Monday 15th July. We were very grateful for the strong Ludgershall presence of three ringers, including Richard, our joint ringing master.

After ringing up and eschewing Stedman, we aborted an attempt at St Simon’s Bob Doubles, then went for our first touch of Grandsire Doubles, with Judith ringing 5 observation, then the first plain course of Kent Minor, Fay on Treble, Jan, Andy and Kathryn inside.

Next up we rang Plain Bob Minor, Judith having her first go at treble, assisted by Kathryn.

After 120 touch of Grandsire Doubles, Judith on 5, we rang some more Kent Minor, then a much better struck touch of Plain Bob Minor and even some plain courses of Little Bob Minor, Judith trebling, before we rang down in peal.

A very nice practice, with  quality  rope time for most.

Next Branch practice is on Friday 2nd August at Caversfield. See you then.

Eleven ringers from seven towers came to last night’s special practice at Bletchingdon, with Plain Hunt and Grandsire Doubles on the agenda.
We kicked off with Plain Hunt on 5 for Mandy, Gus and Andy, helped by Jeremy, Judith, Sue, Rosemarie, Anne and Fay.
Next we tried Churchyard Bob with Sally on Treble, giving a gentle introduction to hunting over all the heavier bells in turn.

Turning to Grandsire, we rang a 120 Change touch with Judith, Fay and Anne inside and also some plain courses with Sue on 3 and Rosemarie on 5.

We had Sally in again ringing treble to Plain Hunt on 5, Judith helping, which was her best effort to-date, making great progress. I think Sally was quite pleased afterwards. Well done, Sally!

During a break in Ringing we presented Mandy and Rosemarie with their ART LtR Level 1 and 3 certificates, respectively, and Rosemarie received a card and mounted photos of favourite towers and ringing moments, as she will be sadly leaving us for Germany shortly.

Back to Grandsire, another first was achieved, this time Andy trebling with increasing confidence to some plain courses. Well done to Andy.

Gus was inside again, consolidating no. 3 to Plain Hunt.

Finally, we rang a different 120 Change touch of Grandsire, showing Rosemarie work at bobs and singles, before ringing down.

A really good practice. Well done to all and thank you to Jeremy, Fay and Anne for leading and helping us.

Ten ringers came to last night’s Branch Practice at Kirtlington, led by Richard, joint ringing master.
Before we started the main practice, Mandy from Weston came for some ringing up and down practice, helped by Andy.

In the main session, we rang call changes on 8 bells, followed by plain courses of Grandsire Doubles, Sue , Judith and Anne inside, helped by Jan, Kathryn and Katie Lane, Guild Master, making a very welcome appearance.