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On Monday 13th June 15 ringers from across the branch and just outside headed for Kirtlington and the special practice to help the new band.

The new band (which give such a warm welcome to us all and are very keen) consists of a mixture of complete beginners (who are on plain hunt already so they’re learning quickly) and ringers returning after many years of not ringing having learnt in their youth. They are being ably taught by Ron (Kidlington), Willy (our President) with regular visits from Sue (Bletchingdon) and Kathryn (Islip).

After ringing up all 8 in peal (we got rounds occasionally) we had a couple of goes at call changes. I then offered Steve the chance for plain hunt on 7 and he chose Grandsire Triples instead.. the man has no fear.. and with Willy stood behind we managed a shaky course (shaky mainly due to the rest of the band!)… certainly cleared a few cobwebs!

Next was plain hunt on 5 for the (not so) beginners .. Caroline and Judith first then Louise and Stuart.. all managing very well. Call changes followed and then another go at Grandsire Triples (slight swap around of the band resulting in two fairly confident courses). More plain hunt on 5 and then Steve rewarded the helpers by suggesting we ring something more advanced. Sadly we didn’t have a band for Plain Bob Triples or Major so we opted for a touch of Plain Bob Minor on the back six… I think I made a few people jump when I called the first “bob” 😀

We rang down all 8 in peal and then headed for the pub for a well earned drink (and in my case to look at the state of my hands.. heaving around the tenor resulted in a number of blisters.. too much washing up methinks!). A fabulous and encouraging evening – and for those who’ve been struggling in their own towers to find ringers in recent years it is lovely to see a resurgence of interest and enthusiasm for ringing in the branch which is surely going to help us all (and give us many new friends to ring with).

Next on the schedule is the branch practice at Caversfield on Fri 1st July – they’re lovely light bells so do come along if you can.

Anthony Cole

On Friday 1st August Ludgershall hosted the branch practice where 11 ringers from 6 towers rang quite a wide variety of methods.

After ringing up we started with rounds and call changes and followed that with some plain courses of Stedman Doubles. We then rang plain courses of Grandsire Doubles and then a touch of Plain Bob Doubles before pushing the limits of branch practices further with a touch of St Simon’s Bob Doubles!

Next was more call changes (once the Nintendo DS could be prised from Samuel’s hands and a rope put in them instead :D) Next we rang a touch of Grandsire Doubles – well done Anne with the observation (or half hunt if you prefer) bell. We then rang a touch of Stedman Doubles followed by another touch of Grandsire Doubles.

As we neared the end we rang the Ludgershall special method (Clifford’s Pleasure) and some more call changes (the battery of the Nintendo DS was flat at this point!) before ringing down.

A very interesting practice practising some methods we haven’t for some time and even better, succeeding in ringing touches of them.

Recently we had the Ringing Up & Down course – hoping to have a report produced by a couple of the pupils shortly. We do not have any further scheduled practices in August as too many people are on holiday, but do send the webmaster any good ringing stories if you visit other towers on your holidays.

Next branch practice is at Launton on Tues 2nd September. Hopefully we will have details of the branch striking competition and outing ready soon too. Have a good summer.