Central Branch 6 Bell Striking Competition

Central Branch 6 Bell Striking Competition - 8th May 2010

At 5:00pm on a cold May afternoon a group of ringers congregated at the church of All Saints, Branston for the Central Branch 6 Bell Striking competition.

Once inside the church it was time for the draw to decide in what order the teams would compete. The problem was that only 2 teams had entered, these being the Cathedral and the Eagle/Swinderby ringers.

Fortunately, Sue Waterfall showed up with a group of ringers that she had persuaded (i.e. bludgeoned) to ring from a band that had been ringing for a wedding at St. John's Washingborough an hour before. This was going to be a scratch team. However someone pointed out that since 4 of the ringers in the team were regular Sunday service ringers at Washingborough, the team could legitimately enter itself as a Washingborough team. And so there were 3 teams.

The draw took place and the order was as follows

  • 1 - Cathedral
  • 2 - Washingborough
  • 3 - Eagle/Swinderby

    • The Cathedral rung their test piece, which was a nice bit of Plain Bob Minor. Washinborough rung some rounds and call changes and the Eagle/Swinderby team finished the competition with some April Day.

    Once the competition was over some general ringing took place, while the judge was retrieved from the depths of The Waggon and Horses. It is generally accepted that The Waggon and Horses is acoustically the best place to listen to the bells of All Saints, Branston. Apparently a great deal of research has been done into finding such a good location.

    The judge arrived and it turned out to be John Underwood who is eligible to judge the Central Branch Striking Competition since he is a member (but not for much longer!!) of the West Lindsey Branch.



    John Underwood delivers his verdict....

    ....to the waiting ringers

    John gave his verdict on the standard of ringing and awarded the places as follows.

    The judge (a.k.a. Mr. Underwood) then presented the shield to a representative of the Cathedral Band. After this, Betty Stracey presided over the draw for the raffle, which was won by Mrs. Susan Waterfall.



    Jeremy Wheeldon accepts the shield on behalf of the Cathedral

    Sue is presented with her raffle prize

    The Branch Ringing Master (Mick Stracey) then thanked the assembled ringers for their support. He expressed disappointment that only 3 (and in fact very nearly only 2) teams had entered the striking competition and hoped that towers would be more willing to take part in the future. It wasn't so long ago that 6 to 7 teams would take part in the competition.

    Further general ringing was rapidly curtailed when the rope broke on the 5th. The assembled ringers adjourned to the safety (and warmth) of Dot and Phil Mason's garage for a session on "The Pots" and some much needed tea and coffee.



    Jonathan Clark (Webmaster)

    Have you just had a branch event? A competition, meeting or outing? Then write a few paragraphs and include a couple of pictures. Try to keep it below 600 words and 5 pictures. Then send it to your branch secretary. They will forward it to the webmaster, who will make a page a bit like this. Or if you have written a complete article, it can be converted to PDF and published. - (jc)