Cambridge District
of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers
Calendar
| Friday 23rd July | 7:30 - 9:00 | West Wratting - Advanced Practice |
| Saturday 14th August | 3:30 - 5:30 | Cambridge (Great St Mary) |
Spring/Summer Programme for tower notice boards
News
The latest result in the Gipson Trophy striking competition is an away win for Little Shelford at Little Eversden, to keep them top of the table. However all the other teams have matches in hand. Please let me know if I'm missing any results. The list of fixtures and results is here.
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. On Wednesday 22nd September Heads of State will assemble at the United Nations to discuss the biodiversity crisis and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is encouraging the ringing of bells all over the world led by bells in New York and Nairobi, as an urgent 'memo' to rouse the world to action. See also the MEMO website.
The next District Advanced Practice will be held on Friday 23rd July at West Wratting, from 7:30 to 9 pm. Special methods are Bourne and Beverley. Anyone wanting to practise Cambridge, Norwich and Warkworth (and touches thereof), or their treble-bobbing are also welcome. Please send names to no later than Sunday 18th July, so that we can be sure we have enough to hold the practice.
Congratulations to Nicky and Conrad Warford on the birth of a son, James Alexander, on 13th June. A peal was rung at Whitley Bay to mark the event. Nicky (nee Thompson) learned to ring at Sawston.
Congratulations to Derrick Lee, of Pampisford, on his 90th birthday. A quarter peal was rung at Pampisford on Wednesday 30th June by a visiting band to mark the occasion.
The National 12-bell Striking Competition took place at Crediton on Saturday 26th June. The Great St Mary's band qualified for the final in their eliminator at Shoreditch in March, forcing last year's winners, St Paul's, out of the competition. They came 8th in the final, ringing six leads of Cambridge Surprise Maximums. Birmingham won, for the eighth time in eleven years. For more details, see the 12-bell competition website.
The 10-bell Ridgman Trophy striking competition was held at Great St Mary's in Cambridge on Saturday 19th June. An Ely Diocesan band competed against teams from other Associations, coming 9th as Hertfordshire won; further details are on the EDA website.
The Trumpington band is now up to 16-spliced Surprise Major, with an all-the-work peal on Saturday 19th June, having previously rung 13-spliced and 10-spliced. It was the most Surprise Major methods to a peal for Sharon Stimpson, Sam Gorman, Mark Norris and Ian Davies. Congratulations to all the band.
The peal of Papanui Surprise Major at Meldreth on Friday 28th May was the 2000th peal on the bells, the first tower ever to reach this total. John Gipson has rung in more than three quarters of these peals. The Ringing World is hoping to publish an article by Derek Sibson on this landmark achievement.
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Twice as many teams as last year entered the District Striking Competition at Harston on Saturday 12th June, but it was a shame that still only amounted to two - Little Shelford and Linton. It was good to have enough other ringers for two scratch bands, one of which was mostly a Meldreth Sunday service band. We had a pleasant afternoon, sitting in the sunshine in the churchyard, listening to the ringing. Ian and Marion Holland kindly came to judge and, after a delicious tea provided by Alan Ling and his helpers, the results were pronounced. Little Shelford retained the Ludbrook Plate, but this year they managed to win on the day, with 54 faults; the other teams closely grouped, each getting 77 or 78 faults. |
7-year-old Henry Pipe has now rung his first peal!! He rang Plain Bob Minor on handbells, in just under 2 hours. Henry has already rung quarter peals on both tower bells (tenor behind at Millcroft Campanile) and on handbells; there's a video on YouTube of the band ringing a plain course after the quarter.
The excellent new Beltutor program, produced by Derek Ballard, was described in the Ringing World of 21st May. It's a cut-down version of his Beltower program, available at the cut-down price of just £2. It shows an animated view of the ropes moving, to help in developing ropesight. This version is aimed at learners, with the methods available restricted to Plain Hunt and some of the Kaleidoscope exercises.
Eustace Bullman, one of the longest-serving members of the Cambridge District, having been elected in 1938, has died at the age of 83. He was Secretary of the District from 1957 to 1963 and was a former chairman of the South Cambridgeshire District Council. His funeral will be at Girton church at 2.00pm on 1st June.
The Association AGM took place at Burwell on Monday 3rd May. There was nothing momentous to report from the meeting (as far as I remember), although the post of EDA Education Officer is still vacant, so if anyone feels that they could help with this, I'm sure they would be very welcome! The Annual Reports for 2009 have now been published, so will hopefully be with towers in the near future. The meeting was followed by the Association 8-bell Striking Competition, which ended in a very tight result, with Ely District beating Cambridge District by just one fault (69 faults to 70), with Huntingdon close behind on 72. Congratulations to Ely and thanks to our band: Alan Winter, Mark Norris, James Bench-Capon, Ian Davies, Andrew Downs, Peter Hinton, Paul Seaman (C) and Barry Johnson, with Ann Smith as reserve.
There's an interesting short piece on the BBC website about tuning church bells, featuring the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
The latest edition of CAM (the Cambridge University Alumni Magazine) has an article on Vivian Nutton, Hadley Hunter, Clarke Walters and Chris Rogers, ringers who met at the University almost 50 years ago. Unfortunately the articles in the magazine don't seem to (yet) be on-line separately, but the whole issue is available here as a PDF; see page 14.
In 2007, Mike Ellis set up a District E-mail List. The intention is that it will be a very low volume list, primarily for officers to send messages such as details of meetings and late changes. It can also be used by tower captains and secretaries, so that they can announce important tower matters to the whole district. If you are a captain or secretary please let Mike know, so that he can change the configuration to allow you to post messages to the list. If you wish to subscribe to receive messages, please go to http://www2.mellis.me.uk/mailman/listinfo/cambridge-district-bells.
Geoff Perryman has kindly written a piece detailing the Practice Night Support scheme, which he has single-handedly co-ordinated for several years now. As the piece says, Geoff is always keen to find new ringers to help the scheme; if you could spare about one night a month to go to help a variety of towers, please contact him.
For more information on EDA merchandise, see the relevant section of the EDA website.
Congratulations
First Quarter Peal
Catherine Richardson - Plain Bob Doubles inside - West
Wratting, 15th July
Gay Balch (at first attempt) - Little Shelford, 29th May
Jayne Norris - Trumpington,
1st May
June Mackay (at first attempt) - Plain Bob Doubles inside - Chesterton,
25th April
Quarter Peal footnotes
Barbara le Gallez - First Major in hand - Cambridge
(Mawson Rd), 13th July
Felicity Webster, Vanessa Webster - First Stedman (Doubles) - Duxford,
11th July
June Mackay - First Grandsire inside - Meldreth,
7th July
First Surprise Royal - Susan Binns - Cambridge
(Gt St Mary), 4th July
James Bench-Capon, Helen Atkins - First Stedman (Caters) - Peterborough,
27th June
Barbara le Gallez - First as Conductor on 10 - Peterborough,
27th June
Jenny Goodwin - First inside (Plain Bob Minor) - Duxford,
20th June
William Brooke - First Surprise inside (Cambridge Major) - Cambridge
(Gt St Mary), 20th June
Felicity Webster - First Grandsire - Cambridge
(St Edward K&M), 16th June
June Mackay - First Minor inside - Meldreth,
31st May
Peter Hinton - 500th Quarter as Conductor - Little Shelford, 29th May
Lyn Clackson - First Cambridge - West
Wratting, 20th May
Barney Stratford - First Major as Conductor - Trumpington,
16th May
June Mackay - First Minor - Henham,
1st May
Mike Ellis - First Cambridge inside - Thriplow,
25th April
Phil Gorman - First Stedman Doubles - Little
Shelford, 24th April
JoAnne Rutter - First Grandsire - Willingham,
22nd April
Jackie Latham, Lyn Clackson - First Kent Treble Bob - West
Wratting, 15th April
Mike Rowland - First Treble Bob (treble to Kent) - West
Wratting, 15th April
Cathy Smith - First Surprise (treble to Cambridge) - Bassingbourn,
6th April
Jonathan Shanklin - 900th Quarter - Cambridge (St Bene't), 2nd April
Jackie Latham - First on 8 inside (Plain Bob Major) - Meldreth,
28th March
Louise Dobson - First inside (Plain Bob Minor) - Oakington,
13th March
Kit Helps - First Bristol S. Major - Orwell,
7th March
Felicity Webster - First as Conductor - Cambridge
(St Edward K&M), 3rd March
Peal footnotes
Tim Dickens - First Spliced Surprise Major (6 methods!) - Orwell, 16th January
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