Cambridge District

of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers

Calendar

Saturday 9th August 2008	4:00 - 6:00	BBQ and Punting - Laundress Green - Bring your own punt and picnic/barbecue
Saturday 9th August 2008	6:00 - 7:30	Cambridge (Great St Mary)

Friday 15th August 2008	7:30 - 9:00	Melbourn - Surprise Practice

News

Alan Winter's 10-bell ringing group had a day out in Birmingham on Saturday 19th July - they were successful in two of their quarter peals - at Kings Norton (Plain Bob Royal) and St Philip's Cathedral (Grandsire Cinques).

The 2008 Gipson Trophy striking competition has now reached its half-way point, with each team having played each other team in their group once. Great Shelford are top of Group J, in their bid to defend their 2007 trophy. However, I have yet to hear of any results from Group G, so if you know, please pass them on. Results so far are here.

Congratulations to John Gipson, who rang his 1500th peal on the bells at Meldreth on Saturday 5th July. Included in that total, he has now circled the tower 150 times! Also this year, he achieved his 2000th peal for the Association, out of a personal total of over 2800 peals. There was a short piece on BBC Look East about John's achievement, as well as an article on the Cambridge News website, which includes a video (playable only in Internet Explorer).

Birmingham retained the Taylor Trophy in the final of the 2008 National Twelve Bell Striking Competition, which was held at Lincoln Cathedral on Saturday 28th June, winning for the seventh time in nine years. The Cambridge Youths (Great St Mary's) band were in the eliminator at All Saints, Worcester, but missed on the qualification for the final. For further details, see the National 12 Bell website and the Lincoln 2008 website. Recordings of the test pieces can now be found on Richard (Clarrie) Grimmett's web-site.

The District 6-bell Striking Competition was held at Little Eversden on 14th June. For many, it was the first opportunity to ring on the excellent new ring of six, which sounded lovely, particularly inside. The local ringers made us most welcome, supplying a huge and delicious tea. It was also good to have ten teams in the competition, the most for several years, including a team of nurses and a scratch team, as well as the Little Eversden band. Kit Kilgour and Michael White kindly came over to judge the competition, with time-keeping assistance from Bridget White. They awarded the Ludbrook Trophy to the Great St Mary's beta band - congratulations to them. The Cambridge University Guild came 2nd, then Little Shelford and Linton level third. At the meeting, we were delighted to elect about a dozen new members to the association, several of whom had been ringing furing the afternoon. The 8-bell competition was held at Orwell in the evening, attracting two teams and a scratch band. The winners were again Great St Mary's, with Orwell second.

The Cambridge District is organising a coach from Cambridge to The Ringing Roadshow on Saturday 6th September. The suggested pick up points are Melbourn Church at 8:30, Trumpington Church about 9:00, then Papworth Everard (as the coach will pass) about 9:45, so we aim to be in Stoneleigh for about 11:00. The cost of the coach will be £15 per person. To reserve places please let Sue Ellis know as soon as possible; there are still some places available.

The Trumpington ringers' latest quarter is spliced Trumpington Delight Major and Trumpington Surprise Major! This follows their quarter peals of the individual methods, the first of which was rung to mark the 50th anniversary of the augmentation of the bells from six to eight and the last of which was a date touch of 2008 to mark the New Year.

At the EDA Association AGM, held in Wisbech District on Monday 5th May, there were a couple of changes involving people from Cambridge District. Nick Smith has replaced Richard Pargeter as Education Officer and Tom Ridgman is now Vice Chairman.

Bell ringers generally need no excuse to go to the pub, but here is one anyway. The Gipson Trophy, awarded to Great Shelford after the 2007 competition, is now hanging in pride of place by the bar in the Square & Compasses in Great Shelford. If you would like to visit the pub and admire the trophy over a pint, you will, I am sure, be made most welcome.

There's a good picture of the Brooke family quarter peal band, featured on both the Trumpington ringers' website. Billy Brooke, aged 10, rang his first quarter at the first attempt on Sunday 6th April, enabling the Brookes to ring their first tower bell quarter peal together as a family.

The list of leading Quarter Peal ringers for 2007 was published in the Ringing World of 7th March. Ringers in the list from this District are led by Chris Northeast (rung 102, conducted 6), then Ben Willetts (80, 17), Sam George (63, 8) and Phil Gorman (55, 17).

Last year, 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 was decided at the ADM that the list would be opened up to tower captains and secretaries, so that they can announce important tower matters to the whole district (e.g. ringing being cancelled or really struggling to fill that last place required for a wedding on Saturday). 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.

Here is an extremely generous offer from Brian Pratt; he is currently willing to provide stays for anyone who needs them. There is no charge as he has at the moment a free supply of ash.

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

Jackie Latham - West Wratting, 2nd May
Colin Manning (at first attempt) - West Wratting, 26th April
Chris Ellis and Jonathan Hunt (inside) - both at first attempt - Linton, 22nd April
Jenny Blackaby - Duxford, 20th April
William Brooke (at first attempt, aged 10) - Trumpington, 6th April 2008 - photo
Francois Sherwood - Cambridge (St Bene't's), 30th December 2007
Rachel Talbot (at first attempt) - Orwell, 2nd December
Lynn Clackson - Brinkley, 30th November
Felicity Webster and Chris Surridge (at first attempt) - Little Eversden, 25th November

First Peal

Cathy Smith - Bassingbourn, 29th December 2007

Quarter Peal footnotes

Sharon Stimpson - First Belfast - Trumpington, 20th July
Jackie Latham - First Minor - Bottisham, 12th July
Jackie Latham - First inside (4 Doubles methods) - Little Chart (Kent), 3rd July
Pauline Stratford - First away from cover - Great Shelford, 18th June
Julie Boagey - First on 8 - Meldreth, 18th May
Susan Binns - First Stedman Caters - Cambridge (Gt St Mary), 11th May
Barbara le Gallez - First as Conductor - Chesterton, 11th May
David Richards - First Minor inside (Plain Bob) - Chesterton, 11th May
John Hart - First Minor - Chesterton, 11th May
Lyn Clackson - First Grandsire - West Wratting, 2nd May
Julie Boagey - First Treble Bob hunting - Melbourn, 27th April
Phil Gorman - 100th Quarter Peal (and 25th as Conductor) - Guildford (St Mary), 13th April
Lyn Clackson - First inside and first Minor (Plain Bob) - Little Shelford, 15th March
Mark Norris - First as Composer (Trumpington Delight Major) - Trumpington, 9th March
Susan Binns and Phil Gorman - First Royal inside (Plain Bob) - Cambridge (Gt St Mary), 9th March
Graham Pye - First Doubles (treble to Grandsire) - Great Wilbraham, 6th March
Graham Pye - First inside (Plain Bob Minimus) - Great Wilbraham, 21st February
Imogen Brooke - First London S. Major - Trumpington, 17th February
Mark Norris - Completes Standard 8 Surprise Major - Trumpington, 17th February
Stephen Theobald - 1000th Quarter Peal - Trumpington, 10th February
Susan Binns - First Stedman (Triples) - Trumpington, 10th February
Clive Jones - First on 6 (tenor to Grandsire Doubles) - Little Shelford, 2nd February
Phil Gorman - First inside on 10 (Grandsire Caters) - Guildford (St Nicolas), 20th January
Barbara Le Gallez - First on 12 (Cambridge S. Maximus inside) - Peterborough (Cathedral), 6th January 2008

Peal footnotes

Imogen Brooke - First Bristol S. Maximus - Cambridge (Gt St Mary), 19th April
Paul Seaman and Mike Purday - First Bristol S. Major on handbells - Longthorpe, 13th April
Sam George - First Maximus (Cambridge S.) - "A birthday treat"! - Guildford (Cathedral), 12th April
Geoff Perryman - First Belfast S. Major - Orwell, 6th March
David Brown - 4000th peal - Wymondham, 27th January 2008
Susan Binns - First on 12 (Treble to Grandsire Cinques) - Cambridge (Gt St Mary), 27th December 2007

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