Cambridge District
of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers
Calendar
| Saturday 4th July | 10:00 - 12:00 | Annual Pampisford Ring |
| Saturday 11th July | 3:00 - 4:30 | West Wratting |
| 5:00 - 6:00 | Tea at Balsham | |
| 6:00 - 7:00 | Balsham | |
News
Alan Winter's 10-bell group has again been invited to the practice at St Neots on Friday 3rd July. The local practice starts at around 7:15 and the focus will be on 10-bell ringing from 8:00 to 9:15. Yorkshire Royal will be the special method, along with Grandsire Caters and Cambridge Royal.
Due to the installation of a new heating system, there will be no ringing at Little Shelford from Sunday 12th July. Friday practices will be transferred to Pampisford for the remainder of July and the whole of August, at the normal time of 7.30 to 9:00. Ringing at Shelford will hopefully resume at the start of September, but this will be confirmed nearer the time.
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As part of the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the Ely Diocese, there was a Bell Ringers' Fete at Ely on Saturday 27th June. As well as a variety of stalls, there were tours of the St Mary's bells, plus handbells, a mini ring and the demonstration bell. Many towers have also rung to celebrate the anniversary; touches of 900 changes (at Barton, Little Shelford, Trumpington and Little Eversden), quarters (at Thriplow (by the Ladies' Guild), Cambridge (St Edward), Cambridge (OLEM), Duxford and Chesterton) or peals (at Bassingbourn and Cambridge (St Bene't's)). Please send details of any ringing to the District Secretary. |
The annual Pampisford Ring will take place on Saturday 4th July, from 10.00 to 12.00. All are welcome for general ringing, tea, coffee and biscuits. This annual event was started in 2003, in memory of Rob Lee, who was tower captain from 1983 - 2002. Come for ten minutes or two hours; we will be pleased to see you.
The final of the 2009 National 12-bell striking competition will take place at St Paul's Cathedral, London, on Saturday 4th July, where the test piece will be two courses of Stedman Cinques. on Saturday 28th March at Leeds, Rotherham and Sheffield. The Cambridge Youths (Gt St Mary's) team came 6th in their eliminator at Sheffield back in March, so did not make it through to the final. The teams competing for the Taylor trophy will be the College Youths, Birmingham, Leeds, Melbourne, St Paul's Cathedral, the Cumberland Youths, Southwark, Stockton-on-Tees and York. For further details, see the 12-bell competition website.
The newly augmented ring of bells at Great Wilbraham is to be dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Ely at a special service in the church at 5.30pm on Saturday 4th July. There will be open ringing from 4pm. The service will be followed by a reception held by the principal benefactors at the Wilbraham Temple (The Manor House). Phil Gorman is also putting together a 'Ringers' Choir', designed as a turn up and sing arrangment for any ringers who like singing; there will be a short 30 min rehearsal on the day, probably about 4pm. If you would like to sing then please let him know ASAP, so that he can organise enough copies of the music.
The Ridgman Trophy 10-bell striking competition took place at Rickmansworth on Saturday 20th June. The winners were the Bedfordshire Association, with the Ely DA in 5th, narrowly beating the Cambridge University Guild. Further details are on the EDA website.
With only one match left from the first half of the 2009 Gipson Trophy, Chesterton have gone clear at the top of the table, maintaining their 100% winning record. There are six teams this year, the others being Bottisham, Linton, Little Eversden, Little Shelford and Great Shelford. There is just one group this time, so all the teams will play each other once at home and once away. Results so far are here.
The District Striking Competition on Saturday 13th June was a very quiet affair this year. And one with a novel result; the winners of the 6-bell trophy, held at Barton, Little Shelford, actually came last on the day! Unfortunately, they were the only tower that entered, so, although beaten by a scratch team, they won the trophy. Sadly, there were no entries at all for the 8-bell competition at Trumpington in the evening, so we just had some general ringing. Thanks to Kit Kilgour for coming to judge the competition.
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Congratulations to former District Ringing Masters Sam George and Phil Gorman, who were married at a packed Thriplow church on Saturday 6th June. The service included ringing both on the tower bells and handbells, excellent music from the Little St Mary's choir and from the organ, and no fewer than six clergy. The service was followed by food at Foxton, co-ordinated and supervised by an extremely efficient team of local ringers. After speeches, the cake was cut with a sword, then the dancing started. In the morning, a peal had been rung at Great Shelford, as well as quarters at Trumpington, Great Wilbraham and Sawston. Best wishes to both of them for their married life together. |
The latest YouTube offering for you is John Lennon's "Imagine" played on the bells of Liverpool Cathedral. There are also recordings of what it sounded like from outside the tower on YouTube and some more information about the performance on the Cathedral's website.
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The Association Annual General Meeting took place at Melbourn on Monday 4th May, overshadowed by the tragic death of Tim Griffiths the previous day. The meeting approved the proposed rule changes, regarding the Archdeacons of the Diocese and the age at which members are no longer obliged to pay subscriptions. It also raised subscriptions to £8 per year. The only change in the officers was that Paul Seaman is now Peal Secretary. The meeting was followed by the Association 8-bell Striking Competition at Meldreth, where the Cambridge District team (left) won the trophy, ringing Yorkshire Surprise Major. Thanks to all those who rang in the team. After some general ringing in the evening, a quarter peal was rung in thanksgiving for Tim's life. |
Ickleton will be out of action during June, while the clappers are rebushed by Taylor's. The clappers should be taken out on 27th May and returned on 2nd July. During this period, the practices that would normally have been held at Ickleton will be transferred to Duxford. David Lilley says that he believes this is the first major work on the bells since they were installed in 1927.
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On Thursday 9th April, some 40+ members of the Great St Mary's congregation and band went to Loughborough for a tour of the foundry and to see one of their bells (the 6th) being cast. Also there was their kind donor Martin "Dill" Faulkes. They finished off the trip with some ringing on the Foundry bells and some impromtu handling lessons for some members of the congregation. Phil Orme has put some photos on Facebook and videos (Part 1 and Part 2) on YouTube. There's also a video by another visitor of the trebles being cast at an earlier date. The work to install the new ring of twelve bells is expected to continue until about the end of June. |
The Ringing World of 13th March featured the list of leading Quarter Peal ringers from 2008. Ringers from our District featuring in the list were led by Chris Northeast (rang 105, conducted 11), followed by Sam George (59, 4) and Ben Willetts (51, 12).
Practices at St Edward King & Martyr in Cambridge will be on a Thursday night. Practices at Meldreth will now start at 8pm and on the first Wednesday of each month will be transferred to Melbourn. Practices at West Wratting will be on just the first Thursday of each month.
The Annual District Meeting took place at Linton on Saturday 10th January. After ringing and service, tea was served by the local ringers, with the inspired inclusion of hot soup on a freezing day. We welcomed nine new members, from Balsham, Duxford, Cherry Hinton and Little Shelford. The meeting saw the retirement of several key officers, who have between them given many years of vulable service to the District. Penny Coggill stepped down as District Secretary, to be replaced by Felicity Webster, but Penny will remain on the Committee for another year, to help the handover. Andrew Downs and Phil Gorman retired as Ringing Master, to be replaced by Peter Hinton; Andrew will also remain on the District Comittee, as well as being one of our representatives on the Association Committee. Sarah Hinton retired from the District Committee after eight years; Lyn Clackson kindly volunteered to take over her book stall duties.
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
Philip Asher (tenor behind) - Bassingbourn,
30th June
Dianne Fraser (tenor behind, at first attempt) - Great
Shelford, 22nd March 2009
First Peal
Charlotte Ellis - Bramley,
Surrey, 11th May
Felicity Webster - Bassingbourn,
18th April 2009
Quarter Peal footnotes
Marj Winter - First 8-spliced Surprise Major - Trumpington,
26th April
Mark Norris - First spliced Surprise Major as Conductor - Trumpington,
26th April
William Brooke - First inside - Trumpington,
18th April
Felicity Webster - First Minor inside (Plain Bob) - Melbourn,
22nd March
Sam George - 500th Quarter - Lundy,
7th March
Phil Gorman - First Stedman Triples - Lundy,
7th March
Pauline Stratford - First inside (Plain Bob Minor) - Great
Shelford, 22nd February
Lyn Clackson and Jackie Latham - First Stedman (Doubles) - West Wratting, 19th
February
Sharon Stimpson and Marj Winter - First Glasgow Surprise Major - Trumpington,
1st February
John Street - First inside (Plain Bob Minor) - Great
Shelford, 25th January
Jonathan Shanklin - 400th Quarter as Conductor - Cambridge
(St Bene't's), 25th January
George Hamilton - First Cambridge Surprise (Minor) - Trumpington,
18th January 2009
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