For the past few months, we have all been working to learn to ring touches. When there are more than three of us together, we will ring bob major or bob royal, but over the summer we have usually just been three ringers. Almost always Jane and Randy, with Genine or Maggie or Karen added. And mostly Genine as the third. So we have had a lot of time to practice touches of bob minor. And have been working towards a quarter peal.

We even got the three of us together off of our normal schedule in order to ring the quarter. Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, or a Saturday morning. Or whatever works for the three of us.

Most recently, we gathered on September 24, 2017, to try for the quarter. We met at Genine’s house and rang outdoors. It was a beautiful evening, and we had scheduled 2 hours to reach success. And so we started. Genine on 1-2, Randy on 3-4, Jane on 5-6 conducting. Randy had had a late night the previous evening, and then a busy Sunday, and so wasn’t feeling his best. But Jane and Genine were ready.

We first rang a 720 (as usual when ringing on 6). Genine had never rung a quarter on 6 bells, and so when we got to rounds, she got a little confused. But she kept going, and we continued. And then at the 38 minute mark, with about 180 changes to go, Randy missed a lead end and rang rounds. Failure. And Randy was not feeling well enough to make another attempt.

The next night was our normal ringing rehearsal, and Maggie is travelling, and Karen is dealing with start of school with her kids, so again it was Genine, Jane, and Randy (who was feeling much better – thanks for asking!). Let’s give it another go.

At the 4 minute mark, Jane realized that bells 2 and 3 were swapped (and being rung by different people, so almost impossible to correct). So we stopped. Started again, and this time we failed at the 18 minute mark. (Though that sounds like 22 minutes, we had really been gathered for closer to 45 minutes.) “Shall we ring something else?” asked Jane. After a short discussion, we decided to make one more attempt. We normally ring for 90 minutes, and if we were successful, we would go over that (soft) time limit. But what the hell, let’s give it a try.

And succeeded!

There were some scary moments when it looked like we might get into trouble. And Jane was sure to make sure Randy didn’t make the same mistake he had made the night before (and Randy was going to make sure of the same thing!). But we have now rung a quarter peal.

This quarter peal is a first for Genine. And a first for Randy on 3-4. And feels like a real accomplishment.

Entry on Bell Board is here.