The group has decided to work on a new quarter peal. Well, we are always doing something that will help towards that goal, but for the past few weeks we have made a point of each person ringing the same bells all the time, rather than learn new positions.

This time, we are working on a quarter peal of Bob Major. For those who don’t know, that means that we are a quartet ringing eight bells. Maggie has the trebles, Randy has 3-4, Andrew has 5-6, and Jane has the tenors. Occasionally, Randy and Andrew switch, but with the goal now to work hard towards the quarter, that will no longer be happening!

Karen and Genine have mostly been absent during this training, giving us a chance to focus. Though it will be good to have them back on a regular basis.

In order to ring a quarter peal, we need to understand bobs and singles for the method, and so we started with that. So for the past few weeks, we have been ringing longer methods, mostly 336 changes (3 bobs at home).

Last night, we were able to almost ring a full 672 method, though we didn’t start at the beginning (one advantage of ringing handbells!) Instead of starting at the beginning, we started halfway through the last lead of the first plain course (87654312), and immediately called a bob at the lead end. We were struggling through the last course, which is simply a plain course, but with 3-4 reversed. When we got to rounds, there was a bit of rejoicing! Though not something we can post on bellboard (since we didn’t actually ring the full method), it is an achievement we are proud of in our goal of ringing a quarter peal of Bob Major.