We had 4 today! It’s always more fun to ring Major than Minor, right?

It was a fairly simple day, though. We started with St. Clements College Bob with Andrew on the trebles, Maggie on 3/4, Jane on 5/6, and Randy on the tenors. We rang this 3 times, but just a plain course. Randy says he is really starting to understand the tenors of this method, and is enjoying ringing them. (He previously rang the trebles, and has that down pat.)

After spending 40 minutes or so ringing that, we decided to start splicing it with Plain Bob. With one false start (Jane called a change in method at a place that brought us to the end too quickly), we rang a fun and good method (I don’t know the length). Towards the end, we were ringing Plain Bob, and Jane told us to pick up the pace, since it was going to remain in Plain Bob until the end.

We didn’t end with a speed run of Plain Bob as normal, but the end of the splice was a good substitute.

We had three people today (Andrew, Jane, and Randy), so rang Minor. We got a bit of a late start, because Jane discovered a tree branch in her yard that fell from a tree in her neighbor’s yard, causing a little fence damage. After some discussion with her husband, we started ringing.

We started with St. Clements College Bob (we rang a LOT of that method today). We started with Andrew on the trebles, Jane on 3/4, and Randy on the tenors. After a plain course, we rang a small touch, but couldn’t get through it. So we moved on.

We then switched bells, with Andrew keeping the trebles, but Randy taking 3/4, and Jane on the tenors. The 3/4 pair is hard, and Randy struggled. But after a few attempts, he succeeded, and we rang a plain course a couple of times.

We then moved to a touch of a splice of St. Clements College Bob with Plain Bob. This was fun, and after one failed attempt, we succeeded. For this touch, Randy rang the trebles, Andrew rang 3/4, and Jane rang the tenors.

We finished our time (before the usual speed round) with a longer touch of St. Clements College Bob. By this time we were a bit tired, and could not succeed after two attempts, and so conceded the method.

The speed round was different today. We rang Plain Bob at a fast pace, but Jane decided we should do a “silent touch”, or “unconducted touch”. It was simple – a plain course with a Single at the end before coming to rounds, and then a Single again to make it come round (for a total of 120 changes). We got it first try, with Randy on the trebles, Andrew on 3/4, and Jane on the tenors.

It looked like we weren’t going to be able to ring today. Until about 40 minutes prior to our normal start time, only Jane and Randy were confirmed. Erik is busy getting his classes going, and Maggie is out of town. But at the last minute we had enough to ring minor, with Andrew, Jane, and Randy.

We started with St. Clements College Bob, with Randy on the trebles, Andrew on 3/4, and Jane on the tenors. We nailed a plain course on the first or second attempt. And then rang a touch. It took us two attempts, but rang a 120-change touch of St. Clements College Bob! It was quite a feeling to accomplish that.

We then decided to ring different pairs. So Randy and Jane switched, leaving Andrew on 3/4. Jane doesn’t ring trebles very often, and it showed. And Randy doesn’t ring tenors very often, and that showed as well. But after a few attempts, we finally rang a plain course, and then did it twice more.

Next up, switch Jane and Andrew, so it was now Andrew on the trebles, Jane on 3/4, and Randy on the tenors. This plain course happened much more quickly, with only a couple of mistakes before getting it right.

We next rang Little Bob in the same positions we were in, and again nailed that fairly quickly.

We decided to ring a splice of Plain Bob and Little Bob. One of the simplest compositions of Plain, Little, Plain, Bob, Little, Plain, Bob, Little, Plain, Bob to come round. There is probably a name for this composition, but I don’t know it.

We finished with a lightning round of Plain Bob with Andrew on the trebles, Jane on 3/4, and Randy on the tenors. We tried a touch, but at that speed we crashed after the first bob. So we decided to just do a plain course, and finished on a high note.

Apologies but it was not a very good day of ringing. Jane has just returned from a trip overseas, and seems to have caught a cold while gone. Randy had a very busy morning, and was pretty tired. So we were both a bit cotton-headed. But enough excuses.

We were 4 today, and rang most of the rehearsal in the same positions: Randy on the trebles, Maggie on 3/4, Andrew on 5/6, Jane on the tenors.

We started with St. Clements College Bob, and got through 6 of the 7 leads before crashing. And then we couldn’t even get that far. So we conceded defeat.

We then moved to Little Bob, and after a few attempts were able to ring a plain course. So that was a result.

We returned to St. Clements College Bob, and after a couple more attempts actually succeeded in ringing it! It was a bit rough, but we did the whole plain course.

We decided to do something easy, and so rang Plain Bob. To show how fuzzy-headed we were, even this took us a couple of attempts! But we rang it.

We finished with another plain course of Plain Bob, but this time with different bells. Maggie was on the trebles, Andrew on 3/4, Jane on 5/6, and Randy on the tenors. Randy claimed he couldn’t hear the bells well, and so struggled. But we did ring this, and it was glorious, and a nice finish to our rehearsal today.

We again had three ringers today (Jane is still out of town). Maggie, Andrew, Randy.

We started with a plain course of Plain Bob, with Randy on 1/2, Maggie on 3/4, Andrew on 5/6, and rang it successfully on the first attempt! And a fairly good pace. It was a good start to the day.

We then rang St. Clements College Bob, in the same positions. We made a few attempts, and rang it correctly a couple of times. Another success!

After St. Clements, we rang Little Bob in the same positions. Again, we rang it successfully a couple of times (after a few false starts).

At this point, we decided to switch positions and see if we could ring the same things. So we shifted the bells left – Maggie on the trebles, Andrew on 3/4, Randy on the tenors. Little Bob was our first attempt, and we again rang that correctly, though it took us a few tries before getting it right. After ringing it correctly, we rang it again, and felt really good about ourselves.

Finally, we decided on St. Clements College Bob, not switching positions. This took us a little longer to get correct, but by the end of our hour, we got it! We were thrilled, to say the least. All of us learning a new pair, and we rang it successfully. After the successful ring, we decided to call it a day (Randy has an appointment this afternoon, and needed to cut short our ringing).