There were only three of us tonight, and so we rang a lot of minor. But we decided to switch it up a bit and play around by ringing pairs we don’t normally ring.

We started with Jane on the trebles, Maggie on 3/4, and Randy on the tenors. We rang a touch of Plain Bob, called by Jane (on the trebles!!). There were a couple of false starts, and there might have been a mistake in the calls (causing us to ring a longer touch than we had anticipated). But we got through.

We then passed our bells to the right, so Randy was ringing the trebles, Jane was ringing 3/4, and Maggie on the tenors. Jane was not much happier calling from 3/4 than she was calling from the trebles, but again we got through, after Jane called a few bobs.

Again, we passed the bells to the right, so Maggie was ringing the trebles, Randy was ringing 3/4, and Jane was on the tenors. These are the pairs we most often ring, and so we just took off. This was a longer touch than the previous two, with a single called just as the bells were about to come around (so Randy had to deal with the single). This was the most fun, though the entire evening was a blast and also a bit mind-stretching!

I didn’t count, but each of the touches was probably between 100 and 500 changes, so nowhere near a quarter peal. But that wasn’t the point tonight. The point was to try different things.

And in that spirit, we decided to ring a plain course of Plain Bob doubles, with Maggie on the trebles, Jane on 3/4, and Randy on the tenors. We don’t do this type of thing often, and so when we do it is usually a struggle. But after a false start, we were able to ring an entire plain course.

We decided that the next time we have 4 ringers, we’re going to ring triples!

All in all, we had great fun tonight.