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Four in a day
Our Tower Captain, Mike Clay, recently rang Tenor for four peals in one
day. Read the report below:
With the completion of the augmentation at Bitterne Park from eight to
twelve, Southampton gained sufficient towers to be able to attempt a
"Minor to Maximus" family in a day. An attempt in June 2009 was
scuppered when major building work in the church at Bitterne Park
turned it into a building site and all ringing was suspended for many
months. Peals at the other three towers we still rung on that occasion
indicating that four in a day should be possible.
June had proved quite hot so the next attempt was lined up for February
2010. The advantage of cooler weather was potentially offset by the
blizzard conditions in Scotland which threatened Edinburgh airport and
could have prevented Mike Clay (Tower Captain of St Andrew & St
George's West, Edinburgh) from getting down in time. Fortunately the
runways were cleared and he got off the ground on Friday evening.
Cambridge was chosen by default since it was the only method familiar
to everybody that worked on all stages. The plan was to ring the peals
in order from Minor to Maximus and this was achieved.
Meeting at 08:15, we had a prompt start at St Barnabas. A brisk peal in
1h51 appeared to keep us on the fairly aggressive schedule but by the
time we had driven to St Mary, parked and walked to St Michael we were
20 minutes behind. Although these bells are a ten, it gave me the
opportunity to ring a peal I long wanted to ring - a peal on the 1923
G&J back eight. After the best peal of the day we had about 20
minutes to walk back to St Mary. This was potentially the hardest peal
of the day but we had no problem ringing an excellent peal. We jumped
in the cars and drove out to Bitterne Park for what should have been an
easy finish to the day. The peal should have been very good but in the
end lacked some sparkle and accuracy, no doubt because most of the band
were in unknown territory now, ringing well beyond the duration they
had ever rung before.
The plan for the placement of ringers was to fix the back six after the
first peal. Then all subsequent additions were also kept in the same
relative positions as the day went on. This worked very well with only
Mike's sore fingers and a dodgy knee for Malcolm as the slight injuries
of the day.
My thanks to the Southampton ringers for making the towers available
and having the bells up and ready for us.
What would I do differently if I did it again? Well, for a start, I'd
cut out all the travelling times by ringing all the peals at Bitterne
Park. Would I do it again? Well, I quite fancy the Stedman family in a
day.
Roy LeMarechal
ANCIENT SOCIETY OF COLLEGE YOUTHS
SOUTHAMPTON, Hants, St Barnabas
Sat Feb 27 2010
1:51 (2)
5040 Cambridge S Minor
(3 x 720, 2 x 1440.)
#1#John P Colliss
#2#Barry J Fry
#3#Roy LeMarechal (C)
#4#Robert J Crocker
#5#Malcolm S Turner
#6#Michael J Clay
ANCIENT SOCIETY OF COLLEGE YOUTHS
SOUTHAMPTON, Hants, St Michael
Sat Feb 27 2010
2:50 (16)
5024 Cambridge S Major
Comp. C Middleton
#1#Graham J Wright
#2#Stuart J Heath
#3#John P Colliss
#4#Barry J Fry
#5#Roy LeMarechal (C)
#6#Robert J Crocker
#7#Malcolm S Turner
#8#Michael J Clay
100th together - 2,3.
ANCIENT SOCIETY OF COLLEGE YOUTHS
SOUTHAMPTON, Hants, St Mary
Sat Feb 27 2010
3:9 (21)
5040 Cambridge S Royal
Comp. J Clatworthy
#1#Steve Castle
#2#Clare J Griffiths
#3#Graham J Wright
#4#Stuart J Heath
#5#John P Colliss
#6#Barry J Fry
#7#Roy LeMarechal (C)
#8#Robert J Crocker
#9#Malcolm S Turner
#10#Michael J Clay
ANCIENT SOCIETY OF COLLEGE YOUTHS
SOUTHAMPTON, Hants, Bitterne Park, The Ascension
Sat Feb 27 2010
3:5 (8)
5088 Cambridge S Maximus
Comp. J Clatworthy
#1#R Hugh Routh
#2#James S Croft
#3#Steve Castle
#4#Clare J Griffiths
#5#Graham J Wright
#6#Stuart J Heath
#7#John P Colliss
#8#Barry J Fry
#9#Roy LeMarechal (C)
#10#Robert J Crocker
#11#Malcolm S Turner
#12#Michael J Clay
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