Thinking allowed

'oranges and lemons'

… say the bells of St Clement’s.

But ringing St Clem­ent’s Major is anoth­er mat­ter. There we were, ringing rounds, and about to ring a touch of some­thing, when the con­duct­or (on bell 7) turned to me (bell 6) and said, ‘We’ll ring St Clem­ent’s’ and then pro­ceeded to explain(!) ‘It’s the reverse dodging order of Bob Major. And you make reverse 3rds. And you do some dodging at the front.’ Or some­thing like that.

So off we went, and start­ing from 6th place I hunted down to 3rd, made 3rds place and back up to the back, 2 blows at the back and then down towards the front, dodging 3–4 down on the way, and then start dodging at the front. Bell 4 seemed quite happy to be dodging with me, but the con­duct­or at this point decided some­thing had gone wrong and called rounds. But, even assum­ing that I had not already gone wrong, I don’t think there was any way that I could have man­aged to com­plete the plain course. A little home­work is necessary… 

The basic idea of St Clem­ent’s Col­lege Bob Major (to give it its full name) is that:

1. the treble always plain hunts; 
2. between each time the treble leads two oth­er bells dodge in 1–2, one dodging 1–2 down, and the oth­er dodging 1–2 up;
3. the oth­er bells plain hunt from 3rd place to the back and down again (because 2 bells are dodging in 1–2, so the low­est the oth­ers can go is 3rd place); and
4. when the treble leads, one of the oth­er bells (the one that was dodging 1–2 down) makes 2nd place (and then leads and dodges 1–2 up), and the oth­er bells each dodge. As noted above, the dodges are the same as in Plain Bob, but occur in the reverse order – dodge 3–4 up, 5–6 up, 7–8 up, 7–8 down, 5–6 down, 3–4 down, make 2nds.

So we can sketch a plain course, not­ing the treble and the course of bell 6 (since that was what I was try­ing to ring):

12345678 // start as 6th place bell

-1–6— // hunt down to 3rd place
–16—-
–61—-
–6–1—
—6–1–
—-6–1-
—–6–1
——61
——16
—–1–6
—-1–6-
—1–6–
–1–6—
‑1–6—-
1–6—–
1–6—- // dodge 3–4 down, becom­ing the 4th place bell

-16—–
‑61—– // down into 1–2, dodge 1–2 down …
6–1—-
‑6–1—
6—-1–
‑6—-1-
6——1
‑6—–1
6—–1-
‑6—1–
6—1—
‑6–1—-
6–1—– // after 5 dodges, the treble approaches …
61—— // … lead full …
16—— // … and make 2nds place
16—— // now you are the 2nd place bell

61—— // start by lead­ing full
6–1—–
‑6–1—- // and dodge 1–2 up …
6—1—
‑6—1–
6—–1-
‑6—–1
6——1
‑6—-1-
6—-1–
‑6–1—
6–1—-
‑61—– // after 5 dodges, the treble approaches …
‑16—– // … start plain hunt­ing on the back 6 …
1–6—-
1–6—– // dodging 3–4 up; now you are the 3rds place bell

-1–6—- // hunt out to the back
–1–6—
—1–6–
—-1–6-
—–1–6
——16
——61
—–6–1
—-6–1-
—6–1–
–6–1— // plain hunt­ing on the back 6, so make 3rds
–61—-
–16—-
‑1–6—
1—-6–
1—6— // dodge 5–6 up; now you are the 5ths place bell

-1—6–
–1—6-
—1—6
—-1–6
—–16-
—–61-
—-6–1
—6—1
–6—1- // make 3rds
–6–1–
—61—
—16—
–1–6–
‑1—-6-
1——6
1—–6- // dodge 7–8 up; now you are the 7th place bell

-1—–6 // 2 blows at the back …
–1—-6
—1–6- // … and hunt down to 3rd place
—-16–
—-61–
—6–1-
–6—-1 // make 3rds
–6—-1
—6–1-
—-61–
—-16–
—1–6-
–1—-6 // 2 blows at the back
‑1—–6
1—–6-
1——6 // dodge 7–8 down; now you are the 8th place bell

-1—-6- // hunt down to 3rds
–1–6–
—16—
—61—
–6–1–
–6—1-
—6—1
—-6–1
—–61-
—–16-
—-1–6 // 2 blows at the back
—1—6
–1—6-
‑1—6–
1—6— // ‘That’s all!’
1—-6– // dodge 5–6 down; now you are the 6th place bell – rounds

Altern­at­ively we can write out a single lead:

12345678

21436587
24163857
42618375
24681735
42867153
24876513
42785631
24758361
42573816
24537186
42351768
24315678
42136587
41263857
14628375
14263857

Now, as always, all I have to do is remem­ber this ‘blue line’. Oh, and ring it, of course.

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