Thinking allowed

Progress report

It’s been a while since I have pos­ted here, but a few things have been happening.

I have con­tin­ued to try and prac­tise Cam­bridge Major; I occu­pied a flight to New York by learn­ing the blue line for Double Nor­wich and I have occa­sion­ally had an oppor­tun­ity to try and ring it — ‘first, treble bob, last, near, full, far’, the aide mem­oire for Double Nor­wich, has become firmly planted in my head.

More recently I have begun to call touches of meth­ods oth­er than Bob Doubles. I can call simple touches of Bob Minor, and this has become some­thing we try to ring on a Sunday morn­ing, since we usu­ally have six ringers avail­able. This touch leaves one bell unaf­fected, a bob being called whenev­er the obser­va­tion bell is dodging 5–6 up or 5–6 down. This can be your­self, but it is more use­ful to have a less-exper­i­enced ringer unaf­fected by the bobs, which means that call­ing the touch is slightly more complicated.

I am also mak­ing pro­gress at work­ing out what oth­er bells should be doing in Plain Bob Minor, and attempt­ing to put them right. On a really good day and at the right moment, I can just about tell where two oth­er bells should be!

In the last couple of weeks at prac­tice I have star­ted to call touches of Grand­sire Triples. The par­tic­u­lar touch is really quite simple — ‘in and out at one, three times’ rung from the 7. This means that you have to call bobs so that you make thirds and go into the hunt, and then call anoth­er bob at the next lead so that you come out of the hunt after just one lead; and repeat this three times, which brings the bells back into a plain course. Unlike in Plain Bob, bobs in Grand­sire are called at hand­stroke, and in this touch that means at the hand­stroke of second place after lead­ing — at which you make thirds and go into the hunt — and then at the hand­stroke of fifth place on the way down from the back (but really just before your own pull, because it should be timed with the pull of the bell that is in the lead) – at which you double-dodge 4–5 down to come out of the hunt. After com­ing out of the hunt you next dodge 6–7 down, then 6–7 up, and then next time call a bob to make thirds.

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