Finally, peal ringing returned to normality in 2023 with a total of 111 peals rung for the Guild. This involved a total of 162 Guild members, the highest number since 2018, although still significantly short of the 279 ringers achieved in 2002. In terms of peal totals compared with other societies, we ranked equal 9th in 2023 out of a total of 125 recognised Guilds and Associations and have consistently finished in the top 10 over the past few years. Of the total, handbell peals accounted for 31% maintaining the overall strength and momentum that handbell ringing has achieved over recent years.
I would like to thank Andrew Craddock for sharing statistics generated by Pealbase and to Tony Smith for maintaining a comprehensive database of compositions rung by the Guild. Both these resources provide a valuable source of information to the ringing community and also enable me to cross-check with Guild peal records. I would also like to thank conductors and organisers who submit details, compositions and fees within the one month deadline specified by the Guild rules. Peal fees can be collected electronically and I would encourage all conductors to consider using this online facility.
There were 77 tower bell peals rung for the Guild in 2023 involving 154 ringers with Roy LeMarechal at the top of the leader board with 40 peals and was also the leading conductor with 24 peals. Bishopstoke pipped Awbridge and St Agatha’s in Portsmouth as the leading tower with 11 peals.
The King’s coronation at the beginning of May provided a good opportunity to mark this special occasion and a total of 10 peals were rung over a period of 6 days including a peal at Soberton, the first there for almost 40 years.
It is always pleasing to see ‘first pealers’ in footnotes and the Guild officers would like to congratulate the following ringers who rang their first peal in 2023:-
Elizabeth Skinner
Luca Greenslade
Francesco Greenslade
Benjamin Knowles
Ian Newbery
Peter Murdock-Saint
Ben Jennings
Philippa Garraway
Other notable peal milestones included:-
250th - Andrew Ingram & Adam Kilgour
1,000th - James Hodkin
1,300th - Benjamin Carey
500th as Conductor & 600th for the Guild - Benjamin Carey
The challenging peal composition of Chandler’s 23-Spliced Surprise Major was successfully rung at Melksham, Wiltshire which was the first time it had been rung for the Guild on tower bells.
There were two ‘decade’ peals in 2023, the first at Awbridge in December of Plain Bob Triples which contained ringers aged 20 to 90 and a week later a peal at Islip of Spliced Surprise Major that involved ringers aged 10 to 80.
Congratulations to all ringers who achieved a ‘first’ of some sort during the course of the year.
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The current strength of handbell ringing in the Guild is due in many ways to the pandemic with several ringers trying their hand at handbell ringing for the first time. The ringing software programs of Handbell Stadium and Abel enables ringers to practice their ringing alone at home which is a significant help when it comes to ringing with an actual band.
John Croft was leading handbell ringer in 2023 with 24 peals closely followed by Benjamin Carey with 20 peals. Ben was leading conductor (17) and the relatively new handbell venue in Portsmouth became the leading tower with 14 peals. It is good to see Surprise Major being rung on handbells on a regular basis.
Two notable handbell performances were the first peal of Chandler’s 23-Spliced Surprise Major rung for the Guild and a peal to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first peal of Surprise Major on handbells for the Guild which was rung on the 31st December 1973 in Southampton.
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Ian Carey