STRIKING COMPETITIONS COMMITTEE

Four Guild Competitions were held during the year. The Andover District hosted the two tower band contests at St Marybourne and Hurstbourne Priors with Carisbrooke and Bishopstoke staging the eight and ten bell Inter-District competitions. On the morning of the 20th May the judges, David Forder and Margaret and Tom Chapman rendezvoused, not to discuss tactics, but to ring a hand bell peal with John Croft, David’s first for 35 years. The six-bell attracted six of the usual suspects, although we were expecting eight teams. The eight-bell competition attracted one team from a fourteen-bell tower, three from ten bell towers and a scratch team. Tea was enjoyed in the Village Hall at Hurstbourne, prepared single-handedly by Philip Chalk, who was up till 1.00 the night before cutting, spreading and filling. Three good ladies from the Portsmouth District and Brian Oakes volunteered grateful help on the day. The keenly awaited results followed.

David started the proceedings by saying that he and Margaret Reynolds who was assisting, had had a pleasant afternoon hidden away in the churchyard listening to Test Match cricket on the radio and to competition ringing on St Marybourne bells. England weren’t doing badly as were the ringers. The bells he thought sounded rather tricky to ring with the third being slow at back and the fifth quick at hand. This brought a number of knowing nods of agreement from some of the assembled company. He said that when commenting on the ringing on these occasions it was not a good idea to mention individual bells - for two reasons. There could well be a ringer taking part in a competition for the first time and being picked out individually could be upsetting, and secondly, there were some very eminent ringers taking part and comments could prove rather embarrassing to the judge! Accordingly he gave general comments on each team and the following results.

The Guild Master presented the Cup and first place certificate to Mark Esbester from Catherington, yet again. Upon receiving the second place certificate Michael Church enquired in jest when Catherington were being augmented to eight. Lyndon Hatfield received the third place certificate.

In his introduction to the eight bell competition, Tom reported that Margaret was responsible for the general impressions of each test piece, which she was to read out because he couldn’t read her writing, while he concentrated on the striking using his “mental metronome”. He waxed lyrical about his days ringing at Bishopstoke and some of the ringers he’d taught there and reported that he had had one of those spine tingling moments during one of the test pieces and was tempted to speculate about which team was ringing at the time. Of course, he was correct. Interestingly Margaret thought that the fifth team didn’t sound as though they had rung together very much.

The Master presented the Cup and first place Certificate to Peter Hill from Hursley and certificates to Roy LeMarechal and Charles Lidbury. He thanked everyone concerned with the day’s organisation, particularly the Committee who were standing down. Long and generous applause followed.

On the Sunday after the Guild AGM we paid a long overdue visit to the Isle of Wight for the eight bell Inter-District. Five teams and supporters spent a very agreeable afternoon at Carisbrooke where everything went very smoothly apart from one minor BREAK in the proceedings. The teams were given the choice of 224 changes of any triples method and all chose Grandsire. A buffet tea was provided in a nearby pub and the results held very conveniently in the pub garden. The Judge, Steve Pettman from Suffolk, assisted by Lynne Fuller from Northamptonshire, said that they had been quartered in a very pleasant private garden close to the Church. He had made several visits to Winchester and Portsmouth Guild area, but it was mostly to the Channel Islands he went for family visits and not to the mainland or the Isle of Wight. He made detailed and interesting observations about the ringing and how the teams he thought had learnt from the practice ringing. The ringing he said was going along uneventfully with nothing particular on which to find fault with until the fourth team rang. At last there was something for his pencil to mark, the ringing suddenly faltered, fell apart and stopped. Investigation showed that a rope had broken, perhaps a first in a Guild Competition. It was very quickly spliced by the local steeple keeper and the unlucky team were soon off again. The performance of this team the judge thought was pretty much the same up to the break and the faults overall were not significantly different.

Bob Cater presented the Shield and thanked all those concerned with the day’s events. Extra ringing was arranged to allow those interested to grab the augmented and rehung bells at Shorwell.

The ten bell Inter-District proved, perhaps, to be a little ambitious. During the week before the competition the entry wavered between two and four, settling on three teams the evening before. Competitors gathered to ring 269/270 Grandsire Caters at Bishopstoke on Saturday 9th September at 10am for a short and informal competition. The judge, Sean Smith - local talent from New Alresford, hid away in the church yard only disturbed once by a very noisy plane coming in to land at Eastleigh Airport, fortunately not during a test piece. The results were heard in the church where Sean explained his marking scheme, (one mark for a clear fault and a quarter for a slight unevenness in a change), and commented helpfully on each touch. There being no trophy for this competition certificates were presented to all three teams and the winning ringers and the judge were presented with special awards. Pleasingly two of the ringers taking part were youngish teenagers - well done lads!

I would like to make special mention of those who worked very hard to arrange the teams for the inter District Competitions, thank all the teams that entered and record our appreciation of the judges for their time and expertise. From the accounts it will be seen that I (unusually) misjudged the numbers requiring food at Carisbrooke and made a loss which the Guild Treasurer covered from Central Funds. It’s a good thing that I am standing down!

John Colliss

The other members of the Committee (and the Guild as a whole) wish to record their grateful thanks to John, who for 9 years has borne the brunt of the Committee’s work.