STRIKING COMPETITIONS COMMITTEE

Only two Guild competitions were held during 2003 and one of those had to be postponed - more of that later - but the year also saw us host the Essex Trophy competition for Guild 10-bell bands for the first time.

The 6 and 8 bell tower competitions had been arranged for the 17th May, the usual date of the third Saturday in May, but an unusual run of victories for Southampton FC saw them through to a certain cup final on the same day and it seemed that many towers had difficulty in raising bands. With only a couple of entries in each competition the events had to be postponed until later in the year.

The 8-bell Inter-District competition was more successful; held at Shanklin on the 5th of July alongside the Guild AGM. Our judge was Paul Flavell from Kingston-on-Thames who took the opportunity to do some planning for an IoW tower outing later in the year (which he has since reported as being a great success). In his comments, Paul discussed the slight odd-struckness of the bells which will usually favour the more experienced ringers who can settle the rhythm quickly, before explaining his marking system of points (rather than faults) before giving the following results:

The Essex Trophy has been held annually since 1979 although our Guild had taken part (and won in 1988), this was the first time we had hosted the event. The trophy itself is worthy of note, being a working modern bell set in a wooden frame - probably the largest and heaviest trophy for any ringing competition! The competition was held on the 13th September at East Meon - a gloriously sunny day that enabled everybody there to bask outside and enjoy the quality of the test pieces of Cambridge Royal. The judge, once again, was Paul Flavell, and after Bill Harris gave everyone an insight into the history of the bells and the augmentation work, Paul gave us the results as below, this time converting the points into a percentage of the maximum possible score:

Stephen Nash, Master of the Essex Association, thanked the judge and the organisers and praised the location (and weather) for being one of the more pleasant places to spend an afternoon ringing. He also invited all team present to participate in next year’s event to be held as part of the Association’s 125th anniversary celebrations - maybe we’ll be there to win it as part of our 125th anniversary celebrations!

The rearranged tower competitions were planned for 27th September at Hambledon and the new eight at Catherington. Sadly, with only one team entered (the holders, Hursley) for the 8-bell, this event had to be cancelled. The 6-bell event went ahead and again we were fortunate with the weather before everybody made the short journey to Catherington church hall for tea and the results. Christine Hill judged the event, ably assisted by daughters Katharine and Rosemary, and after some comments on each band they announced the results as follows:

Barry Fry was on hand to present the trophies; Mark Esbester receiving the 6-bell for Catherington, while the 8-bell was presented to the Hill family to be returned to the Hursley trophy shelf for another year.

Andrew Byford