PEAL RECORDER’S REPORT

The 1998 peal total is 126, an increase of 11 on the previous year. Tower bell peals went up by 1 and handbell peals showed a healthy increase of 10.

Tower Bell Peals

There were 111 tower bell peals rung for the Guild during 1998. These ranged from peals on fourteen bells to two of Minimus.

There were many achievements throughout the year, not least in the Channel Islands. In May at St Pierre du Bois, Guernsey, local ringers scored the first peal in the tower by a Sunday service band and out of the eleven people who rang their first peal during the year, five were from Guernsey.

The local Sunday service band at Bishopstoke rang four peals throughout the year, culminating in London Surprise Major in October. This completes peals in all the standard eight Surprise Major methods by the local band.

Ten peals were rung by the Andover District to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the District and congratulations must be given to two Andover District members who reached impressive milestones at the end of the year. Geoff Dodd rang his 3000th peal and Helen Piper rang her 1000th peal.

In April a peal was rung at Portsmouth Cathedral in honour of the visit of Her Majesty the Queen to distribute the Royal Maundy and two peals were rung to celebrate the 50th birthday of HRH Prince Charles on November 14th.

Lyme Regis was the setting for another long length peal for the Guild when the longest peal of London Surprise Royal (18,360 changes) was scored in April.

The eleven people who rang their first peal are: Petra C Ballantyne, Penny J Chambers, Sue Scotter, Mike Scotter, Angela M Breton, Christopher B Gaunt, Michael Collins, Kirsty A Munn, Joanne Waller, Ben Waller and Matthew J Young.

Handbell Peals

A steady stream of peals occurred during the year resulting in a total of fifteen. All these were Minor or Major and were rung within the Guild.

Ceri Dodd