The York Colleges Guild of Bellringers

 

York Branch Striking Competition - 28th March 2007

Easingwold Church – photo courtesy of the Huntington ringers

One sunny afternoon at Easingwold, the YCG turned out in force for the York Branch Striking Competition 2007. With most of the team getting there slightly early in Karen's car, we were greeted with copious amounts of tea. It was an extremely civilised, quintessentially English event, with posh cups and saucers, napkins, as well as lots of sandwiches and cake.

We were drawn to ring third, the test piece and band being as follows:

120 Plain Bob Minor

  1. Karen Owen
  2. Charlotte Elkington
  3. Matthew Jones
  4. David Roberts
  5. Allen Eccles (C)
  6. Kevin Atkinson

The judge was John Atkinson of Beverley St. Mary, and the results were as follows:

Position  Team  Rang  Faults 
1 Huntington ‘A’ 7 26
2 York Minster 4 28
3 York Colleges Guild 3 39
4 St. Martin-le-Grand 9 54
5 Easingwold 1 62
6 Huntington ‘B’ 6 66
7 St. Wilfrid 5 71
8 St. Laurence 2 90
9 Stockton & Rufforth 8 97

John commented that we used the practice time well, and that the conductor had had ‘stern words’ (!) before the start of the test piece. He also said that the YCG were clearly used to ringing with each other, with everybody working together to produce a really good piece of ringing.

In between the ringing and the meeting we had a good game of frisbee, whilst Karen popped to the off-licence for a large bottle of gin leaving Kevin holding the baby. After sobering up, the obsessive members of the band foolishly decided to take a trip to the nearby three bell tower of Raskelf. This was an interesting experience as the top part of the tower and the bottom part of the tower both moved considerably, but not in the same direction! This revealed a foot wide gap in between the church and the tower, providing a convenient storage solution for the flying hoover.

Allen Eccles
Charlotte Elkington
Karen Owen

Photos (Click for larger versions)

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