Ringing

We had handbells with us, and after several evenings of practice we scored a QP of all 11 minimus methods on Easter Day - in memory of Beryl.  It was much trickier than I expected.

We discovered Ringing Room - an online platform which allows ringers in different locations to ring a "bell" online and which had been quickly developed by a couple of people in the US.  There was even an item on it on the BBC 6 o clock news


We held weekly "practices" on it with the Chiswick ringers on Monday evenings with mixed success,  but it was most successful when we used it for "handbells".  We had two sessions a week with Peter (Tim wasn't interested in spending more time in front of a computer after working all day) and it took several weeks before we managed to ring a QP of the Cambridge 6 Surprise Minor.

When we first started using it, it was pretty basic and rather unstable, but over the weeks it improved gaining additional features and becoming generally more stable.  However ringing on it was always plagued by technical issues and delays, which often caused the ringing to break down.  It has to be used in conjunction with a conference app like Zoom.  The problem with Zoom was that sessions are limited to 40 minutes.  We overcame this for longer sessions with Peter by using Mike's Skype for Business account, or other people's business Zoom accounts for QP attempts with the Southwark band and with some of the Chiswick ringers.

Peter wrote an article for the branch newsletter about the long road to success on Ringing Room which describes the agony in detail!

Once we were allowed to meet one person in our gardens, we were able to meet to ring proper handbells again, as well as having some nice suppers and in particular the nice puddings provided by Peter.


We scored a QP of the Beverley 6 Surprise Minor in our garden.

Later we formed a social bubble with Peter which meant we were able to ring inside each other's houses - and continued with the suppers too!

Here we are at Piglet Cottage prior to a splendid supper of steak and ale pie - we failed to get a QP then but three days later scored a QP of London Wells and Cunecastre at our house.


We spent a nerdy, but enjoyable afternoon on 20 June listening to the Not the 12-Bell Final live stream - which included people ringing Bristol Max on Ringing Room.  


In the last week of June the weather improved again, and we had a couple of handbell sessions with Tim in the garden.  We scored a QP of the Cambridge 12 (having had a number of goes at the Carlisle with the vague idea of ringing a peal), and then later Lynne came too and we tried to ring a peal of Cornwall, but struggled to ring a plain course.  We then lost a QP of Lincolnshire in the penultimate lead - and apparently it was my fault again 😀😀


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