North Leigh Ringing Blog

Friday April 6^th 2018

The spring weather brought a bumper crop of 12 ringers to last night’s practice, even in the absence of several regular locals and supporters.

We had Andy, fresh from his ART Module 1 course, and Joy from South Leigh, who needs to develop a feel for maintaining the tension on the rope, so I very happily delegated the ringing part up from down exercise to Andy to take Joy through her paces.

Rob is consolidating his touches of plain bob doubles, and had two opportunities, coping well with the ins and outs but with everything else going on in his head, found it challenging to make the bob last night.

Ellie from Kirtlington, was looking for pre-Radley Plain Bob Minor practice, and was able to make the most of two opportunities with Steve standing behind, ringing it very well for the first time with real ringers (I’m not being rude about the ringers she usually rings with, she’s only rung it on a simulator so far!).

Roger made a welcome special guest appearance with Marysia from Ducklington seeking practice at trebling to touches of plain bob doubles ready for a QPA at the beginning of May.

Steve and Andy rang a surprisingly satisfying course of Stedman Doubles possible for, with Roger, Julie and Alison.

Fiona, claiming she has forgotten bob minor, agreed that her first touch of spliced St Simon and St Martin (called by Roger) was fun, and rose to the challenge with admirable ease. She also did a fantastic job of reading my mind while calling the final plain bob doubles touch of the evening.

Janet has progressed to plain courses of plain bob doubles from the 3 with fluffy dodges, with Julie standing behind, and also trebled solidly to the final touch of bob doubles.

Anthony’s arrival made it possible to try Kent after all, despite the absence of Peter who had originally requested it in preparation for his QPA next week. Andy threw himself into his first opportunity to treble bob, and Andy had looked it up on Mobel, so Roger gamely steered us through 3 attempts, the longest being a little over two leads long. Later in the pub, Andy realised he had been ringing Stedman on the front instead of treble bobbing – inventing a new method!

Monday April 2^nd 2018

After spending the morning ringing two enjoyable QPs celebrating yesterday’s centenary of the RAF, the afternoon was spent on a tower spring clean. Rob and Julie got to grips with the belfry and clock room, not a pleasant task, while Katie and Al gave the ringing room a good going over, and Julie washed (!) the stairs. We have also updated the notice board, highlighting developments for Safeguarding and the forthcoming ODG ringing day in the Chipping Norton Branch on May 7^th (when Hugh and his band will be visiting in the morning) and the ODG AGM on May 12^th at Bodicote. We eagerly await Anthony’s inspection of Whites’ recent work repairing the gudgeon pins on our 3^rd bell and inspection for the Tower Maintenance Award. Anthony will advise on areas we can improve for health and safety, and will report back to the ODG bell fund treasurer who will then be able to release the grant towards the cost of the gudgeon pin repair work.

July 2017