Yesterday we rang a quarter of Bristol (Major) because Peter wanted to practise the 3-4 position. Around this time last year, Jonathan asked for a composition in which one of the pairs wouldn't ring the coursing position - he was going to call a quarter in which one of the ringers preferred the more separated positions. I produced a composition in which 3-4 only ring the 3-4 position and 5-6 ring the 5-6 and 3-4 positions. No coursing for anyone except the tenors. This was also ideal for what Peter wanted yesterday, so I called the same composition. As I didn't write about it at the time, here it is.

The idea is to do something similar to my usual choice of composition of Cambridge Royal. Using singles at middle and wrong, 5-6 can be shuffled around in the 5-6 and 3-4 positions, leaving 3-4 unaffected:

864 Bristol Surprise Major

M  W  23456
-----------
s  s  53462
s  s  63425
s  s  23456
-----------

That's a good start, but how can we extend it to the right length? Singles at home keep 3-4 in the 3-4 position, just the other way around. The trick is to put them between the sM and sW, which has the effect of adding a whole extra course each time (plus an extra lead for the single).

1376 Bristol Surprise Major
Simon J Gay

M  W  H  23456
--------------
s     s  64352
   s     54362
s     s  23465
   s     63425
s  s     23456
--------------

We rang it quite well, although the course with coursing order 64235 (3-4 and 5-6 both reversed) seemed to cause a bit of hesitation. 3-4 and 5-6 stayed reversed as they should have been, though, and there were no accidental repeats of distinctive rows from 53246 or 63245.

Next week we are absolutely definitely going for Fermanagh!