Yesterday we completed a project by ringing a peal of Stedman Triples: myself, Tina, Julia Cater and Matt Durham. Very satisfying. I think it was the fifth time we had got together to try it (note that I carefully didn't write "it was the fifth attempt"!) and we have been getting steadily more reliable and resilient. The peal yesterday was really  good, with just one small kerfuffle lasting two or three sixes (my fault, I think).

Julia conducted from the tenors, and Matt is a Stedman expert and able to do some putting-right when necessary, so it was a good team effort. The composition was this one by Philip Saddleton, which I think is also the one that Mark Eccleston suggested several years ago when I asked him about straightforward compositions.

5040 Stedman Triples
Philip A B Saddleton

 231456   2  S  H  L  Q  14
 --------------------------
 346125  [S
(324156)           X     S]
 256143      X  X
 543162      X  X
 462135      X  X
 614325      X  X     X
 125346      X  X
 --------------------------
10 part

Call s2.L.L.s14 for first course in part 1.
Omit bracketed calls in part 6.

I spent some time trying to understand the structure of the composition, so I will write another article about that later. I wanted to try to follow along yesterday, but I didn't always manage because it was diverting a bit too much concentration from ringing my bells. Well done Julia for calling confidently and perfectly.

Sgurr aChaorachain

Sgurr a'Chaorachain Surprise Royal is basically a ten-bell version of Zanussi Surprise Maximus. It has gained some popularity in recent years and we have had some success ringing in in the tower at Scottish Association practices. It has just appeared on the menu for the Five o'Clock Handbell Club, at...

Littleport

Sometimes described as "poor man's Bristol Royal", Littleport extends Bristol Major to Royal by turning the treble around in 8th place, maintaining the pattern of points and fishtails at the back, and filling in with triples dodge above the treble across the half lead. The same idea works for maximus...