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.

Sorry, trying some txt-spk there! To wait, or not to wait: that is the question. If someone hesitates, should the rest of the band wait so that the bells strike in the right order, or should they relentlessly follow the rhythm? On tower bells we don't have a lot of...

Handbell ringers often choose compositions that are designed for handbells, which usually means that a particular pair of bells rings a limited range of positions. For example, 3-4 might be coursing all (or almost all) the time; or perhaps 5-6 might ring only the coursing and 5-6 positions, and never...