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.

Our regular band was one short last night, so we rang a quarter peal of minor and named a method.  It is a six-bell version of something we have been ringing on 8 in the tower, and is a perfectly straightforward method on paper.

However, in handbells, the many places...

Having dedicated September to mastering Bristol Surprise Major, our regular band is now focussed on getting to grips with London.  We have limped to the end of a plain course a few times, but last night we attempted our first quarter.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t go.  It didn’t go about six...

Saturday was the Fourth Scottish Handbell Day. It went well. We scored a total of six quarter peals, including a first (the traditional Plain Bob Minor), a first of Surprise Major (the traditional Yorkshire), a first on ten (Kent Royal) and two firsts of Surprise Royal (Yorkshire. Is that traditional...