Date touches

2016 is an easy year for date touches, as it's a multiple of 32, so it's possible to ring a whole number of leads of Surprise Major. Not only that, but the number of leads is 63 = 9 x 7, so it's 9 full courses. For example, (W 3H) x 3 would work for Yorkshire. Several bands have taken advantage of 63 = 9 x 7 in a different way by ringing 7-part compositions of spliced, with 9 leads per part: the Standard 8 + another method is an obvious possibility.

It seems that what we mainly ring these days is Horton's Four, until we finally manage to get the peal, so we decided to ring a date touch of it this week. It's straightforward to produce a 7-part composition, with a little help from the computer, and I seem to remember something along those lines appearing in the 2016 Ringing World diary (or maybe it was just a quarter peal length). However, with all the practice we've done, it's easier to ring part of the peal with a variation to bring it round after 2016. Here is what I came up with, which we rang on Monday.

2016 Spliced Surprise Major (4 methods)
Roderick R Horton (arranged by Simon J Gay)

23456  M   B   W   H                  
------------------------------------------
35264      -           BBL.BFF        
42563  -           -   BLLG.BFBFLL.   
64523          -       GB.L           
26543          -       LG.B           
64235      -           FBFLLG.BFB     
36524      3   -       BLL.GB.BG.FL.GGGGG.
23564          -       FFBFBFF.F
45362  -           -   L.GB.
34562              -   LLG.
35426              s   B.
23456          -       BG.B
------------------------------------------
s = 123456 

640 Bristol, 480 London, 448 Belfast (F), 448 Glasgow

It's just the last four leads that are different. It would be possible to ring the single at the beginning, and get the non-standard call out of the way, but I preferred to have the familiar coursing orders.

As the New Year is approaching, what about 2017? We can add the extra change by starting at backstroke with a non-standard call at which the tenors stay in the same place, producing a tenors-together lead end. With a non-standard start, it's natural to finish at the normal end of the peal, so we need a few leads to connect the start to the main composition. The composition includes the whole of the tenors-parted section of the peal, which we should practise again in any case. So we will probably ring our 2017 date touch earlier in the year than the 2016.

2017 Spliced Surprise Major (4 methods)
Roderick R Horton (arranged by Simon J Gay)

---------------------------------------------
 23645   W/H/H           BBBBBL.BF.F.
 46532   M/W             L.G.F
(723465) B/I/B/V/W       BFBB.G.F.L.FF.
 273564        V/W        GB.L.F
(742365) I/V/V           LL.BL.GL.
 275463  F/I/B/B/F/3H     BG.F.F.GB.B.G.F.F.
 742653  M/M/W/W         L.GL.G.B.L
 352764  V/I/F/3V/W      G.GG.BF.FFL.GL.F.L.B
 23456   V/H             G.FL.                
---------------------------------------------
Start at backstroke with the place notation 1278.

544 Belfast (F), 545 Bristol, 480 London, 448 Glasgow