We rang a peal of London Major on Monday, which was a satisfying achievement. It's not at all easy, and everyone did well. Conducting from a pair other than the tenors was a challenge for me, and afterwards I realised that it completed the Standard 8 as conductor on working pairs.
The composition was one I've called before, by Henry Dains. It's wrong home wrong, padded out with a block of 5 befores in every course.
5760 (5024) London Surprise Major Henry Dains 23456 B W H ---------------- 45236 5 - - 34256 5 - ---------------- 3 part. 72 crus. For 5024 omit one block of 5.
In the first block of 5 befores, the coursing orders are 53246, 65324, 46532, 24653, 46532. So 5-6 are coursing for 4 of these 5 courses. This is the case in the first block of each part: 5-6 course for 4 courses. In the second and third parts, the coursing orders are rotations of 54326 and 52436, so 3-4 are also coursing for 4 of the 5 courses in each case.
In the second block of the part, the coursing orders are rotations of 35426, 45236 and 25346. In these blocks, 5-6 are never coursing, but in the third part, 3-4 are coursing for 4 of the 5 courses in the block.
To maximise the amount of coursing for 3-4 and 5-6, it's best to omit the second block of befores in either the first or the second part. However, this time I omitted the very first block of befores. This was because it's only when the befores are omitted that the tenors ring 2nd and 4th place bells, and I decided to get that out of the way in the first course.
With these blocks of 5 befores, there is a complete contrast between the two possibilities: coursing for 4 out of 5 courses, and not coursing at all. The former is easy except for the one course in the 5-6 position. The latter is a long stretch of ringing without any rest periods in the coursing position.
When conducting from a working pair, there's a question of how to work out where to call the bobs. Options include:
- Keeping track of which place bells the tenors are, in each lead.
- Spotting when the tenor is ringing the place bell before the next bob.
- Working out what my bells will do at the next bob, and waiting for the appropriate lead.
I find it's best to use a combination of techniques, to reduce the risk of failing to spot something crucial. For example, working out what I will do at each bob relies on remembering and transposing the coursing orders, and there's always the possibility of losing track of the coursing order.
My main technique was based on the coursing order and the work of my bells, but I also tried to check the position of the tenors at the lead end before a bob was due. Most of the bobs in this composition are befores, which come at the end of leads when the tenor is 4th place bell. After a while I realised that at the beginning of this lead, the tenors do a fishtail together at the back, which is easy to spot because I am always aware of when the fishtails are taking place (when the treble is in 3-4). I also found it easy to spot the tenor making 2nds at the end of the lead.
The bobs that aren't befores all follow the pattern of wrong home wrong: in each part, the 5th makes the bob and runs out twice. That was helpful for calling those bobs.
Finally, I was pleased to be able to check the coursing order by seeing the sequence of four bells leading in coursing order between the two times that 7th place bell leads.