We are half way through a Horton's Four weekend - we attempted the peal this morning, and we're going for it again tomorrow afternoon. So what happened? After a short false start, we rang quite decently for two hours, right up to the beginning of the split tenors section. Then suddenly the composition went out of my head.

I think the problem was that at the beginning of the course in which the tenors become split, I didn't mentally rehearse the calling for the whole course. After changing into Glasgow, which is the last tenors-together lead, I realised that I didn't know what was coming next. I managed to call a bob at the end of Glasgow, and just about remembered to change to Belfast, but that was it. The only thing coming into my mind was the calling for the penultimate course of the peal, but I knew that wasn't right. Desperately trying to remember the composition meant that I couldn't concentrate on Belfast, so I became completely lost, and that was the end of that.

I need to remember the procedure for calling spliced: during every lead, make a mental note of what I have to call at the lead end, and from time to time, think further ahead so that I know which courses are coming up.

On the positive side, it went much better than the last time we went for the whole peal, and that's the longest we've rung it for in a continuous session. So we are optimistic for tomorrow.

Update on the update: we had another good attempt and got well into the split tenors section, but collapsed in the penultimate course. Next attempt is in two weeks' time.