There was a lot of handbell ringing going on at New Year - we did some too, with a handbell day at Tulloch. Combined with the rest fo January, there has been quite a crop of firsts and other notable achievements.

First quarters

• Myles Dakan rang his first quarter of Cambridge Minor and his first quarter of Major.
• Kristine Fowler conducted her first quarter of Surprise Major.
• Karen Maughan rang her first quarter in hand, as did Andrew Shead, Janet Moller and Hannah Campbell; the latter quarter was also Richard Smith's first as sole conductor in hand.
• Jill Wigney rang her first quarter of Spliced Surprise inside.
• Gary Davies and Robin McKinley-Dickinson simultaneously rang their first quarters on eight handbells. Robin has a blog which occasionally mentions handbell ringing.
• Rob Gorton also rang his first quarter of major on handbells.
• While we were in Tulloch, I helped Ian Bell and Colin North to simultaneously ring their first quarters of surprise in hand. Colin also got his first handbell quarter as conductor, Jenny Holden rang her first quarter of Bristol in hand, and I have already written about our quarter of Bourne Maximus which included several firsts.
• Jean Nixon rang her first quarter, indeed her first touch, on eight handbells.
• George Salter rang his first quarter of Royal.
• Mary Friskney rang her first quarter away from the tenors.
• George Vant rang his first quarter of Doubles.

First peals

• Alan Pink rang his first peal on eight handbells.
• Laura Davies rang her first peal of Minor on handbells - not her first peal, but Minor is tricky stuff, so it's worth a mention.
• Jack Page rang his first peal of Zanussi, a few days after we forced him into our Bourne project.
• Patricia Spink rang her first peal of seven Minor.
• Hamish McNaughton rang his first peal of Surprise Royal.
• A peal of Stedman Caters was the first of Stedman in hand for David Threlfall and the first of Stedman Caters in hand for James Ramsbottom.
• A rare peal of Bristol Fourteen didn't claim any firsts, although inspection of PealBase indicates that there were one or two.
• Christopher Tuckett has returned to handbell peal ringing after a very long time.

Landmarks

• Frank Morton has achieved the rare distinction of conducting 1000 handbell peals.
• The 200th peal has been rung at 11 St Chad's Drive, Leeds.

Other notable performances

• A peal of spliced Grandsire Caters and Bristol Royal is rather unusual, especially on handbells.
• The Birmingham boys have rung some more silent and nonconducted Stedman Triples.
• The first handbell date touch of the year.
• A band in Leeds rang 41 Surprise Minor, then rang it again and again.
• I have already mentioned the quarter on the mini-bells that I made for Angela.

Our featured performance

We have noticed this band working up to Norman Smith's 27-Spliced Surprise Major, and this month they reached their goal. The peal was also in the number one spot on BellBoard for a while. Congratulations!

Yorkshire Association
Northallerton, North Yorkshire
19 The Green, Romanby
Friday, 30 January 2015 in 2h37 (11)
5184 Spliced Surprise Major (27m)
192 each Ashtead, Bilsborrow, Bristol, Cambridge, Cassiobury, Cornwall, Cray, Crewkerne, Dorchester, Double Dublin, Glasgow, Helmshore, Higher Walton, Ipswich, Jersey, Lindum, Lincolnshire, London, Ospringe, Pudsey, Radcliffe, Rochester, Rutland, Simonstone, Superlative, Uxbridge, Yorkshire; 161 com.
Composed by N Smith
1-2 Jonathan J F Stokoe
3-4 Jennifer A Town
5-6 James W Holdsworth (C)
7-8 Peter J Sanderson
With compliments to Jennie on her retirement.