Minutes of the Autumn meeting Sep 2017

Winchester and Portsmouth Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers 

Channel Island District Annual District Meeting  16th September 2017 in Alderney

In the absence of district chairman, Stephen Rossiter, the meeting agreed that Jane Le Conte would take the chair.

Jane welcomed all, and especially Pete Jordan, Guild Vice Master and his wife Lynn.

Apologies for absence: Sue Park, Paul Lawrence, Tim Wainwright, Judith Laine, John Lihou, Sue Le Feuvre, Stephen Rossiter, Robin Pittman, Robbie Sherwood, David Clare, Mike Winterbourne.

The meeting stood to remember Stuart Reeves, formerly tower captain of St Mark, Jersey who died earlier this year.

Minutes of the last meeting were approved

Matters arising from the minutes: there were no matters arising

Ringing masters report: Helen referred the meeting to all the District activities published in the recent edition of Les Cloches. She expressed her thanks to the district committee and most of the membership for the support she had received over the time of her tenure. However, she felt that her focus must now be on the 2 Alderney towers and felt that the post required someone young and energetic, therefore she was standing down.

Treasurers report: This had been published in Les Cloches and circulated by email. There were no questions.

The accounts were adopted by the meeting: proposer- Donald Hughes, seconder- Duncan Loweth.

The treasurer thanked Louise Read for auditing the accounts.

Election of new members:

Full members – Barrie Linnecor, Vale; Elaine McClintock, St Peters;

Probationary members– Will Le Ray, Town Church; Ana Silva, St Mark; Poppy Bristow, Bruce James, Jane Robinson and Jeremy Stupart all of St Annes, Cadance Hunnyset, Forest.

They were elected en bloc, proposed by Duncan Loweth, seconded by Louise Read

Election of Officers:

Chairman: Jane Le Conte – proposed by Stephen Rossiter seconded by Duncan Loweth

Ringing Master: Duncan Loweth – proposed by Helen McGregor seconded by Peter Bevis

District Sec: Helen McGregor – proposed by Jane Le Conte seconded by Mike Halsey

Editor Les Cloches: Peter Bevis – proposed by Duncan Loweth seconded by Jane Le Conte

Treasurer: Mike Halsey – proposed Peter Routier seconded by Judy Collins

There being no other nominations, the above were declared elected

Dates of next meetings:

The spring meeting, together with the 8 bell striking competition will be at St John, Jersey on 28th April.

The ADM and 6 bell striking competition will be at Forest, Guernsey on 8th September. (Please note this is a change from the traditional 3rd Saturday of September)

 Any other business:

Pete Jordan thanked everyone for their welcome. He read a message from the Guild Master, saying it was gratifying to read of the growth and abilities in the CI District and sending ‘wishes for a fruitful and fun ADM’.

Pete highlighted ringing to commemorate those who fell in World War 1, and encouraged the district to ring quarters and peals when appropriate The guild will record this ringing in 2 books, one  to be presented to Winchester and one to Portsmouth Cathedral in a special service in 2019.

The 200 club has been resurrected and Pete encouraged participation. Annual membership is £12 and it is drawn 3 times a year. Profits from the fund go towards training, particularly for younger ringers, and towards provision and development of training materials.

Nicky David raised 2 points. Firstly she noted the editorial in the last issue of Les Cloches, asking district ringers whether they would like the Cloches to continue and in what form. Some discussion resulted in an overwhelming desire for a continuation of a record of district activities, but possibly in an updated form e.g. on a closed Facebook group. The meeting agreed this should be discussed by the district committee. “Secondly, Nicky questioned the name “Channel Islands’ Ringing Centre” for the new ring installed at Wells House as she thought this might be seen to imply that it had a connection to the C. I. District. She thought the name “The Alderney Ringing Centre, Channel Islands” would have been more appropriate to avoid confusion to other ringers. However she had to accept that as the Wells Bells project was a private enterprise and that no one else had any say in the matter.

These minutes were amended at ADM Sept 2018 to the position as above

Striking Competition results

The judge John Loveless congratulated all teams on the standard of ringing, stating that it compared very favourably to other competitions he has judged.  He recommended using the practice time to improve striking as soon as possible and said ‘don’t go wrong!’ He commented that a common fault was the 2 lightest bells ‘shaving’ their handstrokes in 5th place before coming down to lead.

The following is a transcript of John’s comments:

Have a couple of whole pulls before you start and adjust your ropes.  Make sure you improve as quickly as you can in the practice piece.

And don’t go wrong (at all)…that is bad!

Another very common fault which some of the teams were guilty of was “shaving the handstrokes”, particularly the smaller bells (1 & 2) when they were at the back.

Overall it was a good show and no one disgraced themselves.

Team number 1: Bob Doubles (52 faults) – The Field in St Martin’s, Jersey.

Thought it was never going to end because it was so slow! It was the slowest ringing of the day.  No method errors that he picked up, slightly dodgy bit two thirds of the way through.  Too slow for the band.  That could be due to not being used to the bells.  Started to get good after 100 changes, but the improvement was not sustained.  Not a piece of ringing to be ashamed of.  Touch took 4 mins 30.  Over 3 hour peal speed which is too slow for the bells (middle six)

Team number 2: Call changes (43 faults) – St. Peter’s and Forest

Took 4 mins and 9 seconds.  Had a nice rhythm.  Promised quite a lot, but never really delivered.  Had a problem with the smaller bells clipping and a bit of variability generally.

Team number 3: Grandsire Doubles (39 faults) – The Vale

Again, this was very slow – 4 mins 23 seconds.  Too laboured for the band I felt.  Tenor and treble issue again – lack of accuracy.  Was some nice clean patches in this (changes 50-63 and also 100 – 110 were good as well).  Grandsire doubles, lovely to listen to; always a good choice of method.

Team number 4: Plain Bob Doubles (21 faults) – St. John’s, Jersey

Good accurate ringing.  Very pleasing to listen to; good speed.  One or two issue with treble and tenor, but nothing particularly noteworthy.  It was focussed…seemed to know what you were trying to achieve and most of the time you were achieving it.  Changes 50 – 60 were very good and so too were 90 – 100, but it wasn’t quite sustained. He felt for this band there was another 5% in the tank.  Quite a credible piece.

Team number 5: Cambridge Minor (23 faults) – St. Mark’s, Jersey

This was good Cambridge Minor!  It is always a bit courageous when you ring Cambridge Minor in a striking competition as there are easier ways of doing it. The penalty that these guys paid was that they were a bit fast and at one stage later on, they got faster again.  It was that what probably lost them a place.  Overall it was quite a neat piece of ringing.  3 mins 55 seconds, so quite a lot faster than the 4’23 and 4’30.

Team number 6: Plain Bob Doubles (42 faults) – Alderney Hedgehogs

It was very deliberate.  It was very slow..it was 4’26.  They failed to settle.  It was too slow for the band.

Team number 7: Grandsire Doubles (15 faults) – Alderney Puffins

This was the fastest ringing of the day.  3 minutes 54 seconds.  Grandsire doubles, four plain courses, keep it simple, lovely jubbly. Lots of attack about this ringing.  There weren’t many mistakes.  This team more than any of the others fixed the oddstruckness of the bells.  Very well done.

 

The judge presented the Paul Taylor Shield to the winning team,  He was thanked for his constructive comments