Report by Rhyan Probert. Photos by Stephen Penney and Rhyan Probert (Click images to enlarge).
I must admit that Katherine and I have reached that stage where sleeping on a church/village hall floor has been replaced by sleeping at a local B&B, so this report may be a little light on the type of late night shenanigans Welsh Colleges’ members indulge in.
Remarkably, it didn’t rain on this year’s Autumn tour. Most people were staying at the village hall in Alderminster, and the Friday night meeting place was the Bell Inn. Unfortunately, the Bell caters more for diners than drinkers, so we crammed around two tables near the bar whilst the diners were treated to a live Jazz ensemble. Only two beers were on. Both were 5%. A good time was had by all.
Katherine and I left around 11.15 whilst others sat nursing their dregs in the hope of a lock in, which was not forthcoming. I’m told that bottles of whiskey were opened at the hall and some were to be found crawling into the wrong corner of the hall at around 1.30am. A gentle start to the tour.
The first tower was in Clifford Chambers, where Katherine and I turned up suitably refreshed having slept a) in a bed, and b) in a room without snore-ers. Some present and recent ex-Cardiff students joined the rest of the group here, too, having slept somewhere in Solihull. After doing battle with this flighty six, we headed off to Welford-on-Avon, a nice eight, although it took some of us a while during ringing up to work out that only the back six were striking: the trebles had been tied. The ringer of the two was utterly convinced that it was striking when we rang up, and looked quite shocked when she turned it over on her own. Never mind, Penny. Much ringing was done although I stayed downstairs to give our swelling numbers a chance to have a ring, so I have no idea what was rung or whether it was any good.
Tower number three, Lower Quinton, was a brief affair for some as our numbers had swollen to an impressive 30-something. Some of us had a quick grab and made a bee-line for the lunchtime stop at one of the pubs in Illmington to make sure there were enough spaces for everyone and that the beer was up to scratch. The beer was great, but there wasn’t enough space for all of us, so the late-comers had to use the other village pub.
Fortunately, there wasn’t enough time for a seven-pints-at-lunchtime effort on this tour, so we had some reasonable ringing at Illmington. It was, however, getting progressively harder to get a ring due the number of people! Halford was a brief visit for me as we were running behind time, so the only memory I have of this tower was the small ringing circle and speedy ½ course of Cambridge Minor with 4ft of tail-end.
Alderminster was our last port of call. A very loud 6. Some of us popped back to a B&B to freshen up after a hard days ringing whilst others went back to the hall having found that the pub didn’t open until after the meeting. The meeting itself was fairly uneventful, although the date and area of next years’ Autumn tour was decided. After flurry of activity in the kitchen, a feast of chicken curry was served up in time for those wanting to catch the taxi into Stratford to sample the local delights. The Golden Bee was the first stop, although we made a move to another pub (the name escaped me) and ended up staying there as the beer was good and it was a non-smoking pub.
Those staying in the hall caught the taxi back whilst Katherine and I strolled back to our B&B, which gave us an opportunity to find out what the local Chav population does for entertainment on a Saturday night. I have no idea what went on in the hall.
Some members were successful at a pre-service ¼ peal of Superlative Surprise Major at Wellesbourne, whilst a fairly large gathering made it to Stratford for service ringing, which was fortunate as most of the locals didn’t turn up after hearing we were going to be there (was it something we said?). We had some good ringing on some excellent bells.
A huge thanks must go to Gail for organising another good tour (you’re getting a bit of a reputation now), Ross for delegating the running of towers to so many others, and Martin and Andy for a fine, but brief, meal on Saturday night (I can’t comment on the breakfasts, obviously!). And a final thanks to all the people who came on tour, which meant that I hardly had to do any ringing.
Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. 31 October. 1280 Superlative Surprise Major: Daniel Knight 1, Ross E Hartley 2, Stephen W Penney (C) 3, Jeanette Lord 4, Peter Giles 5, Rona M Shaw 6, J Robert Jervis 7, Malcolm Murphy 8. 25th quarter and first in the method - 2.
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