Welsh Colleges Winter Weekend
If you were organising a quarter ppeal weekend, what day would you choose to start it on? Friday the 13th? No? Well, I did, and so on Friday the 13th of December I found myself sitting by the fire in a pub in Blockley, in the North Cotswolds, readin g a gory novel and looking after a very agreeable pint of Hook Norton. Two hours and three pints later, some more ringers turned up, in fact everyone then seemed to turn up in the space of about five minutes! I lost my fireside seat, and the book was lost back to the bookshelf as everyone tried their best to catch up on my two hour head start.
Our base for the weekend was the Admiral Collier Centre, a youth activity centre set up and run by the Gloucester Diocesan Board of Education. It had everything a W.C. weekend coul dpossibly need, including bunk beds, showers, and a pub within crawling distance where the bar never seemed to shut!
I left the pub at the relatively early hour of half past midnight, worrying about the day ahead. Others obviously had no such troubles and didn't return until four in the morning!
Half past seven the next morning - a quick tour of the dormitaories revealed only one person foolish enough to help with breakfast. Eventually, aftr much waving of bacon sandwiches and shouting, the first two quarter peal bands were coaxed out of bed and sent on their way to Saintbury and Offenham to ring Norwich Surprise Minor and Plain Bob Doubles respectively. Breakfast continued on steadily, as people emerged bleary-eyed from the dormitories and the numbers were bolstered by more arrivals who had been unable to travel down on the Friday. A party was sent out to buy newspapers and another group set to work blowing up balloons! I contented myself with hiding in the kitchen and concocting a huge spaghetti bolognese. Ten thirty approached and ringers started returning from the first two attempts - both had been scored! Bands were dispatched to Todenham, to ring Plain Bob Minor, and, somewhat reluctantly, to Blockley to ring Pudsey. The next hour was spent persuading the last few ringers clinging to their sleeping bags to get up and face the world!
The Blockley band returned - success again , but what of the band from Todenham and, more importantly, Zoe who was needed to take part in the final quarter peal attempt at Mickleton? It got to twenty past twelve and I decided that I would have to ring in Zoe's place. We raced over to Mickleton, getting there late, much to Bob's disgust, as he had driven down from Cheshire and had been there on time! We rang the bells up, rang a reasonable quarter of four-spliced (in which I made the worst mistake by far - Malcolm put this down to the spah bol!) Afterwards, Penny announced that it had been her first quarter of surprise major inside, and that she had been terrified for most of the previous week!
We made our way back to Blockley to find the hall locked up and deserted - everyone had gone to the pub without us! Alison and Paul were eventually found in the Crown and we settled down to spend the afternoon watching the rugby on the pub TV. As soon as the final whistle had blown, however, everyone was bundled into cars and we set off for Evesham for a spot of general ringing. Although we had all rested since the morning's exertions, everyone seemed a bit reluctant and although our ringing was acceptable, I didn't feel that we did the bells justice. Many thanks are due to Chris Povey for putting the clapper back in the 11th for us!
The main event of the day was now ahead of us - Malcolm's birthday party! The secretary had been busy, setting up a disco and putting the finishing touches of the meal together. Volunteers were found to set up tables and make garlic bread, while Malcolm was sent to the pub after being relieved of several bottles of bubby stuff! The pub-goers returned on time (for a change) and the spag bol was a success. Unfortunately the secretary had managed to freeze the fruit flands that were dessert and some of Malc's bubbly! The finale of the meal was a big chocolate cake, decorated with candles (the sort that don't go out) and the words 'Happy Birthday Malcolm from Welsh Colleges.' The rest of the evening was taken up with yet more drinking and dancing.
The next morning some people actually managed to get up and go ringing at Chipping Campden. Penny headed off early back to Cardiff to watch another rugby match and everyone else eventually managed to get up! After the hall was cleared and the key returned, a few of us went for lunch together at the Snowshill Arms before setting off home. A very enjoyable and unusually successful quarter peal weekend was over for another year.
Many thanks to all the towers we visited during our tour.
- GB
Saintbury, Glos. 1440 Norwich S Minor: Kate Payne 1, Bridget Osmond (1st in m) 2, Helen Foster 3, Keving Rogers 4, Roger Grieve 5, Tim Payne (C) 6.
Todenham, Glos. 1260 P B Minor: Gail Evans (1st Minor) 1, Bridget Osmond 2, Helen Foster 3, Zoe Barker (1st PB Minor) 4, Kevin Rogers 5, Andrew Johnson (C) 6.
Blockley, Glos. 1280 Pudsey S Major: Kaye Platt 1, Helen Normington 2, Karen Williams (1st blows in m) 3, Chris Mundy 4, Debbie Barnes (1st P) 5, Hilary Child 6, Robert Child 7, Pay Wheeler 8 (C).
Mickleton, Glos. 1250 Spl S Major (C,Y,N,R): Martyn Owen 1, Georgina Barratt 2, Penny Clarkson (1st S Major inside) 3, Katherine Wright 4, James Normington 5, Bob Jervis 6, Malcolm Murphy 7, Tim Paybe 8 (C).