North is not the warmest Place to be in November (or any other time of the year for that matter), but it is Flintshire that our Master Karen lives, so it was here that our quarter peal weekend was arranged. For those of you who don't remember, the same event last year was not particularly successful in terms of quarters scored - none out of four to be precise - but the attendance was so good this year that we felt that with ten attempts, we were bound to score something!
Friday night meant a lot of long journeys for almost everyone concerned, but after everyone (except for Percy who managed to successfully abstain from alcohol for November) had a few drinks in the pub and renewed acquaintances, there didn't seem to be any unhappy faces.
Most people were in two quarters on Saturday. We lost the London Major at Buckley, which was probably a good thing as some pople would probably not have got to their second quarter in time of we had completed the attempt. The Grandsire Doubles at Mold seemed to be going well enough until the writer failed to do exactly what he was told (not much unusual in that) and upon arival at the lunchtime pub in Northop, we learnt than only one quarter out of five attempted that morning had been scored - Plain Bob Major at Northop. Lunchtime passed all too quickly for some and people were once again on their way. Apart from visiting the supermarket, there was little for the Master and Myself to do in the afternoon so we decided to retire to Karen's farn for tea.
The aftornoon considerably more successful with three out of five quarters being scored, giving us a 40% score rate. The highlight of the weekend for many People was the quarter at Hawarden where everybody rang with their shoes off and apparently couldn't stop smiling. It's go to hear about people enjoying their ringing isn't it!
The evening meal was very ably cooked by Karen Eveson and Kaye Mundy. Many thanks to them for their hard work. The evening was rounded off with attempts to make comedy breasts and dead chickens out of napkins and a very dusty blanket.
After service ringing on Sunday, many of our party had some exercise by embarking on a four around Karen's farm, and those who were brave enough even stuck their hands in a calf's mouth. Some of us however, couldn't wait for lunchtime and so headed straight for the pub. We got our exercise by running around a caste after lunch.
So thanks once again to Karen for organising such an enjoyable weekend, to all the tower openers, to Karen's family for their hospitality and of course to everybody who attempted a quarter, without whom the weekend would never have taken place.
- Martin C Hatfield
Northop, Flints. 28 Nov, 1280 PB Major: Poppy Faye 1, Susan Watson (C) 2, Nicola Groom 3, Gail Evans (1st major) 4, Kaye Mundy 5, Amanda Stilton (1st major inside) 6, Martyn Owen 7, Ben Farnsworth 8.
Gresford. 28 Nov, 1260 Stedman Triples: Karen Eveson 1, George Barrett 2, Susan Watson Watson 3, Nicola Groom 4, Naomi Burgess 5, Ben Farnsworth 6, Stephen Penney (1st in m as C) 7, Rupert Burgess 8. Thanks to Hilton Roberts, the local tower captain, for allowing us to ring after his daughter's wedding.
Hawarden. 28 Nov, 1260 PB Doubles: Penny Clarkson 1, Anna Loynes 2, Martyn Owen 3, Rhyan Probert (1st as C) 4, Paul Scofield 5, Martin Clark 6.
Wrexham. 1296 Grandsire Caters: Alison Briggs 1, Fiona Ellett 2, Katherine Wright 3, Roger Grieve 4, Pay Wheeler 5, Russ Jackson 6, Stephen Penney 7, Chris Muncy 8, Malcolm Murphy (C) 9, Duncan Hyde 10. Golen wedding anniversary compliment to Doreen and Brian Watt (uncle and aunt of 9).