Autumn Tour 1993 - Worcester
Early arrivals gathered at St John Bedwardine, Worcester and ringing proved reasonable despite few in numbers. We then went on to our accomodation for the weekend - Claines Village Hall and after briefly setting up beds etc, we were off to the weekend pub - just by the church.
Here more members gathered including a large number of new recruits from the Welsh universities. After most of us had gone to bed, the dulcet sounds of handbells continued to be heard into the night at a standard previously unknown. In fact for the fist time in over seven years the society scored a quarter in a church hall! This being achieved by Sarah Moore, Gareth Dancer with Tim Payne at the helm.
Saturday morning started at bells with a reputation for being the worst in Worcestershire - Crawle, but we managed a valient effort after Malcolm had dome a spot of DIY bellhanging!
There then followed a less than conventional activity for A WC tour - a treasure hunt organised by Helen. Joined here by John Goldrick & Horrace the Morris, a number of the society dashed arounf the Worcestershire countryside trying to solve Helen's clues. The hunt was ably won by ?????
After ringing at Feckenham we were off to lunch at 'The Bull', a pub apparently featured on 'The Archers' - though this means nothing to me.
During the afternoon we rang at the 6's in Berrow and Bishampton before finishing at he 10 at Claines. Here we were met by Martyn Hills, this being his home tower. Claines are a light ring of 10 rung from around the font, but dispite the flighty nature of the bells, we managed them admirably culminating in some leads of London Royal.
Back at the hall the usual meeting was held before dinner. At this meeting I was asked where the Master's bell was, and I had to admit forgetting it and leaving it at home (this I genuinely believed to be the case, although it has subsequentially been discovered that I had in fact lost it! - I suspect that it was left at the hall in Hook Norton following the 1/4 peal weekend).
Lengthy discussions were held at the meeting regarding WC clothing. After much discussion we decided to use ??????? of Bristol who had produced some samples for us to display. Martin agreed to co-prdinate and act as control 'orderer and administrator' for the clothes. We had a superb meal cooked by Pat and Karen, ably assisted by tim & Kate before adjoining to the pub.
Unfortunately at this point I left the tour due to my taxation exams looming the following week and therefore have no first hand knowledge of what happened after this point. However a combination of the RW report and comments from Helen Ward enable me to add the following paragraphs.
Apparently an industrious night was enjoyed in the pub that night, but regrettably a certain new student from Cardiff did not appear to have had his stomach hardened for WC drinking and subsequently emptied it back over the hall!
Following the usual Sunday lunch at a pub where many decisions regarding choice of clothing were made, ringing continued at the difficult 8 at Hallow (subsequently the venue for a WC peal) and St Swithun in worcester before joiing the ringers at Worcester Cethedral to round off the tour.
Many thanks to Helen for ably looking after everything on Sunday dureing my absence.
- Chris Mundy
