News
USA 2014 pre-tour get-together
A number of ringers from all over the country who will ringing in USA together later in the year met up, some for the first time, in Northampton on Saturday 29th March for a pre-tour get-together. Whilst in Northampton, the party rang at St Peter's, Marefair, between 2.45pm and 3.30pm, at St Giles between 3.45pm and 4.45pm finished at All Saints, ringing between 5pm and 6pm.
Quarter peal rung at All Saints
Congratulations are due to Elaine Seaton who rang her first quarter peal at All Saints on Sunday 2nd March 2014. The quarter peal took 44 minutes to complete and was conducted by Colin Sampson. The band comprised Graham Paul 1, Greg Jordan 2, John Lindsay 3, Debbie Sampson 4, Colin Sampson 5, Elaine Seaton 6. !260 changes of Doubles were rung consisting 480 changes each of St Simon and St Martin and 300 of Plain Bob.
Skittles and Awards
The skittles night on Wednesday was a fab night! Thanks to all who came and congratulations to Helen Hayward who won the skittles, I think some people may be putting in some extra practice before next year! A special mention must go to Graham Paul who managed to keep his coat on all night despite it being a cosy room with 22 of us in it! John Lindsay also put in an excellent performance showing his lighting reactions when his pint looked to be in danger from a rebounding cheese, I have never seen him move that fast! We sang Happy Birthday to Barbara Starmer who supplied a very nice cake which may be in contention for an award next year, maybe we should have our own choir too?!
The highlight of the evening was the awards ceremony, hereby known as the Awards for Ringing Supremacy and Excellence. There were 10 categories and 10 worthy winners, apologies to all those who were disappointed not to win, better luck next year! The 2013 awards were presented as follows:
The first award was for courage in the face of adversity and the winner was Greg Jordan for ringing with manky hands.
The second award was for the ringer who takes the longest to reply to emails and the winner was Nick Parsons for any email ever sent to him.
The third award was for the ringer able to keep their coat on the longest at practice and the winner was Alan Paul.
The fourth award was for the best birthday cake so far and the winner was Marian Johnson for her chocolate orange marble cake.
The fifth award was for the ringer who has looked most like a rabbit in the headlights during ringing and the winner was Giles Willson for the quarter peal of Plain Bob Royal at All Saints.
The sixth award was for the person who did most tuts in an evening and the uncontested winner was Bridget Paul.
The seventh award was for the person who has made the most determined effort to get to ringing and the winner was Ray Starmer for climbing the stairs at Towcester 6 weeks after a hip operation.
The eighth award was for the person who has had the biggest memory lapse and the winner was Helen Hayward for thinking it was 19 years since she had last rung a quarter peal when in fact it was 2 years.
The ninth award was for the bravest ringer and the winner was Brett Masters for ringing the haunted 7th at St Peter's.
The tenth award was for the person who is quickest to leave the tower when ringing down is announced and the winner was Graham Paul who can be surprisingly nimble when he wants to be.
All in all a great evening and plans are already underway for a barbeque at some point over the summer, if anyone has a large garden and wants to volunteer to host it please let me know!!
All You Need is Positivity
A great week in the life of the Northampton Ringers this week! We rang surprise at St Giles on Sunday morning; 12 of us turned up to NOT ring for evensong at All Saints; we were slightly lower on numbers for the practice at St Giles but still managed some well struck call changes on 10 as well as Little Bob and Kent Treble Bob Royal, the highlight of the evening though has to be Marian Johnson's fab cakes. Those who were there had a choice of chocolate orange marble cake or coffee and walnut cake, some couldn't decide so had both! I'm enjoying the 'bring a cake on your birthday' guidelines - it's not a rule!
It's really great to see the positivity most people have about the potential new projects at All Saints! It's this team work and positive spirit that makes the Town Centre ringers such a strong group and this can be seen by the fact that we now have 29 ringers! The social evening and awards ceremony next Wednesday is a chance to toast our success and have a good night out! Apologies to those who would have rather rung at St Peter's!! Also Apologies for the Spice Girls reference in the title!
Higher Numbers
We have excelled ourselves with higher numbers in the last couple of weeks! Last Wednesday we visited Towcester and rang on the very nice twelve. Well done to Ray Starmer, Barbara Starmer, Marian Johnson, Liz Moore and Peter Craddock who rang on twelve for the first time! An even bigger well done to Ray and Barbara for making it up the stairs, it was nice to see you both. The ringing at Towcester was of a good standard, although a couple of handling issues were highlighted, we WILL be following those up :-)
On Sunday 2nd February our quarter peal was Little Bob Royal which was a good achievement for the band, Kent Treble Bob Royal next?!
Talking of high numbers we now have 23 people booked in for our social on the 26th February. If you haven't booked your space, please get in touch as soon as possible. The evening will consist of drinking, eating, playing skittles and, the highlight, The 2013 Northampton Bellringers Awards Ceremony!! Have you been nominated, come along to find out!!
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