by Colin Parker
The third Ringing World National Youth Contest will take place on Saturday, 6th July 2013 at St Lawrence’s Church, York. The eight bell competition is open to bands comprised of ringers aged under 19 (on 6th July) who may choose to ring Major, Triples or Call Changes. The contest continues to go from strength to strength and we look forward to welcoming back previous contestants as well as seeing some new faces. One old face that will need no introduction is Simon Linford who we are delighted has once more kindly agreed to be our Chief Judge. Again he will be aided by three young judges.
St Lawrence’s church was built in the late 1800s and is the largest Parish Church in York. The western tower of the smaller previous church on the site still remains within the churchyard, but this contains no bells. The ring of bells was installed in the main tower in 1999. The 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and tenor were already in the possession of The York Bell Fund and kindly donated. Four of these had formerly been the four largest bells of a five-bell Westminster clock chime, cast by Taylor’s in 1947. The bells had been exhibited at the Olympia Exhibition, held in London in 1947, and had subsequently been sold and installed in Charrington’s Brewery in the east end of London. These five Taylor bells were augmented to eight by the addition of new treble, 2nd and 5th, cast at Taylor’s early in 1999. The tenor weighs in at just under 8cwt.
As well as the contest there promises to be lots going on during the day. There will be open ringing at some of the other York towers and a peal at the Minster that people will be able to listen to. As well as this there are other activities we are planning to organise both ringing and non-ringing related to add to the day.
The results will be delivered at the end of the afternoon. There will be prizes for both the best Call Change band and Method band with the overall best performance being awarded the Whitechapel Trophy. The current holders of the trophy are The G. & B. who won the 2012 contest held in Birmingham.
Anyone wanting to enter the contest will need to act quickly. The closing date for entries is Friday 26th April. If you are an adult organiser or a young ringer who would like to enter the contest please send an e-mail to rwnyc@ringingworld.co.uk for an entry form, contest rules or just further information [update: entry has now closed].
If you want to make it a weekend event there is plenty to see and do in York for all the family. The weekend coincides with the 75th anniversary of Mallard breaking the steam locomotive world speed record and as such the remaining six A4 locomotives will all be on show at the National Railway Museum in York. If those planning to come for more than the day let us know at rwnyc@ringingworld.co.uk we will keep you abreast of any further activities planned for Friday or Saturday evenings should there be enough interest.
This promises to be another fantastic occasion for young ringers and their supporters so don’t miss out!
The contest Rules, and a Declaration Form for each team's responsible adult, are available to download here:
RWNYC - Rules
RWNYC - Adult Declaration