Results in College Hall, Worcester

At the end of the afternoon, all the teams and their supporters gathered in College Hall for the results. Mark Regan, Ringing Master, gave a warm welcome and said “to everyone who rang at the Cathedral this afternoon - well done; because if you can ring here you can ring anywhere, they’re the best and the hardest ring of bells in the world. So take that away with you, brilliant! I’d like to introduce the judges: Alistair Cherry, Ed Mack, Andrew Rawlinson, and the Chief Judge – Henry and Alfie Pipe’s Dad – David Pipe!”

David asked the teams if they’d had a good day, which was enthusiastically affirmed. “While you’ve been having fun ringing at all these towers, attending master-classes and ringing on simulators, these guys have literally been sweating their socks off, in a rather warm room under Old St Martin’s. Sixteen teams is a huge amount of ringing to judge. We’ve listened to a lot of good ringing, and some of it has been exceptional. We had to sit back sometimes and to remind ourselves that there wasn’t anyone ringing today who was over eighteen years old and I think that’s a credit to all the teams. Alistair, Ed and Andrew have marked each touch while I’ve sat back, chilled out and had a good listen. We’ve given each team a grade from A through to C. We did contemplate including Ds but quite honestly we didn’t feel that any of the ringing today merited that.”

Next Alistair Cherry described how the opening teams had rung:

Team 1 (The G. & B.) Grandsire Triples  Grade A-

The start was really confident with almost no faults in the first two leads. However there was a major error in the third lead which took quite a few rows to sort out. The ringing did settle again after this but didn’t quite reach its potential. We thought that this team could have been great.

Team 2 (Worcester Cathedral) Call Changes  Grade C

We felt that this team could have managed their time better. They spent very little time practising and this showed. The ringing was a little on the quick side but it did settle down. It was a shame that there was an error near the end that went on for quite a few rows.

Team 3 (Vectis Youths) Call Changes  Grade C-

This team allowed themselves plenty of rounds at the start, which we felt was a good decision. However there were some issues with bells ringing at different speeds. Overall it never quite settled and finished a long way before 160 rows.

Team 4 (St Martin’s Youths) Call Changes  Grade C+

The team made plenty of use of their practice but need to keep an eye on the clock as they overran their time slightly. The ringing was careful and we felt that bells were trying to avoid clips resulting in some slow blows. Overall a steady speed of ringing.

Team 5 (3 Spires) Call Changes  Grade B

Like Team 4, this was quite a steady piece of ringing and quite a few bells had some slow blows. There was some good leading but the slow blows did persist throughout.

Then Andrew Rawlinson took the stage, and described how the remaining teams had done:

Team 6 (Essex Young Eagles) Rang Call Changes  Grade B+

This was rung at a more positive speed than the previous two touches. There was some nicely struck rows and the team stayed in Queens for quite a while. There was a fairly quick sequence of changes towards the end which were rung well.

Team 7 (Ely DA Young Ringers) Call Changes  Grade C+

Another fairly steady piece of ringing. This team didn’t allow themselves many rounds to settle and there were quite a few bells struggling to keep the rhythm. It sounded as though bells were trying to avoid each other and consequently there were some gaps.

Team 8 (Young at Herts) Call Changes  Grade B+

The opening rounds for this team were a little uneven; but the ringing got better once the changes started! There were some good sections but these were not sustained.

Team 9 (Sussex Young Ringers) Plain Bob Triples  Grade B

Quite a nice piece of ringing but some slow leads caused the bells to bunch up. It lost its way slightly after the first course end but picked up and had quite a nice finish.

Team 10 (Derbyshire Dingers) Plain Bob Triples  Grade C

We were entertained by the pratising tactics of this team which decided to ring Bistow Little Court Bob Triples – not just once but many times! We’re not sure if this helped them to ring Plain Bob Triples but it did make us smile! We quite enjoyed the handstroke roll-ups but there was quite a bad patch in the second course.

Team 11 (Yorkshire Tykes) Plain Bob Triples  Grade A

This touch got off to a really positive start. The odd bad blow was quickly recovered from and the second course had some nice ringing. It sounded as though they were glad to get to the end.

Team 12 (Oxford DG) Plain Bob Triples  Grade A-

Another nice piece of ringing with a really positive beat set by the tenor. The odd slow lead did not affect the ringing seriously.

Team 13 (Lincolnshire Poachers) Call Changes  Grade B-

This team had quite a confident start but seemed to struggle executing the changes. Some of the bigger bells were slow over the smaller bells. There were lots of Whittingtons and we enjoyed these.

Team 14 (Bedfordshire) Call Changes  Grade A*

This started with some good, confident rounds and was very enjoyable to listen to. The changes were well executed and we thought that all the internal bells were rung very well.

Team 15 (Bath & Wells) Call Changes  Grade B-

This was the only team to ring Queens, Whittingtons, and Tittums, and we enjoyed that. However the number of changes meant that it was difficult to settle. There were quite a few pushed leads.

Team 16 (Suffolk Young Ringers) Plain Bob Triples  Grade B+

This was a brisk piece of ringing but fairly confident. There was the odd blemish but it was generally held together well. A slightly slower pace may have helped this team do even better.

Finally Alistair and Ed announced the results to huge applause …