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In 2011 the bell ringer's magazine, ‘The Ringing World’ launched the Youth Ringing Contest to provide a focus for youth ringing bands. It was intended as a competition and social event, giving young ringers the chance to meet others from across the country and to experience ringing on different bells in the host location. Last year a band from the Peterborough Guild entered the national contest for the first time and did well, finishing in 4th of 14 teams.
Since the national contest was started, a number of regional events have been developed. The Peterborough Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers (PDG) falls into the Midlands region and this year the Midlands contest was held in the Nottingham area. The Daventry Young Ringers entered to represent the PDG and Flynn Spires, team conductor, shares the team’s experience of the day.
“On Saturday 15th March, the Daventry Young Ringers, representing the Peterborough DG went to Nottingham to take part in the Midlands Young Ringers Day.
The day went very well, and we all had a great time. The ringing consisted of five towers total. The competition tower was located at Clifton, St Mary, starting at 12.50pm. The first tower we rung at was Clifton, Corpus Christi which was a 6-bell tower. This was easily the funniest ring we had.
The second tower we rung at was located at Beeston, St John. This was an interesting tower as it was all simulator bells. The only thing we didn't like was that the noise of the bells was projected from speakers, and the sound would cut off and not sound great. This tower was a 10-bell simulator tower.
The third tower was Attenborough, an 8-bell tower, but we sadly missed ringing there due to our competition slot. The fourth and final ringing was located at Bramcote, St Michael and All Angels. This was a 6-bell tower and was a nice ring. The only thing wrong with the bells is that one of the previous teams had broken a stay on bell number 2.
Overall, it was an amazing experience, and it was good fun to ring at all the different towers.
Very well done to Sahib for his first ever competition ringing. He did very well tenoring behind and got a special mention for consistency.
We had some funny moments, the funniest being Zack having to kneel to ring at the 1st tower.
There were 10 teams in total with one special team coming from Groton, New York State, USA who were over for a choir and bell ringing exchange. They are staying in Rugby and so they joined the Coventry Spires ringers.
Our team was as follows:
Freya (treble), Flynn (conductor), Zack, Mathew, Grace, and Sahib (tenor)
We chose to do plain hunt for the competition.
Competition Results
1st: Worcestershire
2nd: Birmingham
3rd: Derbyshire
4th: Daventry PDG
5th: Nottingham (method)
6th: Leicestershire
7th: Oxford
8th: Nottingham (changes)
9th: Groton (USA)
10th: Coventry
Worcestershire won the method ringing section and Derby the call changes.”
Has this inspired you to start bell ringing?
On 26 April, between 10am – 12pm, Daventry Young Ringers will welcome visitors to the tower at Daventry, Holy Cross. Meet the team, maybe have a go at bellringing and make a lot of noise with the largest of musical instruments. Bell ringing is great fun for anyone from the age of 10 and fits perfectly into the skills section of the Duke of Edinburgh awards. All adult trainers are DBS checked.
For more information on this event contact ringing_master@daventry.pdg.org.uk
If you would like further information on becoming a young ringer in your local area, contact Helen at secretary@pdg.org.uk