Belfry Gossip

I wonder if you saw any of Marcus Brigstocke's series 'Trophy People' which featured the national championship competitions of a variety of interests? No? It was tucked away on BBC4 on Thursday at 7.30pm , a slot the programmers obviously thought fitting for such minority interests as Scrabble and, of course, bell-ringing.

The bell-ringing competition featured was the National Twelve Bell Striking Competition. To ring twelve bells at all is pretty tricky but to ring them well enough for a national final is really difficult so the bell-ringers concerned are very accomplished - think Premier League status.

Marcus Brigstocke chose to go 'behind the scenes' and focus on two of the competing teams. What emerged as a snapshot of bell-ringers was a million miles away from the usual stereotype - Quasimodo-meets-Lord Peter Wimsey-meets mad-monks-clinging-to-bell-ropes on Christmas cards. Instead ringers were shown to be lively, sociable, fun and having real team commitment; this portrait of ringing society is one we recognise and if you think you would like to be part of such a group why not come and see what we do. We practice every Friday evening from 7pmto 9pm. All you need do is turn up!

Marcus Brigstocke's ringers did also have a fair streak of competitiveness which we admit to sharing for not only do we enjoy ringing competitions we also enjoy pen-and-ink brainteaser competitions too and even entered such a one in The Ringing World where recently the smiling, happy faces of the winners were features. Sadly ours were not amongst them, but there is a local Six Bell Striking Competition coming up soon!

Many of the Rushden band also share a taste for exotic travel, which is clearly enjoyable and life-enhancing for them but which leaves us Marthas with somewhat more bells than ringers at times. However, determined to make a virtue out of this necessity, we resolved at our AGM to ring more six bell methods and have achieved several quarter peals on six since.

Last month's Belfry Gossip made mention of our peals and quarter peals appearing in the pages of The Ringing World. Once a year even this publication concedes to the apparent national thirst for League Tables and one of our number, Pam Bailey, appeared in the table of leading quarter peal ringers having rung fifty of them. There was also a 2006 Quarter Peal Analysis on a county basis although, confusingly Australia and New Zealand appear together under that heading as do Other Overseas and North America! St Mary's, Rushden appeared in this table as the leading Northamptonshire tower with a score of thirty nine quarter peals and, on a county basis, was twenty-second out of fifty-four overall. If only quarter peal ringing was an Olympic sport….

Although we enjoy ringing in all its varieties we are also very much aware of the true purpose of the bells, the Church's 'outside choir', and we hope that on Good Friday, when we rang them sorrowfully half-muffled, that some of those in the bustling town below heard them and paused and reflected. And when they sounded out open and joyful on Easter Sunday perhaps some thought that more than chocolate and bunnies was being celebrated.

Third Reserve Tintinnabulum

www.stmarysringers.org.uk

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