Gary – Page 2 – North Bucks Branch

Over to you…….late May 2016

It was such a pleasure to see so many of you at the Guild AGM on S aturday. I was particularly pleased that for some of you it was your first visit to an AGM. We were well-served with open towers, excellent tower stewards, and plenty to occupy us at Faringdon.
The lunch was delicious and efficiently served to such a large number – and the Songs of Praise rounded off the day nicely. And of course the business was attended to. Many thanks to everyone in the Vale of White Horse Branch for having the vision for the day, and making it work.

New Guild Officers

At the AGM, James Champion stood down after 4 years as General Secretary and Angela Darvill was elected to the post. In due course her details will be on the Guild website, and I am sure you will all give her the support she needs as she finds her way through the various tasks involved.

Bobbie May was elected as Public Relations Officer – a post she held some years ago, and which she has helped with in the intervening years, writing reports of our activities for the Ringing World and website.

Bobbie stepped down as one of our Central Council Representatives and we elected Graham John in her place.

Guild Festival, 9th July

A poster should have reached each tower with details of the ringing and service. Do encourage your members to come – it is a wonderful opportunity to worship together and to ring Oxford bells.

With best wishes for an enjoyable summer,
Hilarie

ODG 8 bell striking contest 2016

The 8 bell competition was held at Chieveley on Monday 2nd May 2016, with eight teams ringing a touch of Little Bob Major.

The judges were Alan Shepherd from Dunstable and John Harrison from Wokingham who described the bells as “difficult”.

The North Bucks team consisted of:

Chas Knight – 1
Barry Eglesfield – 2
Wendy Haslam – 3
Lesley Belcher – 4
Roy Keeves – 5
Phil Haslam – 6
Simon Head – 7
Doug Hird (c) – 8

The results were as follows:

1st EBSB Branch, 14 faults
2nd Newbury, 18 faults
3rd High Wycombe, 20 faults
4th North Bucks, 23 faults
5th St Aldate Oxford, 28 faults
6th Banbury Branch, 29 faults
7th Tilehurst, 34 faults
8th ODG Youth Team, 44 faults

A picture of the North Bucks team can be seen here.

Over to you…….March 2016

I would particularly like to draw the attention of your members to the following Guild events:

Guild Festival, Saturday 9th July

A poster is on its way to each tower with details of the ringing and service. Do encourage your members to come – it is a wonderful opportunity to worship together and to ring Oxford bells.

Guild AGM, Saturday 21st May

The timetable for this has been circulated – there is something for everyone! Please come to the AGM itself, agenda and papers should be out around mid April.

Ringing Day, Bank Holiday Monday 2nd May

Look out for the detailed itinerary – towers in the Newbury Branch open for the day.

Please also ask any of your members with the relevant skills to consider the following:

Guild Library

Help is needed to trial some digitisation of items in the Guild Library. If you can help, please contact Doug Beaumont, the Librarian, librarian@odg.org.uk, other contact details on the website.

Officer Vacancies

All posts become vacant at the Guild AGM. We know that one of our representatives on the Central Council does not wish to stand again and I am sure any of the current representatives would be happy to have a chat about what it entails.

We also have a vacancy for Public Relations Officer, to promote ringing within the guild and beyond, including press releases. Do try and identify any of your ringers who may have these skills they can offer.

With best wishes for a Happy Easter,
Hilarie

Over to you…….December 2015

This comes with my best wishes for a Happy Christmas, and some joyful ringing.

Ringing World Survey

Many of you will already have taken some action concerning this. If not, may I encourage you to consider the request below.

“The Board of The Ringing World Ltd thinks it essential to have a full, informed consultation with as many ringers as possible, subscribers and non-subscribers, over several possible ways to a sustainable future for the business by means of a survey. There is an on-line version and a paper version. The on-line version is accessible at: Ringing World Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/therwsurvey. The paper version can be downloaded here http://ringingworld.co.uk/images/pdf/RW_Survey_final.pdf. You are welcome to use whichever version you find most convenient; we would prefer you to use the on-line version if you can as this makes assessment of the results and detailed analysis much easier for us. If you have difficulties in filling in the survey, please email survey@ringingworld.co.uk.

It has not been possible, in the interests of keeping the cost of the paper version down, to have much space for the few free text answers. You may enclose an extra sheet with any further comments or email the above survey address. It is a comprehensive survey so the option is given for answering only certain key questions, though we hope that most responders will answer them all.

Please encourage as many ringers as possible to respond. In particular could those who receive copies for a tower encourage your band to make individual responses. For those who are not familiar with The Ringing World or need a reminder, we have provided a free PDF version of a recent edition which you can access here http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/files/5437.pdf.

The survey will close at the end of January.

Nigel Orchard, Chairman, The Ringing World”

Our Guild is one of the largest in the country and it would be excellent if we could submit plenty of feedback.

With best wishes,
Hilarie

Branch QP Week – UPDATED

The grand total of Quarter Peals has now gone up to 11 with contributions from Woughton & Olney. Details have been added to the end of this news item.

The second Branch Quarter Peal week led to the ringing of 9 quarters during the week. These included a number of firsts. Well done to those who progressed their ringing during the week and of course a big thanks to those who supported them in their endeavours. The QP week has again provided great learning opportunities and facilitated team building. Of particular note was the quarter of 11 doubles methods and variations rung at Simpson following on from the recent Branch training course on this subject. A few sore heads I believe. As normally happens when organising quarter peals, a few didn’t make it but were worth the try. I understand after the attempt at Clifton there was much practicing of singles. I wonder what happened there?

Quarter peal week coincided with Remembrance Sunday and a number of quarters were rung half muffled or dedicated to the fallen of WW1. Maids Moreton rang in memory of Fred Rainbow and Edmund Webb, former bell ringers at Maids Moreton, killed in action during the First World War in 1915.

Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire
St Edmund
Sunday, 8 November 2015
1296 Cambridge Surprise Minor

1 Sue Lucas
2 Ray Vickers
3 Margaret Vince
4 Ann Fletcher
5 Sebastian Lucas
6 Andrew Spencer (C)

Rung on Remembrance Sunday in memory of Fred Rainbow and Edmund Webb, former bell ringers at Maids Moreton, killed in action during the First World War in 1915.

Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire
SS Peter & Paul
Sunday, 8 November 2015
1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 Adam Hird
2 Liz Wagstaff
3 Scott Ayers
4 Nick Chatt
5 B Douglas Hird (C)
6 Keith Wagstaff

Rung half-muffled before Evensong on Remembrance Sunday

Emberton, Buckinghamshire
All Saints
Monday, 9 November 2015
1260 St Clements Minor

1 Wendy A Haslam
2 Brian Berry
3 Ian Thompson
4 Nick Gray
5 Roy Keeves
6 Tony Gray (C)

Rung half muffled for Remembrance Sunday.

Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire
SS Peter & Paul
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 Liz Wagstaff
2 Mark Vale
3 Charles J Knight
4 Mick Nimmo
5 B Douglas Hird (C)
6 Keith Wagstaff

1st inside 2.
Rung half muffled on the middle six.

Roade, Northamptonshire
St Mary the Viirgin
Wednesday, 11 November 2015 in 48 Minutes (10-2-17)
1320 Cambridge Surprise Minor

1 Lydia Bates
2 Lesley Belcher
3 Alan Cozens
4 Nick Gray
5 Roy Keeves
6 Tony Gray (C)

First of treble bob – 1
Rung in remembrance of the fallen of two world wars and conflicts since. Also for the ODG North Bucks Branch QP week.

Downs Barn, Buckinghamshire
Cross & Stable
Friday, 13 November 2015
1440 Plain Bob Minor

1 Adam Hird
2 Anne McIntyre
3 Graham Bartholomew
4 Gary Reading
5 Charles J Knight
6 B Douglas Hird (C)

Rung as part of North Bucks Branch Quarter Peal Week

Simpson, Milton Keynes
St Thomas the Apostle
Saturday, 14 November 2015 (7–1–7)
1260 Doubles (11 M/V)
Antelope, Litchurch, St Jude, St Laurence, St Austell, St Stephen, St David, St Mary, St Crispin, St Cecilia, Laverstoke

1 Brian Baldwin
2 Gary Reading
3 Ann Birch
4 Martin Petchey
5 Simon J O Head (C)
6 Paul Crombleholme

Most m/v 2, 3, 4; for North Bucks Branch quarter-peal week by participants in a recent Branch course on Doubles Variations

Woughton on the Green, Buckinghamshire
St Mary
Saturday, 21 November 2015 in 40 mins (7 cwt)
1260 Double Oxford Bob Minor

1 Brian Baldwin
2 Christina Tribble
3 Peter Tribble
4 Paul Crombleholme
5 Martin R Petchey
6 Simon J O Head (C)

2, 3 and 4 first in method.

Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire
SS Peter & Paul
Sunday, 15 November 2015
1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 Keith Wagstaff
2 Liz Wagstaff
3 Mark Vale
4 Charles J Knight
5 B Douglas Hird (C)
6 Nat Masters

For Evensong

Calverton, Buckinghamshire
All Saints
Sunday, 15 November 2015 in 43 mins (10–1–24)
1260 St Clements Minor

1 Ann Birch
2 Graham Bartholomew
3 Anne McIntyre
4 Gary Reading
5 John Brookman
6 Simon J O Head (C)

1st inside to method – 2, 4
Rung as part of North Bucks Branch Quarter Peal Week

Olney, Buckinghamshire
SS Peter and Paul
Sunday, 22 November 2015 in 45 m (7-2-17)
1260 Plain Bob Minor

1 Judy Gay
2 Liz Sheaf
3 B Douglas Hird
4 Roger Gay
5 Charles J Knight
6 David Phillipson (C)

Rung prior to Choral Evensong
First Quarter Peal on an inside bell 2

Anthony J Fennemore commemoration peal in Ringing World

The Ringing World of 6th November 2015 included a one page feature on Anthony J Fennemore and the peal rung at Leckhampstead to commemorate the centenary of his death .

Anthony was a ringer at Maids Moreton, killed during the Battle of Loos. To find out more about him then visit his commemoration page.

With thanks to Martin Petchey for forwarding the RW article.