July Country Meeting 2013

Edinburgh, Scotland

I'd been looking forward to the country meeting weekend in Scotland for almost a year, and eventually the day itself arrived. The journey up took quite a long time for us owing to an accident on the Forth Road Bridge, and we were overdue for a drink by the time we arrived at Tulloch. Thanks to the tempting prospect of a walk in the seemingly endless evening light we managed not to spend all night in the pub.

This was fortunate as table-football is certainly not something I'd like to attempt with a hangover. Yes, not only does Tulloch have a ring of 12, but upstairs there is a train set and the football table which some people seem to be able to operate and, last but not least, a ping-pong table! I watched in admiration while Alan and Jack Page somehow managed to manipulate the little footballers into obeying their every whim. However, Jo and I had been getting our eye in on the ping-pong table while they were twitching and twiddling away, and we redeemed ourselves as soon as Alan and Jack dared to come and take us on at a proper sport.

After some truly delicious flapjacks and lemon drizzle cake it was time for a peal attempt. Tim Forster had discovered a while ago that Geraldine had rung a peal on every bell at every stage from Minor to Maximus except the tenor to Maximus, and she completed the set by ringing the tenor to Yorkshire Max in a most enjoyable peal. We then had about an hour for refuelling in the cake-laden kitchen and for another burst of ping-pong before the next attempt: Cambridge Royal. Unfortunately it wasn't successful, but at least that meant that we could obey the siren-call of the gin bottle - clearly audible from the Tulloch ringing room - without any further delay.

On Friday the Dunblane band gathered in the heat and tried to summon up sufficient energy for the task ahead, with the added pressure that it was a "must score", given the press where there before, during and after the peal. We were the lucky ones though: some people's timetable for Friday sounded even more exhausting. JJ and Lee, for instance, drove from Tulloch down to Dunkeld and then up to Inverness and then all the way back down to Edinburgh! I must say, though, that it's probably just as well that JJ was too busy on the Friday to pop in at Dunblane, as there's a good chance that he would have provoked the locals into launching Trident by affecting ignorance of some recent sporting headlines. "Andy Murray? Oh...... is he the one who won some tournament or something?"

On the Saturday morning several peals were attempted and there was a general ringing route around Edinburgh. I can safely say that I've never been hotter while ringing a peal, but just as I thought I was certain to expire I looked at Richard Smith, who had misjudged the weather while packing and who was wearing a long-sleeved top! The fact that he was still managing to ring under those circumstances persuaded me that it might be possible to continue without dying of heatstroke.

The meeting on Saturday afternoon was relatively uneventful, and then it was time for the eating and drinking! At first the ceilidh was an excellent spectator sport in fact - but alas, all too soon I was wrested from my lurking-place on the sidelines and found myself shambling around like a circus elephant in flippers, being pushed and pulled from pillar to post. There seemed to be no escape from Peter's camera's all-seeing eye. In the middle of a particularly bewildering dance Lee Pinnington's trousers fell down! Even the band had to stop playing for everyone to recover from the scene.

The beer was really good, but unfortunately everybody thought so and it ran out rather early on in the proceedings. The food was very good too, and everything had been organised very efficiently. Many thanks to Matt Edwards and his team, and to Peter and Helen for their wonderful hospitality in Tulloch. Thanks also to Shirley and the Officers, who ensured that everything ran perfectly smoothly; no mean feat when the towers are spread all over the country! It was a thoroughly enjoyable country meeting. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Janet Archibald

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No peals have been rung for the Society July Country Meeting.