Cumberland's 3rd in Widecombe-in-the-Moor Competition

On Saturday August 4th, the SRCY entered the Widecombe-in-the-Moor Competition, which is rung on the back 6 of Widecombe. The competition is in Devon-style Call Changes.

Ian Fielding organised the band again and we arrived on Saturday morning from various points in the UK to meet up for our first practice at Highweek. After getting our eye in we then went to Bovey Tracey before the luncheon interval - the main task was not to eat too much as we knew what was still to come.

We rang fairly early on in the competition, and while we thought there was room for improvement, we were fairly happy with our ringing. Every blow counts (as does every missed blow), from the first chime of the rise to the last of the lower, so we were all working hard (the tenor ringer's hands can testify to this). We didn't have any missed blows at the start of the rise, and no "chitters" (extra blows) after the catch at the end of the lower - these count a whole mark whereas bad blows only count 1/4. This explains why some teams have fractions in their results. When we went outside to get the opinions from some locals, we found that the nitpicking was a good sign.

After the ringers tea (this is worth the trip alone - when they say tea they mean you don't need to eat for the rest of the day!), the more "experienced" Devon bands were ringing, so we got to hear some of the other bands produce some very good ringing.

Sadly, due to various reasons, we were not able to stay around for the ringers service and then results, but we found out we had done better than we had expected. Third was more than we had dared hope for considering we haven't done this style of ringing for a year, so naturally we were very happy with this!

The Results

Judges: Ruth Tuckett, John Cole and Mervyn Way.

The Band

1 Ian Fielding (conductor)
2 Shirley McGill
3 Alison Waterson
4 Ian VJ Smith
5 Tom Waterson
6 Peter Harrison

For full results see https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Peter Harrison