On Tuesday 17th June four bands gathered at St James’s Shaftesbury on a beautiful sunny evening for the Mere Branch Striking Competitions. Two bands; the Tuesday Allsorts and Stalbridge & Sturminster entered the Novice Competition. Two bands; Revd Clare’s Clangers and Sturminster Newton entered the Changes Competition. Jack Pease and Sara Keith very kindly offered to judge both competitions.
The evening started with a slight panic with a loss of keys and the St James’s representative not realising we couldn’t access the kitchen for drinks. Thankfully he was flagged down before he drove off otherwise we’d all be gasping on such a warm sunny evening.
This was the Mere Branch’s first striking competition since we returned to ringing after the Covid lockdown so only one, maybe two, of the novices had ever entered a striking competition before, so there were plenty of nerves. The novices did get a practice at St James’s a week prior to get used to the bells but the two who couldn’t make that practice had an impromptu turn over of a bell on the day of the competition just prior to its start.
Up first were the two novice bands. Both bands did themselves proud with very valiant efforts. A key similarity between both bands were the front three rang a little too close and the back three rang a little too slowly. Both bands had a supporter present to encourage them and offer advice along the way. The Tuesday Allsorts second half of their test piece really improved and this resulted in them being triumphant. Stalbridge & Sturminster rang really well too but didn’t quite have the same consistency as the Tuesday Allsorts.
Up next was the Changes Competition. Both bands had two or three ringers from the Novice Competition. Revd Clare’s Clangers were up first. The band are predominately used to ringing on 5 bells and a number of the band hadn’t rung at St James’s before and it did show in their performance. There were some very good periods in their ringing but some unsteadiness with the call changes. Sturminster Newton finished up the evening’s ringing with a fairly steady performance of call changes, uneven here and there especially when the small bells were at the back. Overall Sturminster Newton did enough to win the changes competition.
Jack and Sara delivered their very kind verdicts offering plenty of advice to our ringers, most of whom are still very early in their ringing journeys. The scores in the Novice Competition: Tuesday Allsorts 42 faults. Stalbridge & Sturminster 78.5 faults. In the Changes Competition: Revd Clare’s Clangers 96 faults. Sturminster Newton 25 faults.
Guild Vice President Judith Williamson presented Nick, the winning captain with the Mere Branch Striking Competition Shield. This will be engraved in the coming weeks and presented again at our Member’s Meeting at the end of July. The winning novice band will receive a brand new Mere Branch Novice Striking Competition Shield at our Member’s Meeting too.
With more of an emphasis now at Guild level for a Novice competition, hopefully at Branch level more and more bands will enter in the coming years which can only help improve the quality of their ringing. Many thanks to the four bands who competed in our first competition for quite a while and to our judges for spending an evening soaking up the sun hopefully enjoying listening to our efforts.
Nick Dallison
Mere Branch Chairman
