On Saturday 6th July, ten young ringers plus family members and supporters travelled up to London for the 2024 RWNYC (Ringing World National Youth Contest). The morning was quite rainy and our schedule looked almost impossible, but we were still up for it!
On arriving at our first tower (St Dunstan in the West on Fleet Street) we were surprised to see Lila featuring on one of the new RWNYC banners outside the church! Once wristbands and programmes had been distributed, we were ready to start our day. We enjoyed ringing on this 10cwt ring of 10; we rang some lovely call changes, called by Robert, with most of the band being SDGR young ringers.
Then we were off to our competition tower (St Olave, Hart Street, where Samuel Pepys is buried), an 11cwt ring of 8. It was still raining but we had to have our “team talk” in the churchyard as the judges were in the crypt, so we couldn’t go inside. At 12.40pm precisely the band went upstairs, accompanied by myself. My only role was to assist with timekeeping and to count the 160 changes; everything else was up to the young ringers. We had three more experienced ringers in the band; Conni rang the treble, Robert called the changes and Ben van A kept things right and corrected striking errors. Three people were ringing in the competition for the first time: Esther, Jacob and James. Then we had Oscar and Ben A who both competed for the first time in York last year. It is quite a challenge to go into a tower you have never been to before and have to ring the test piece after only 5 minutes’ practice, but everyone rose to the occasion. The ropes were apparently a bit springy but the competition piece was completed without incident; Conni lead beautifully, James kept the tenor steady and everyone else fitted nicely in between! The latter part of the piece (from Whittingtons back to rounds) was particularly good. After a round of applause as we came down from the tower and tiptoeing into the church for the official team photo, we took a whole group photo outside (only drizzling slightly by now!) and then set off again.
Lunchtime was 10 minutes standing outside St Mary-le-Bow whilst waiting to ring (this event isn’t for the faint hearted!). All the young ringers then enjoyed ringing rounds on these heavy 12 bells – the tenor is 41cwt. Robert, Ben van A and James all rang the back bells very creditably – but discovered that the tenor is quite a challenge to set!
We then had half an hour to enjoy the mini-rings, handbell workshop and stalls at Bow, although we would have liked longer. Inside were the Maypole Bells and outside the Charmborough Ring.
A 5-minute walk brought us to St Vedast, Foster Lane, a 16cwt ring of 6, where we did our first method ringing of the day and Conni rang the tenor very ably. This is the only ring of 6 in the City and the bells were cast by Whitechapel in 1960, the old bells having been destroyed in the Blitz.
Next stop was St Magnus the Martyr, a 26cwt ring of 12 next to London Bridge, with a tiny doorway at the bottom of the stairs. Just a quick ring here as there was a backlog of teams building up.
Finally, it was off to Christ Church, Spitalfields. After a few minutes working out how to get in, we arrived in the tower to find an adult helper holding one of the bells due to a broken stay. Apparently, that was the second one of the day but neither was anything to do with us! Spitalfields are a lovely ring of 8 Gillett and Johnston bells dating from 1919, with a tenor of 17cwt.
We finished ringing at 5.30pm and were due on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral at 6pm for a photo with all the other groups. We didn’t quite make it on time, despite running the last bit, but luckily they waited for us. Then it was into the amazing surroundings of the cathedral for the results and collection of medals. The judges gave some general comments and then the results of the 6-bell call change and method ringing competitions, both of which had been held at St James, Garlickhythe on the Royal Jubilee Bells. Moving onto the 8-bell call changes, they described the bells at St Olave as “not trivial to ring” and congratulated all the teams on completing their test piece confidently. There were 13 teams and we were pleased to be placed joint 7th; not quite as good as last year (when we rang on 6 bells and came 4th) but we were proud to have entered an 8-bell band.
We are going to miss our older young ringers next year: Conni, Ben van A and Robert who have taken part for several years now – and James, for whom this was his first and last RWNYC. We really hope that they will continue to be involved in other young ringers’ events when they can.
We received the judges’ comments a few days after the event:
“You had a good framework for your ringing, and it was nice to hear you giving yourselves lots of time to settle into the feature rows. Try to avoid overcompensating when there is an error – for example, if your bell is a little late make sure you don’t push it into the bell in front on the next stroke. The change into Whittingtons was rung very well and was a definite highlight which we enjoyed listening to. Keep up the good work!”
Some statistics from the organiser:
- more than 300 young ringers
- more than 300 team supporters
- 40 team leaders
- 130 stewards
- 13 towers across the City
- 6 judges
- 3 sets of handbells
- 2 mini rings
- 1 dumb bell
… and 21,000 steps taken by our group during the day – no wonder we were tired!
A big thank you to the ten young ringers who attended, together with parents, grandparents and supporters – and to all those SDGR members who helped with our fundraising. Special thanks to our daughter, Katie, who donned her red raincoat and shepherded everyone through the streets of London and on and off the Tube, making that “almost impossible” schedule just about do-able!
The President of the Central Council, Tina Stoecklin, commented in The Ringing World:
“What I saw was endless enthusiasm. For the volunteers, it was clear everyone got a charge from creating a great day and creating opportunities for young ringers. For anyone feeling a bit jaded with ringing I recommend this day. We call it a competition, but it is really a Grand Day Out with a competition attached.”
The Ringing World issue of 19th July has a full write-up of the event.
If you know of any young ringers who would like to join our regular practices and maybe attend next year’s event (the details of which haven’t been released yet), please put them in touch with me.
Hilary Child
