Reading ringers have once again had success at a Guild striking competition – this time at the 10-Bell!
For the full article, visit the Guild website.
Reading Ringers victorious again!
Tilehurst wins striking competition – again!
The 2019 Reading Branch Striking Competition took place at St Mary, Purley-on-Thames (six bells – 8-1-27), on Saturday, 14th September. There were six entries, representing five of Reading Branch’s 23 towers (St Giles-in-Reading entered two teams).
The Tilehurst team came first, beating the St Giles 2 team by two points. Many congratulations to Tilehurst, who also won in 2016, 2017 and 2018!
Caversham came third, beating Pangbourne by one point. St Giles 1 came fifth, three points ahead of Mortimer.
It was good to see four young ringers in the competition. Congratulations to Tom Sherwood, who rang the tenor in the winning team, to Jennifer Ellis, who rang for St Giles 2, to Daniel Page, who rang for Caversham, and to Joseph Barrett, who rang for St Giles 1.
St Mary, Purley, was a lovely setting for the competition, and the weather was perfect for sitting in the sunshine, while the church bells rang out. Many thanks to the Purley band, who served morning coffee with a splendid selection of delicious cakes and biscuits.
See below for photos of the six teams, their score, the position in which they rang, and some of the comments by Judge Steve Smith – who was thanked by Branch Chairman Giles Winter. St Giles 1 rang Call Changes, and the other five teams rang doubles.
St Mary and St Giles win ODG 8-Bell competition
The St Mary and St Giles team won a hard-fought ODG 8-bell striking competition on Monday 6th May.
It was fantastic to see two teams from the Reading Branch taking part, as well as having representation from the branch in the ODG Youth team.
A full report to follow at http://odg.org.uk/8-bell-striking-competition-2019/.
Reading wins 2018 ODG 10-bell contest
The Reading branch team won the Oxford Diocesan Guild (ODG) 10-bell competition on Saturday 24 November 2018. It took place at St Nicholas (10 bells, 21-2-1), Newbury. Four other branch teams (from a total of 15 ODG branches) took part. They were: Old North Berks (ONB) and East Berks and South Bucks (EBSB), who tied in second place, Newbury, who came fourth, and Banbury, who came fifth.
The competition judges were John and Hilda Ridley, and the faults for each team were as follows:
Reading 17, EBSB 30, ONB 30, Newbury 46, Banbury 92
So, a resounding win for Reading! Many congratulations to the team:
The judges said that Reading had the slowest pull-off of the day but quickly settled into some very good ringing – slightly slower than the rest of the teams but very consistent and a pleasure to listen to. They rang Plain Bob and Little Bob Royal.
The Reading team had representatives from four towers: Caversham, Reading (St Mary & St Laurence), Shiplake and Tilehurst. Special congratulations to Tom Sherwood, aged 15, who was ringing in the 10-bell competition for the first time. The last time Reading won, in 2016, his sister Anna was in the team. In 2017 Reading was disqualified because of a miscall – but the judges were complimentary about the ringing.
Tilehurst wins Reading Branch Striking Competition 2018
The 2018 Reading Branch Striking Competition took place at St John, Mortimer (six bells – 7-12-16), on Saturday 8th September. The team from St Michael, Tilehurst, came first – and therefore should represent Reading Branch at the Oxford Diocesan Guild six-bell striking competition in October. Many congratulations to the winning team! This year, only three other teams took part: Goring, who came second; Mortimer, third, and St Mary and St Laurence, fourth.
Anna Sherwood, from the winning Tilehurst team, is presented with the Topper Trophy by judges Patricia and Robert Newton. Though only 18, Anna is a veteran of striking competitions, and rang for Tilehurst in 2016 and 2017. Her brother Tom, 15, rang the tenor.
Tilehurst also won in 2017, when Caversham came second, and in 2016, when Goring came second. Bobbie May reports on this year’s completion – she also took all the photos:
Bobbie May: For the first time the competition was held in the morning, at a time which would normally have been reserved for the Branch Practice. Four teams were involved but, unusually, most of the ‘big guns’ were missing, which might have had something to do with a peal that was taking place at St Laurence in Reading!
The judges were Patricia and Robert Newton from High Wycombe who are no strangers to Reading Branch striking competitions. Robert explained that they marked independently from each other and didn’t compare notes until it came to the adding up at the end in case they influenced each other. Fortunately, they put all the teams in the same order. Robert was complimentary about all the ringing and encouraging and Patricia gave out the results, having first put in a plug for the book stall situated in the back of the car!
The following results were achieved with the judges’ comments;
| Ringing Order | Team | Comments | Faults | Placing |
| 1 | Goring | A very good start and good ringing with only minor clips and faults. As it settled the nervousness disappeared but seemed to produce a few more blemishes. | 39 | 2nd |
| 2 | Mortimer | Very careful ringing and the ringers seemed to be ringing round each other to avoid faults thus stretching out the rows. Queens’ came up perfectly both times. | 72 | 3rd |
| 3 | Tilehurst | This team attacked the bells with the fastest ringing of the morning. This confident ringing barrelled along giving rise to very long passages of very settled ringing with only minor blemishes. | 27 | 1st |
| 4 | St Mary/St Laurence | This was very sedated and there were difficulties with over-all ringing. The second blow of a lead was consistently better than the rest of the row for whatever reason! | 98 | 4th |
The church was running a coffee morning and seemed quite pleased for the ringers to tag along and the local band was open-mouthed in the kitchen listening to some esoteric advice from our judges. They seemed to be heartened enough with their efforts to consider entering the eight-bell competition next year.
The ringers in the photos are named right to left in ringing order;
