Thursday, 24 July 2008

1260 Grandsire Triples

I realise this means nothing to the average person but tonight I rang my first quarter peal- 1260 Grandsire Triples, on the treble, in 41 minutes.

I am tres happy, to say the least!

21 comments:

Keshia said...

Woop Woop! Well done you!
I know what you mean :-), but I don't know the method...yet. Do you thing the SS lot would do a quarter peal for plain hunt? Surely they'd be bored out of their heads!

Congrats again! Hope you celebrated!

Claire Routh said...

Sadly nobody in their right mind would ring a quarter of plain hunt, HOWEVER give it a month or so and I reckon you'll be able to treble to a quarter of PB doubles!

I had a couple of pints, yep!

Next quarter attempt is next Thursday...inside to PB doubles. Eek.

Claire Routh said...

Clearly I had a bit of a mind-fart earlier. More importantly than the fact that nobody would ever ring PH for 45 minutes, is the fact that it is impossible to ring a quarter of it!

PH comes round in something like 12 changes, and a quarter has to be 1260 unique changes; a change can't be repeated and as you don't make calls in PH, you'd inevitably repeat one very rapidly!

There. That's the more logical answer (and the right one, lol)!

But like I said. Trebling to PB doubles FTW!

Flitterbee said...

This is like a foreign language. Sounds like computer coding or a drinking game or something, though I'd guess it's something to do with belll ringing? Could you explain what on earth you're chatting about and why it is a cause for achievement? I'd like to offer a sincere well done, but that's hard when I don't know what I'm congratulating!?

Claire Routh said...

Flix:

It is indeed bell ringing-speak, and I'm very impressed you figured that out, unless I've mentioned before that I'm a bellringer...?!

Okay. Ringing is quite mathematical, and essentially, if you were to have 8 bells, they form an octave and each person rings one bell, in descending order:

12345678

This, repeated, is what we call rounds.

The type of ringing that is conducted in England (And Australia, and some of North America) is full-circle change ringing.

I think this is when Wiki will explain it better than I ever could, not least because I'm a bit hungover!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_ringing

Basically, each person rings their bell faster or slower in order to change the order of the bells. Each row of 8 bells being sounded is a 'change' and on Thursday we rang 1260 changes, which is known as a quarter peal, because it's a quarter of a full peal (5040, in the case of Grandsire Triples).

Grandsire Triples is a particular 'method' (a plain course of it looks something like this, though that's a dodgy photo, and in order for a change not to be repeated, bobs and singles are called, which order two bells around the middle to switch, and effectively become a different 'place' bell.

I think I just made it even more confusing, so I'll stop here before you all die of boredom.

The interest is in memorising patterns like the one I just linked to, and ringing your bell perfectly for the required number of changes. Standing still for three quarters of an hour, exerting yourself physically and mentally isn't exactly fun as such, but the feeling when you finish is so worth it! As with many persuits, I guess...

A quarter peal is the first big milestone of your ringing career...I'm ringing in another one on Thursday which will be a lot harder, and after a while the idea is that you move on to peals, which last around 2.5 to 3 hours, sometimes 4. My dad's just rung his 250th peal (his 250th was also the 250th of a 22 year old, lol) and my mum's somewhere around her 500th quarter peal I think.

Anonymous said...

I think you have mentioned it somewhere and it made me quite jealous - I had the chance to once and I didn't take it up. I did play the handbells in primary school though :oD

I have a vague idea of what this all means and your explanation helped further so congratulations! xx

Claire Routh said...

Oh Hannah...no need to be jealous, go learn! Go go go! Google "Dove's Guide" and look up a local tower...if I knew where you were I'd suggest a good tower cos there are a few terribly bad ones...

Flitterbee said...

Yep, you have mentioned it before. Thanks for the explanation, I've read it through a few times, and I'm not sure I'm much the wiser - it's a lot to take in and there are much more questions on my mind about it! I think it'd be easier to grasp the concept if I could see it in action...

Claire Routh said...

Yes, it's definitely easier to understand once you see it. There are a few animations kicking around on the internet though god knows if I could find them again!

Oh, or have a look on Youtube...there's a fair amount of stuff on there!

Anonymous said...

I had a dream last night that my dad was taking us on holiday (which he is) and we were going to do loads of things (which we are) and then one night he said that he had a big surprise and he was taking us to ring a quarter peal in triples that night.

It was the most terrifiying dream I've ever had. =P

Claire Routh said...

That's really quite astonishingly odd. Not least because one doesn't ring quarters in triples, but of triples, or rather, something triples! :P

Good to know I've got that far into your mind, though! :D

Anonymous said...

I feel like my grey icon has ruined the line of orange 'Blogger B's' on this post...

Claire Routh said...

I hadn't noticed, but now I have...you disgust me :P

Anonymous said...

Permutation cycles ftw!

I've never bell-rung, but I do like Algebra 8-)

Claire Routh said...

Are they permutation cycles?!

*Blank look*

Anonymous said...

:-)

Claire Routh said...

Ah, I see! That does make sense, though in ringing, each bell can only move one place up or down (right or left/out or in) at a time. If, indeed, that made sense!

Anonymous said...

It does! Though not something I knew!

There's a third year project on the Maths behind bellringing, I believe...

Claire Routh said...

That doesn't actually surprise me...DUSCR are some of the best student ringers in the country, even if they should really keep their clothes on...

Mike Rotch said...

Well done - I remember my first one well. It was very exciting. Hopefully the first of many.

Claire Routh said...

Thank you...last night was number 6!