Hmm, well. Christmas is almost upon us and how are we getting on. I have to admit that progress is slow, but there is
definitely some progress there. We now have one learner ringing affected touches of Plain Bob Doubles, two more ringing
unaffected touches, and a fourth ringing plain courses. There are also a further 3 (at least) ringing the treble to plain
courses.
Throw that in with the four (plus me makes 5) that can already ring at least Plain Bob Minor and we should be leaping
forward onto the next step. i.e. learning and ringing Plain Bob Minor. The trouble is getting the right people together
at the right time. Two of the aforementioned "experienced" five almost never come to practice due to other commitments
on a Monday night, and another two almost never come on a Sunday. It's like trying to teach 2 bands.
There are the Sunday ringers, three of which can ring Plain Bob Minor, and a further two can now ring plain courses
of Plain Bob Doubles. Then there are the Monday ringers, Three of which can ring Plain Bob Minor, etc etc...
Then there's my wife. She can ring Plain Bob Major, Kent Minor, Stedman Triples, and started learning Cambridge Minor, but
she teaches on a Monday night, and goes to the Methodist church on a Sunday. She only seems to ring for weddings and special
occasions these days.
I have to admit that I am quite at a loss as to how to get around the problem. The only solution seems to be not to bother
to try to get around it at all, and just work with what's available at any given time. Nevertheless it is such a shame
because if all the "experienced" ringers were there on a practice night for three or four weeks on the trot I feel that
we really could pull the learners along quite a bit. Perhaps I should plan some special practices and invite ringers
from some neighbouring towers. I'll have to think about that.
In the meantime, it seems my subtle plan has been found out. A couple of the ringers have read what I have started writing
in this "Cambridge or Bust" section. I suppose it's a good thing that they visit the site at all. I didn't think any of
them read it so maybe I should be pleased. One of them has even printed out a course of Cambridge from another website
and pinned it up on the belfry notice board. The only thing is it's Cambridge Major, not Cambridge Minor. Oh well, never
mind. At least it shows a certain enthusiasm for the project.