OK, Christmas is behind us and we are into the New Year (February already in fact) so what is happening. Well, firstly we
have got two new ringers. A friend of the family who came along as a spectator when we rang in the New Year said that he
had had a couple of lessons as a child but had not kept it up and thought he would like to start again. Secondly, I had an
e-mail out of the blue from someone who had seen the website. He said he had always been interested in ringing but had
never got around to learning and had finally decided to do something about it as his New Year's resolution. Both of them
are adults, which means that they will not suddenly be getting tied up with course work and exams, then disappearing off
to university the way so many youngsters seem to. As a consequence I have done a few Saturday sessions of dedicated
one-to-one practice on tied bells to try and fast-track them a bit. This is not something that we normally do here at
Wombourne, but I must confess that they have both made excellent progress in a very short time and consequently it is
something that I will definitely considder doing again in the future. The only problem of course is that if the learner
is a minor then you have to arrange for two adults to be present, plus arrangements for transport to and from the tower,
it's definitely easier teaching adults.
Anyway, I digress, lets get back to how the ringing is progressing. Last Monday they managed a passable, if slightly
hesitant, plain course of Plain Bob Doubles, without me in the band and without me telling anyone where to go. Secondly,
my wife (having swapped around some of her music pupils) started coming to practice again, so we also managed to limp
through a plain course of Plain Bob Minor with a "first timer" in the band, and thirdly we even managed to get through
a couple of courses of Plain Hunt Major. This was quite a high point as far as recent practices go. We are really making
some progress I thought. Then came the weekend. We had a wedding on Saturday for which the standard of ringing was
absolutely atrocious. On Sunday morning there were only five of us. Two of the band didn't come in until a quarter past
ten, and two had to go early (one in the choir and one as a server, both having to get their robes on before the service).
As a consequence I rang 3 & 4 of the 8 and we did rounds and call changes on the back 6 for five minutes, then three of
us rang the bells down. Sunday evening was just simply cancelled due to lack of interest, so Monday's high was dashed to
smithereens by the weekend and the week as a whole felt like one step forward and some giant leaps back.
To come back to what I was saying at the beginning, this is part of my motivation for fast-tracking the new learners.
If I can get them up to speed to ring on Sundays then I might be able to make more progress. We shall have to see what
happens as the year progresses.