Chapter 19

This year’s striking competition was being held at Portsmouth Cathedral. Bands could enter the method ringing section or the call change element or both items. The competition was for the whole of the Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild, so the standard would be of the highest calibre.

Each band would have two minutes practice. The treble, the highest bell and the first to strike would then ring fully twice at hand-stroke and back-stroke which signified that the five minute test piece was about to be performed.

The judges, who were normally secreted away in a mobile caravan or some sort of temporary shelter, would then mark the faults. If two bells just clipped each other most judges would give this a half fault, but if there was a full on clash or an audible gap which created a pile up among the other bells then the judges would award a full fault. The judges were normally very experienced campanologists who were good at listening.

The bands, who had entered teams to compete, had been practising for the last few months. Striking competitions always brought together many ringers who would otherwise not often see each other and there was a fascinating mood in the air as the village tower groups would eye-up the more advanced Cathedral and large town bands. As usual, there were many who took this type of event incredibly seriously but pretended not to show it.

In this striking competition, no further points were awarded if a more difficult method was chosen and the band made the same amount of mistakes than if they were ringing a more basic method. Therefore, most of the bands would go for a method or call changes that they felt comfortable with.

As bell-ringing is a team activity and totally reliant on the whole band being in the right place, the pressure within the striking competition would be high. The likelihood of anything going wrong, at any moment in time, gave Archie the particular buzz that he was feeling today.

He was very pleased to be able to represent the home Portsmouth Cathedral band, having only been ringing with them for a few years. Furthermore, they were expected to do well. So, yet again, Archie was concentrating hard to push all thoughts of his current mission to the back of his mind and focus on what he enjoyed.

Their practising had gone well with some wonderful striking. This had been a real pleasure to listen to. However, as the occasion had drawn closer, there had been the natural nerves and this had affected a number of the ringers.

As Archie was a younger ringer it was tempting for some of the older lot to blame him, at least partly, for a mistake that a more experienced hand may have made. Whilst Archie understood this mentality, it was something that he was not prepared to accept, if he knew that he was right. In his team player way, Archie was always able to keep everyone on side whilst standing up for himself, and many of the ringers respected him for his attitude.

So it was with excitement and some trepidation that Archie approached the striking contest day and the Portsmouth Cathedral band was on next.