Chapter 20

St. Mary’s Portsmouth was ringing; a well established and experienced eight bell team. The ringing soon settled into a comfortable rhythm and those that were listening to the ringing picked out the method that was being rung: ‘Stedman Triples’.

The heaviest bell and lowest sounding, the tenor, was not involved in moving about within the method and provided a steady dong at the end of each row of ringing. The order of the other bells moved about every stroke and provided the tune to the method.

The strength and quality of the ringing produced by the St. Mary’s team did not help the confidence of the Portsmouth Cathedral band who were awaiting their turn. As the ringers, including Archie, gathered at the base of the tower steps, the faces of the individual team members were a picture of nervousness, excitement, concentration and calmness.

At last the sound of the bells above the ringing chamber came to an end. The St. Mary’s band filed down the steps and past the ringers waiting to go up. The last member of their team to file past, which was a surprise to Archie and caught him off guard, was David.

Archie had not realised that David would be ringing in this competition, and for the St. Mary’s band. Whilst they had rung frequently in the past as teenagers, Archie had completely forgotten that David might be ringing in Portsmouth as well as playing his mixed hockey. When Archie had lived with David in their earlier years as students neither of them had been ringing and it was, after all, with David that he had first been introduced to Emma.

David appeared a little smug as he passed Archie and could not help saying, “Not bad ringing, eh?” Archie could only agree with David. He had been impressed. As he trudged up the tower steps to the ringing chamber he and his fellow ringers had much to live up to.

So they began. The Tower Captain took control and told Mavis on the treble to call the band to order to start the two minutes practice piece. The Portsmouth Cathedral band promptly rang as one; they were sounding good.

The Tower Captain looked at all of his team proudly and just nodded and confirmed, “Good ringing everyone. We just need similar again please and then we’ll do as well as anyone.”

No response was necessary as the ringers’ level of concentration heightened further. Archie could not put David out of his mind. The timing was incredible. Here he was trying to concentrate for his band and somehow the previous ringing by St. Mary’s, and the fact that David had been involved, really upset him.

Try as he might to keep his calm, it was one of the few times in his life where Archie was unsettled. The ringing was going well, but Archie could not fully concentrate on keeping his place. Suddenly he was being shouted at sternly and he came to out of his daydream and reddened immediately as he realised that he had just clipped the Tower Captain’s bell. Horror! All other thoughts were now out of his mind as he attempted to redeem himself. The ringing soon came to an end and the band stood their bells.

In the presentation later that afternoon all were eagerly awaiting the result of the main striking competition. It was clear that whilst all of the bands had performed well the result would be between St Mary’s band and Portsmouth Cathedral.

Both bands had rung to the best of their ability. The judges had been impressed. They then commented on the individual performances, summarising the Stedman Triples rung by the St. Mary’s band as “a fine piece of ringing.”

Turning to the Portsmouth Cathedral piece, again they commented on an excellently rung method, except for a little clip halfway through. At that moment the whole of the band gazed intently at Archie. The judges decided that, due to this one small mistake, the St. Mary’s band would be awarded the striking competition trophy for the current year.