I am thrilled to report that the sponsored peal attempt at North Moreton yesterday was a success. The band was among the most experienced peal ringers in the country and included three of our own branch members, Nicola, Colin and Lee. North Moreton bells proved as challenging as ever, and it was an extraordinary achievement in anyone's book. This is probably evidenced by the 3 hours 15 minute duration! My thanks and admiration go to all of the team for their dedication and effort to complete this challenge.

During the afternoon, the North Moreton ringers also provided a splendid tea for visitors (including several branch members). Upwards of 100 people came out to listen on a cold, wet afternoon and many stayed until the end, giving the peal band a well deserved round of applause.

Richard Loyd

The Peal Band

Introduction by Susan Read:

The outing consisted of ringing at Stanford in the Vale (8, 8 cwt) followed by a Treasure Hunt along the less than two-mile path to Shellingford (6, 6 cwt) where we enjoyed refreshments at the Village Hall and ringing on the church bells.

There were seven boys on the outing and a small number of adults. Three of the adults accompanied the boys in two groups on their clue-finding walk between the towers. The clues were hidden in plastic boxes, and some of the boxes additionally contained chocolate coins to sustain the walkers.

Isaac reported on the outing:

I enjoyed ringing at the two towers and enjoyed the walk too. We had a treasure hunt (I was in the second group). Unfortunately it was made even more difficult for us because the members of the first group hid the clues and chocolate treasure in places other than where they had been hidden before!

We had to count a flock of sheep and it was supposed to be a prime number, and count the cows (bulls) in the "cow" shed!

It was a very enjoyable day!

Isaac O'Shea
Abingdon ringer, age 13

The Young Ringers

Our 6-bell striking competition at Milton in March was well supported, with five tower bands and, for the first time, a branch youth team entering. We were extremely fortunate to have Shirley McGill, Master of the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths, as our judge with Lee Pinnington assisting. We were all very pleased when Shirley said that, although the competition had encompassed a wide range of ringing abilities, there had been much excellent ringing and great enthusiasm. This year it was the turn of Harwell to snatch victory and they have been invited to represent the Branch in the Guild 6-bell striking competition in October. The full results were:

1. Harwell (9 faults)
2. Wantage (12.5 faults)
3. Abingdon (16.5 faults)
4. Wallingford (20 faults)
5. Blewbury (35 faults).

The youth team were praised for their keenness and were encouraged to enter the competition again next year. The teams are pictured below.

Abingdon

Abingdon Youths

Blewbury

Harwell

Wallingford

Wantage

The Judges

For this young ringers outing on 10th February we went to Goring and had good fun ringing on these bells. They are a nice 8 to ring. After the ringing we did some rope splicing which we all enjoyed as it is a good skill to be able to do. Next we all had a go at ringing some changes on Handbells which is always a challenge for everyone . After the handbells and rope splicing, we made some pancakes as it was Shrove Tuesday. We didn't make any old pancakes, we made pancakes by using candles and tin cans! This was great fun and we had a good laugh doing this. Once again it was a successful Young Ringers Outing and we all enjoyed ourselves making pancakes at Goring. David Thomas (age 15)