Watch and learn

dingdong887180022

May 2

**struggling to spot hands and faces from the bench**

This week I sat behind the treble while a band rang a quarter of Bob Minor to celebrate the life of a local ringer who had been instrumental in supporting local towers over the past 50 years. He had been general manager at a neighbouring factory and many pieces of steel work had found their way into our towers, strengthening frames and hanging bells to augment existing rings. He had a hand in hanging our new treble in the 1980's when he was tower captain at Reedham and there are few ringing rooms in the area that do not boast his name on a peal board. He died last month and it seemed appropriate to ring something in his memory at one of the towers where he was active for many years. Local ringing friends agreed and trekked out to the sticks to oblige.

I sat behind the treble that he had been so proud of and watched. I learnt a number of things.

The reason that I look up and watch the sallies when ringing is because I have spent so long standing behind and watching experienced ringers. I realised that when standing behind, in some places, it is impossible to see the ringers' hands because the person that you are standing behind is blocking your view for anything except the airspace above their heads. From my position I could not see what the treble was doing other than her rope above her head, although I did not need to see what she was up to. But neither could I see what the ringers of the 4 or 5 bells were doing. I could not even see that there was a body attached to the 5 bell – only a high level rope because of the angle. So naturally my eyes were drawn to above head height to see what was going on. I knew that I should be looking at their hands and faces and, unencumbered by a rope, I was willing to divert all my attention to watching them most carefully, but I could only see the hands of the 2,3 and 6 and the faces of the 3 and 6. Everything else was blocked. Really I need to stand in front of the ringer that I am shadowing, but that would block their view so some crashing might ensue. Or the ropes need to be hung in such a way that there is a handy gap in the circle so that a learner can stand within the band, yet without a rope.
I have never trebled to Plain Bob Minor in a tower but I know enough from handbells to understand the pattern. I was able to follow the order of the ropes up and then the same order down. I could employ the "last shall be first" rule to accommodate the dodges at the lead ends, I was sort of seeing the bobs and singles, but the leading had me totally bamboozled. As much as I stared, I could not make out who the treble was leading off because my brain has yet to recognise what a rope on the opposite stroke "looks like". Leading off the tenor is bad enough, although my brain has some mental picture, but spotting an unknown bell had me defeated. Each time they reached a lead end, which obviously they did over 100 times, I did my best to find the elusive bells at the back. Firstly, there are 2 elusive bells to spot (double the trouble) but which they were had me utterly defeated. This indecision then threw me for the start of the next row since I was worrying away at which they might have been, so not concentrating on the next bell to find. Disappointing, so I came home and looked at the line for the pattern for a plain course. 46 24 32 53 65 are the bells you need to lead off in case you are interested and I reckon, although there is a certain cheaty element to employing that knowledge, at least if I can watch that pattern for a bit I have some chance of seeing what it looks like. Once I can use them to make my leading less lurchy, then I will learn to feel the leads and, in time, I will internalise that feeling and not need to see the bells to follow at all. Then perhaps I will, one day , be able to translate that rhythm into touches.

Most things are worth a try.

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