Saint Mary the Virgin, Micheldever held a Stedman and Erin doubles practice on Saturday 8 July 2017. The training day was brilliant. Great support from local ringers and an opportunity to meet new people and have some extended quality rope time. Personally this session really helped me consolidate my Stedman learning resulting in me completing a touch of Stedman and completing a plain course of Erin which was a first for me.
On the day I met Deb Baker, and we decided to arrange a training day for Cambridge Surprise Minor. Debs arranged the bells and I looked to gather a team of helpers.
Last Saturday 26th August (bank holiday weekend) two students and nine helpers from across the district undertook Cambridge Surprise Minor simulator practice at Crondall. Initially the students took turns ringing the method before we advanced to having two students in at the same time. The practice culminated in Debs and me ringing three plain courses together, which was a challenge but completed with some guidance on the second and third courses. It was a brilliant three hour practice with the students walking away with much more knowledge and experience than they had started with and I think the helpers had a good time too.
For a bit of fun the practice finished with a round of quacking ducks on the simulator. If you’ve never tried it you should, it was very funny!
Finally thanks goes to Crondall, for the use of the tower. A big thank you to all the helpers for making this practice such a great success and thanks goes to Roy LeMarechal, who kindly acted as tower captain and structured the practice on the day.
Rebecca Webb

Back row
Chris Ford – Sheffield-on-Loddon
Roy LeMarechal – Bishopstoke
Adrian – Eversley
Adrian Lewis – Overton
Kevin Fox – Crondall
Front row
John Young – Frensham
Joseph Sharp – Rotherwick
Rebecca Webb – Basingstoke
Deb Baker – Crondall
Helen Piper – Kingsclere