Leatherhead District 6 bell Striking Competition – Results‏

Five bands entered the District 6-bell competition held at Newdigate on 3rd September. Richard Wallis, former Master of the Surrey Association Southern District, a Director of the Ringing World and a ringer at Godstone, agreed at short notice to act as our judge.

For the first time this year we operated a handicap system to give the less-experienced bands more of an even playing field. Each band had 10 % added to their score for each member who had rung a peal, and 10 % subtracted for each member who had not rung a quarter peal. This was totally arbitrary, and did make a slight difference to the results, although it did not change the winning (and losing) bands.

The bands rang in the following order and their scores were as follows:

1. Epsom 75 faults, handicap 1.4, result = 105
2. Ockley 56 faults, handicap 0.7, result = 39.2
3. Leatherhead 35 faults, handicap 1.1, result = 38.5
4. Capel 49 faults, handicap 0.6, result = 29.4
5. Newdigate 18 faults, handicap 1.2, result = 21.6

So result was in the reverse order of ringing with Newdigate the worthy winners with an excellent piece of ringing.
Congratulations to them.

Did the handicap system work? It was pointed out that some people had rung their peals a very long time ago and this wasn’t taken into account. But I felt that its main benefit was to give credit to the less-experienced ringers who were prepared to have a go.

Everyone genuinely enjoyed the evening and I would strongly encourage all towers to put in a band next year. I am working towards getting a trophy for the next time, too.

Regards to all,

Roger