The Guild’s annual 10-bell striking competition took place at Farnham (a 1959 Taylor 10) on Saturday 4th July 2015.  The test piece was a plain course of Sowerbine Treble Bob Royal (which is similar to Kent Treble Bob Royal).  The judge was Paul Flavell, tower captain at Kingston, who commented that Sowerbine was a good choice for a striking competition as it required the little bells to hunt through the big bells, whilst giving a lot of runs at the back and in the middle. He also commented that the accuracy of the bell in the slow is critical to the rhythm.

He placed the bands in the following order:

First – Guildford with 84 % – this band was noticeably more measured than the others, with a peal speed of 3h 19m.  They were clearly used to ringing together and quickly got to grips with the odd-struckness. There was a bad crunch at the beginning of the 7th lead, which took time to recover from, but the last lead was good.

Second – Farnham with 82 % – this band rang at a nice speed, with a peal speed of 3h 18m, although there was some noticeable odd-struckness but few method mistakes, and improved towards the end.

Third – Leatherhead with 74 % – this band was the quickest, with a peal speed of 3h 11m.  There was a crunch in 7-8 in the first minute, some gaps and clips here and there, although the ringing got better particularly in the 8th lead.

You can form your own opinion here:

Guildford:

Farnham:

Leatherhead: