Leatherhead District held the annual district 6-bell striking competition for the Jangler’s Jug at Newdigate on 5th September.  Richard Trueman, District Master, and Quentin Armitage, District Chairman, created a new format for the competition this year, in which the test had three parts: (1) two minutes of rounds; (2) call changes to Queen’s and back, (3) a plain course of Bob Doubles.  To ensure that the competition was not dominated by the best method-ringing band, which is often the case, 30 points were available for the rounds, 20 points for the call-changes and 10 points for the method.  Furthermore, only tower bands of regular Sunday ringers were eligible.  There were certainly risks in this strategy, but it turned out to be very successful.  Four bands entered and as Ashtead did not enter a band, Quentin judged and Richard acted as marshal.  The results were as follows, in order of ringing:

Newdigate: Rounds 23; Call Ch 11; Method 5; Total 39.
Dorking:      Rounds 19; Call Ch 9; Method 6; Total 34.
Epsom:      Rounds 21; Call Ch 10; Method 6; Total 37.
Lea’head:   Rounds 18; Call Ch 7; Method 5; Total 30.

So Newdigate gained the Jangler’s Jug, much to their credit and delight.

It will be seen that the bands that did best in the Rounds also did best overall. Partly this was down to the weighting applied to the three parts: with most points available for the Rounds, this was the section to gain or lose the points.  Even the winning band only got 65 % overall, so there is plenty of room for us to improve!

Thanks are due to Richard and Quentin for their innovative competition.  It was good to have something that challenged all the bands who, no doubt, will be keen to raise their game for next year.