London 12-Bell Competition 2009

This was the inaugural London 12 bell competition and was held at St Magnus the Martyr, where a new ring of bells had been installed earlier in the year and which is rapidly becoming famous for the excessive amount of tower movement! The test piece was half a course of Cambridge Surprise Maximus and the UL practised hard in the run-up to the competition. We were also under strict instructions that we were not to end up in Reflex the night before. On the day we produced a very respectable piece of ringing that we were very happy with as a band and there seemed to be a general consensus that seventh place did not really reflect our achievement. Refreshment before and after (and in some cases during) the results took place at the Walrus and Carpenter. I must end this report here as, unfortunately, I have no recollection of the evening. This of course has absolutely nothing to do with the consumption of too much beer… All that’s left for me to say is thank you to Katie Town for organising the practices.

The results were as follows:

  • 1st College Youths (M) 88% 3h 30m
  • 2nd Cumberland Youths 81% 3h 30m
  • 3rd College Youths (J) 75% 3h 27m
  • 4th Southwark (M) 72% 3h 23m
  • 5th St Martin-in-the-Fields 65% 3h 23m
  • 6th Southwark (V) 63% 3h 26m
  • 7th University of London 61% 3h 29m
  • 8th Middlesex 60% 3h 34m
  • 9th South Croydon 45% 3h 25m
  • 10th Kingston 35% 3h 21m

By Heather Forster