London 12 Bell Competition 2011

Photo thanks to: Clare Dyer

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The London 12-bell competition this year was hosted by the Cumberlands and held at Shoreditch Church. The day started at 10am with tea coffee and bacon rolls provided in the church hall. These were supplemented by some with chunks of Chinese crispy duck courtesy of Luke Camden who had got a bit peckish the previous night!

The draw was held with 9 teams entering to ring the test piece of 6 leads of Cambridge Surprise Maximus. The UL were drawn to ring 6th and so we settled down with a couple of pints and hot toffee apple cider to wait patiently for our turn. Lunch (more bacon sandwiches) was attempted just before our slot but unfortunately the volunteers in the kitchen were not prepared for the amount of hungry bell ringers present and they had run out of both bread and bacon.

Ascending the stairs the band consisting of Heather, Clare, Michael, Mariko, Peter, Nick, Rupert, Ryan, Andrew H, Charles (C), Andrew G, and Olly rang very creditably. At the results this was confirmed by the UL’s 4th place finish with 70.8%, less than 3% below the CY’s and Cumberlands.

The overall scores were:

St Michael’s Cornhill 79.2%
Society of Royal Cumberland Youths 73.7%
Ancient Society of College Youths 73.3%
University of London Society 70.8%
Southwark Cathedral 2 57.5%
Southwark Cathedral 1 57.1%
Middlesex County Association and London Diocesan Guild 50.1%
St Martin-in-the-Fields 40.4%
South Croydon 36.5%
After the results, the gathered ringers slowly trickled to the pub where a good few pints were had and Ben invited just about anyone named Forster to the UL Dinner as his date! The evening finished for most with a curry on Brick lane where we could rest on our laurels and feel superior to Southwark.

Thanks to the SRCY for a well organised day and all the bacon sandwiches!

by Mariko Whyte