The 68th Annual UL Dinner weekend started off on the Friday night with some open ringing on the 12 at St Seps, with lots of people present we were able to ring lots of Grandsire, Stedman and even a bit of Bristol Max. It was clear from when they arrived that some of the Freshers’ were a little worse for wear having been drinking all afternoon, and it was a surprise that they were all still standing in the pub – The Rising Sun near Smithfield (Barts), where drinking continued for a large amount of the evening.
Saturday morning was an early start for some, who needed to be at St Mary le Bow at 9am to attempt the dinner day peal. Attempt was the operative word as unfortunately after about 2/3 of the peal we had to stop, although this meant that we had an extra hour in the pub for lunch, at the Crosse Keys. There were also 2 quarter peals at Hart Street, 1 of which was successful – London S Minor by the Secretaries, and 1 unsuccessful quarter attempt at St Dunstan in the West by the OUS.
During the pub lunch Rupert decided to hide Ryan’s speech (which he was still writing) which caused a minor panic!
We sat down for an excellent meal at Brown’s on Old Jewry and then had the speeches by Martin Cansdale, Hannah Wilby (guest speaker) and the Master. A toast was proposed to the memory of Roger Bailey.
The partying went on into the small hours with the traditional UL disco, with all the cheesy tunes and onward drinking elsewhere.
Lots of us congregated for Breakfast in the Liberty Bounds on the Sunday morning prior to the AuGM in the Church Hall and this was followed by a further pub visit and finally a quarter peal attempt at St Barts (although this was another unsuccessful part of the weekend!)
Roll on the 69th Dinner!
By Ryan Noble