Back in 2005, inspired by the peals of cyclic compositions of Maximus that Tony Kench's 1st Saturday band was ringing in London, I decided to try something along the same lines on ten at Bishopstoke.
I knew of the qualities of Anglia Surprise Royal, 6 x 567890 rollups off the front in the middle lead. I thought it should be possible to splice it, as the middle lead of a 3 lead course, with 2 leads of a group "e" method which started x34x14x12. In 3 leads this would give 8 x 567890 at the back and 6 x 567890 off the front. Three of these courses could be bobbed together to give all 24 x 567890 crus and 18 x 567890 off the front. A 9 part cyclic composition needed 14 leads per part so there were 5 leads that could be used for "shunt" purposes. That was as far as my thinking and compositional abilities took me.
As I often did at this point, I turned to Tony Smith. I gave him the compositional challenge and he came back fairly quickly with:-
Anthony P Smith 1234567890 Group e ---------- - 1864203957 Cambridge - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Courtleigh - 1259074683 Cambridge - 1504823967 Cambridge - 1083657492 Anglia 1927465830 Group e - 1867902345 Group e 1073856492 Anglia 1926485730 Group e - 1786902345 Group e 1063758492 Anglia 1928475630 Group e - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 2160 Group e (proved as Allbrook), 1440 Cambridge, 1080 Anglia, 360 Courtleigh. 81 com, all the work. This was followed with a list of 83 group e methods with the required start!
Picking up on Tony's recommendation, I chose method 73 and named it Allbrook, a village near Bishopstoke. I wasn't happy with Tony's inclusion of Courtleigh. I had had bad experiences with it the previous year in one of Roddy Horton's compositions of 14 Spliced Surprise Royal. So I replaced it with Westminster, a much simpler method. That gave me:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (4 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Allbrook ---------- - 1864203957 Cambridge - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Cambridge - 1504823967 Cambridge - 1083657492 Anglia 1927465830 Allbrook - 1867902345 Allbrook 1073856492 Anglia 1926485730 Allbrook - 1786902345 Allbrook 1063758492 Anglia 1928475630 Allbrook - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 2160 Allbrook, 1440 Cambridge, 1080 Anglia, 360 Westminster. 81 com, all the work. 06/09/2005 at BishopstokeThat was quite a good start but I wanted a couple of changes/improvements. Allbrook was possibly the best of the 83 methods that Tony supplied but I thought I could do better. I played around and came up with Longmead Surprise Royal, a less "static" method and, perhaps, easier to learn and ring. I also wanted 125 changes of method. I could get that with a peal of 6 Spliced Surprise Royal. So, a couple of weeks later we rang:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (6 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Longmead ---------- - 1864203957 Cambridge - 1623587490 Yorkshire - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Cambridge - 1504823967 Yorkshire - 1083657492 Anglia 1927465830 Allbrook - 1867902345 Longmead 1073856492 Anglia 1926485730 Allbrook - 1786902345 Longmead 1063758492 Anglia 1928475630 Allbrook - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 1080 Anglia, Allbrook, Longmead, Yorkshire, 720 Cambridge, 360 Westminster. 125 com, all the work. 20/09/2005 at BishopstokeThe composition had all the 567890s at the back but only 18 x 567890 off the front. I checked with Tony as to the possibility of getting all 24. He said it was possible but would require some rather dodgy "designer" methods to replace Anglia. Tony gave me a selection of 11 and I chose one and named it Boyatt Wood after the housing estate on which I live. I dropped Allbrook and we rang:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (5 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Longmead ---------- - 1864203957 Cambridge - 1623587490 Yorkshire - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Cambridge - 1504823967 Yorkshire - 1083657492 Boyatt Wood 1927465830 Longmead - 1867902345 Longmead 1073856492 Boyatt Wood 1926485730 Longmead - 1786902345 Longmead 1063758492 Boyatt Wood 1928475630 Longmead - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 2160 Longmead, 1080 Boyatt Wood, 720 Cambridge, Yorkshire, 360 Westminster. 99 com, all the work. 17/01/2006 at BishopstokeWe rang it again on 20/06/2006 but I put Anglia back instead of Boyatt Wood. Although Boyatt Wood achieved a technical goal it was a very poor method compared with Anglia. We rang it again on 06/03/2007 then included Allbrook again so the composition would have a change of method every lead:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (6 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Allbrook ---------- - 1864203957 Cambridge - 1623587490 Yorkshire - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Cambridge - 1504823967 Yorkshire - 1083657492 Anglia 1927465830 Longmead - 1867902345 Allbrook 1073856492 Anglia 1926485730 Longmead - 1786902345 Allbrook 1063758492 Anglia 1928475630 Longmead - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 1080 Anglia, Longmead, Allbrook, 720 Cambridge, Yorkshire, 360 Westminster. 125 com, all the work. 30/04/2007 at BishopstokeThat was about as far as we went with ringing that series. I actually pushed the composition as far as 10 methods and knew it would go to 14 but it would need 6 group "e" methods which I figured could become boring/confusing/samey.
We did have one attempt at a variable treble composition. Surprisingly, we rang it at the first attempt:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (6 methods)
Anthony P Smith 1234567890 Longmead ---------- 1648203957 Anglia 1573920486 Longmead - 1423567890 Longmead 1638402957 Anglia 1572940386 Longmead - 1342567890 Longmead - 1862304957 Rutland s 2180967534 Belfast Little - 2018967534 Cambridge 2971304856 Bristol 2739415068 Anglia 2685041397 Longmead - 2345678901 ---------- 10 part. s=5670 2400 Longmead, 1200 Anglia, 400 Bristol, Cambridge, Rutland, 240 Belfast Little. 100 com, all the work for all 10 bells. 01/08/2006 at BishopstokeIn early 2007 I asked Tony for a framework that would give the opportunity to include some version of the "standard 8" Royal methods. As ever, he quickly and efficiently came up with:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (3 methods)
Anthony P Smith 1234567890 Rutland ---------- 1426385079 Rutland - 1864203957 Yorkshire - 1623587490 Yorkshire - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Yorkshire - 1504823967 Yorkshire - 1083657492 Yorkshire - 1867902345 Rutland 1780639524 Yorkshire 1698274053 Rutland - 1786902345 Rutland 1670839524 Yorkshire 1897264053 Rutland - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 2520 Yorkshire, 2160 Rutland, 360 Westminster. 72 com, all the work. I developed it into a series which went up to 14:- 4m: Ring 3rd lead as Bristol 5m: Ring 4th lead as Cambridge 6m: Ring 6th lead as Lincolnshire 7m: Ring 7th lead as Pudsey 8m: Ring 8th lead as Superlative No.2 9m: Ring 12th lead as London No.3 10m: Ring 1st lead as Oxbridge 11m: Ring 2nd lead as Oakham 12m: Ring 9th lead as Ranmoor 13m: Ring 10th lead as Swindon 14m: Ring 11th lead as Vermuyden giving:5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (14 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Oxbridge ---------- 1426385079 Oakham - 1864203957 Bristol - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Lincolnshire - 1504823967 Pudsey - 1083657492 Superlative(No2) - 1867902345 Ranmoor 1780639524 Swindon 1698274053 Vermuyden - 1786902345 London(No3) 1670839524 Yorkshire 1897264053 Rutland - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 360 each method. 125 com, all the work. We kicked off at 8 methods with:-5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (8 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Rutland ---------- 1426385079 Rutland - 1864203957 Bristol - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Lincolnshire - 1504823967 Pudsey - 1083657492 Superlative(No2) - 1867902345 Rutland 1780639524 Yorkshire 1698274053 Rutland - 1786902345 Rutland 1670839524 Yorkshire 1897264053 Rutland - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 2160 Rutland, 720 Yorkshire, 360 each of the rest. 99 com, all the work. 17/07/2007 at BishopstokeI left it dormant for the rest of 2007 then rang the 10 Spliced in early 2008:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (10 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Oxbridge ---------- 1426385079 Rutland - 1864203957 Bristol - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Lincolnshire - 1504823967 Pudsey - 1083657492 Superlative(No2) - 1867902345 Rutland 1780639524 Yorkshire 1698274053 Rutland - 1786902345 London(No3) 1670839524 Yorkshire 1897264053 Rutland - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 1440 Rutland, 720 Yorkshire, 360 each of the rest. 125 com, all the work. 29/01/2008 at BishopstokeHowever, between ringing the 8 and 10 method compositions, I decided to try to re-introduce the Longmead/Anglia/Longmead course as this improved the amount of cyclic music and gave greater variety of lead end orders. This was successful and we went off at a tangent from the original plan and finished the series with:-
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (12 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Oxbridge ---------- 1426385079 Rutland - 1864203957 Bristol - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Lincolnshire - 1504823967 Pudsey - 1083657492 Superlative(No2) - 1867902345 London(No3) 1780639524 Yorkshire 1698274053 Rutland - 1786902345 Longmead 1063758492 Anglia 1928475630 Longmead - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 720 Longmead, Rutland, 360 each of the rest. 125 com, all the work. 19/02/2008 at Bishopstoke5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (14 methods)
Anthony P Smith, arr Roy LeMarechal 1234567890 Oxbridge ---------- 1426385079 Oakham - 1864203957 Bristol - 1623587490 Cambridge - 1257960348 Westminster - 1259074683 Lincolnshire - 1504823967 Pudsey - 1083657492 Superlative(No2) - 1867902345 London(No3) 1780639524 Yorkshire 1698274053 Rutland - 1786902345 Allbrook 1063758492 Anglia 1928475630 Longmead - 1678902345 ---------- 9 part. 360 each method. 125 com, all the work. 26/03/2008 at BishopstokeI know some ringers might not be happy with no plain lead of Bristol, just a bobbed lead using a 4ths place bob. "You're ringing Horsleydown" I hear them say. However, the band did not know what Horsleydown was and simply rang Bristol. Moreover, the CC decision E.A.2 states that "A call is ............not part of the definition of the method." So, as far as I am concerned, we rang what I called - Bristol.
And there we are. I've not arranged any more of these fun peals for well over a year now. However, I suspect that, in 2010, if I don't have other ideas to pursue, these cyclic compositions will be back on the menu. Since we only really "dipped our toe in the water" with the 10 part compositions, I think a few more of those will be attempted.
Roy LeMarechal.
Dec 2009.
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