Earlier in the year I wrote about a touch called 4, 5, 6, 7, which is a kind of spliced based on stitching together blocks of plain hunting and dodging. I subsequently found out that the idea first came from Christian Peckham as a way of constructing cyclic touches of maximus. After ringing the basic touch a few times, in the tower as well as on handbells (it's much easier on handbells), I thought of ringing a quarter, which we did yesterday. I have decided to name the concept Numbers, so yesterday we rang the first quarter of Numbers Royal.

What does it all mean? An even number means plain hunting on the front, up to the place named, while the bells at the back dodge in pairs. An odd number means plain hunting on the back, from the place named upwards, while the bells at the front dodge in pairs. The plain hunting always lasts until the hunting bells have reversed themselves, and then the method is changed to the next number.

Here's how it works with the original 4, 5, 6, 7 composition on ten (it works on any number of bells).

Start with 1234567890 as usual.

4 means plain hunting on the front four with dodging in 5-6, 7-8 and 9-10. It lasts 4 rows until the front bells reverse:

4321567890

5 means plain hunting on the back six (from 5th place upwards) with dodging in 1-2 and 3-4. It lasts 6 rows until the back bells reverse:

4321098765

6 means plain hunting on the front six with dodging in 7-8 and 9-10, for 6 rows until the bells at the front reverse:

9012348765

7 means plain hunting on the back four (from 7th place upwards) with dodging in 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6, for 4 rows until the bells at the back reverse:

9012345678

This is a cyclic part end with the bells kept in pairs. Ringing it five times altogether produces a touch of 100 rows, with quite a lot of musical 4-bell runs at the front and back.

The nice thing for handbells is that the method changes whenever all the handbell pairs come back together.

So, what about a quarter peal composition?

First I decided to stick with the cyclic 5-part structure. Next, I thought it would be good to bring 10 into the mix, which means plain hunting on all 10 until the row reverses. Ringing 10 alternating with other numbers helps to produce a longer length as well as breaking up the dodging. Finally, I decided to avoid ringing the same non-10 number twice consecutively, in order to help keep track of progress through the composition. I then used a computer search to maximise the number of 4-bell runs as well as wraps of rounds and reverse rounds.

Here is the composition, broken into lines somewhat arbitrarily when the tenors are together at the front or back.

1260 Spliced Royal (8m)
Simon J Gay (complib 133026)
                            1234567890
--------------------------------------
10,8,10,6,10,4,10,3         7865431209
10,2                        0921345687
10,6                        3456871290
10,4,10,5,10,7,10,5,10,4    0921783456
10,5,10,2,10,7,10,6         0978123456
10,7,10,2                   7890123456
--------------------------------------
5 part.

It seems like it should be easy, but we found it quite tricky and we had two unsuccessful attempts before scoring. Mistakes are difficult to correct, especially a pair swapping. There are a lot of calls to put in - 169 changes of method in all.

Christian Peckham has composed a quarter of Numbers Maximus in a different style.

1264 Spliced Maximus (5m)
Christian M Peckham (complib 132654)

             1234567890ET
-------------------------
4,5,6,7      ET1234567890
4,5,6,7      90ET12345678
4,5,6,7      7890ET123456
4,5,6,7      567890ET1234
4,5,6,7      34567890ET12
5,6,7,6,4,8  8712345690ET
-------------------------
8 part.

It's based on the 4, 5, 6, 7 block, which is a 6-part for maximus, but rung only 5 times. There is then a different block to get the back 4 into their home positions and produce 87123456 on the front. This part is rung 8 times. After 4 parts, the row is 2143658790ET which gives little-bell runs at handstroke instead of backstroke. The omission of 12 makes it a bit busier overall, but the general alternation of odd and even numbers also has the function of breaking up the blocks of dodging. Notice though that at the end of each part and going into the next part there is the sequence 6, 4, 8, 4 which produces 11-pull dodges on 90ET in the back 4 places. An elegant construction and I admire the use of human thought in contrast to my computer searching. It would be interesting to ring it, but I might need to find 5 more ringers as I have probably exhausted the indulgence of the Albany Quadrant band!