Yesterday we finally did it: the classic 41 Surprise Minor. We've been going for it, on and off, all year, and sometimes it seemed as if we would never be able to get it. But yesterday, after at least half a dozen false starts (one of them lasting almost an hour!), we managed it. We had very good ringing throughout (although I must confess that there was one lead of Surfleet in which I was rather lost) and it really felt as if we had mastered the methods at long last.

It still takes an awful lot of concentration. I find when calling spliced that it's partly a question of remembering to think about the right things at the right time. During each lead I have to make sure I know which method is coming next; in methods like York/Durham, Beverley/Surfleet etc, I have to remind myself of which frontwork it is; I also have to remember to note the coursing order so I can check that no-one has swapped (actually we didn't have any swaps in this peal).

I think we all found that this is one of the most difficult things we've ever rung. It's good stuff though - and we should record our thanks to Philip Saddleton for the original discovery of the splicing techniques needed to get all 41 methods into 5040 changes (described here and here), and to John Warboys for developing further splices and producing such a wonderful range of compositions to choose from (his composition page is here).

So what next? There are several other 41-Minor challenges, such as John Warboys' compositions with a change of backwork and frontwork every lead, or his 5-part all-the-work in 5760 changes. Maybe we can try those one day, but for now we're going to concentrate on our 8-bell projects (the next goal is a peal of 8-spliced) and on developing our 10-bell ringing.

Scottish Association
Glasgow
1 Albany Quadrant
Saturday 10 November 2012 in 2h4 (11G)
5040 Spliced Surprise Minor (41m)
Allendale, Alnwick, Annable's London, Bacup, Bamborough, Berwick, Beverley, Bourne, Cambridge, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Coldstream, Cunecastre, Durham, Hexham, Hull, Ipswich, Kelso, Lightfoot, Lincoln, London, Morpeth, Munden, Netherseale, Newcastle, Norfolk, Northumberland, Norwich, Primrose, Rossendale, Sandiacre, Stamford, Surfleet, Warkworth, Wearmouth, Wells, Westminster, Whitley, Wooler, York
Composed: John S Warboys (SU0308 & SU0403)
1-2   Tina R Stoecklin
3-4   Jonathan S Frye
5-6   Simon J Gay (C)
First of Spliced Surprise Minor in hand by all. Most methods: 1-2, 3-4 and as conductor.