I rang a satisfying quarter of Sgurr a'Chaorachain this evening, with the Five o'Clock Club, scored at the first attempt. We did well with no major difficulties. It's a lovely method, very musical with lots of back-bell runs on the front. And it has so many landmarks that it holds together really well.

Once you get used to the pairs of points at the beginning and end of the lead, and the idea of ringing wrong-place work with one bell and right-place work with the other, the only tricky part is the frontwork that 2nd and 4th place bells ring at the beginning of the lead, with a point blow and a double wrong dodge. But knowing that the point lead is immediately before or after the points at the back is helpful, and I soon got used to the way that the wrong dodges on the front relate to the right dodges at the back.

The quarter was conducted by David Brown, the original composer of the method. The composition was interesting, with a mixture of 4th and 8th place bobs.

1280 Sgurr a'Chaorachain Surprise Royal

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2 part.

The In, Fifths and Out are all 8th place bobs and the Middle is a 4th place bob. David called "bob" for the 8th place bobs and "4ths place bob" for the Middle, but in fact it was obvious that if the back bells were near the front it had to be an 8th place bob, and if the back bells were near the back it had to be a 4th place bob. As well as being an attractive two-part, it's handbell-friendly for 3-4. In each part they are coursing from the first In, which is at the first lead end, to the Out, which is the lead before the course end. I'd like to try it with the Albany Quadrant band. We might find it easier than Bristol.