Last week started well on Sunday with a quarter of Primrose in the tower, and continued well on Monday with a date touch of 8-spliced. The date touch was a textbook operation: we sat down, started ringing, continued until the end, and stopped. Some of the leads of London and Bristol were less than perfect, but we didn't have anyone getting completely lost. All very encouraging, and probably our best extended touch of 8-spliced yet.

2014 Spliced Surprise Major (8m)
Simon J Gay

W B H            (25364)
-----------------------
    -  YLSCN.     32564
    -  PPLYY.     53264
s   s  BPsBBs     62354
  - s  RNCRC.SNs  26543
-----------------------
3 part, replacing the first lead with S in
the first part and starting at the snap.

288 Bristol, Cambridge, Lincolnshire (N), Pudsey
256 Yorkshire
222 Superlative
192 London, Rutland

On Tuesday, Tina had a small accident while teaching a learner in the tower, and broke one of her fingers. As well as the discomfort and general inconvenience of the restricted use of one hand, this presented a problem for our plan to go for a peal of Kent Maximus on Saturday. Various alternative scenarios were discussed, but on Thursday evening Tina gave her hand a try out, and managed to find a workable (if slightly awkward) ringing style. We warmed up with some Kent Royal on Friday evening, and Tina decided that she was willing to try for a peal on Saturday. We had a good go at it but didn't succeed, with two attempts lasting about 25 minutes each. In the end we rang a quarter, which was useful practice. The conclusion is that we are getting better at 12-bell ringing, but we still need more practice. We're now thinking of having some 12-bell sessions on the weekend of the next Scottish Handbell Day.