BellBoard addicts might already have noticed that Henry Pipe has rung Norman Smith's 23-spliced on handbells. This is a tremendous achievement, all the more so at the age of 13. I had the pleasure of ringing one part for practice, with Henry, David Pipe and Alex Byrne, on our holiday last summer, and he was already ringing it very well.

According to the footnote, it was also a first for Alex Byrne, although he has previously rung Chandler's on handbells, which is much harder. Anyway, Henry and Alex become the 48th and 49th people to have rung Norman Smith's in hand. Well done indeed.