Yesterday was the annual SACR training day, at Tulloch. It's primarily a tower bell event, but we also offered some handbell ringing. In most cases this was plain hunting on six, including some with absolute beginners, as well as some Bob Minor. Good progress was made.

We also rang some Bristol Major with me, Jonathan, Angela and Nick, and half a course of Cambridge Royal with the addition of Jenny. The Cambridge wasn't perfect, but we rang with a good rhythm and recovered quickly from mistakes. We've really come a long way with our 10-bell ringing.

Inevitably there was a lot of tower bell ringing in which the rhythm was far from perfect, and the contrast with the handbell ringing reminded me of how much easier it is to get an excellent rhythm on handbells. We still find 12-bell ringing difficult, but we've improved enormously on 10, and on 8 we can ring very well indeed, even if there are a few trips.

Tomorrow we're ringing on 8, as Angela isn't free. This is another good thing about having 5 people now - there should be fewer weeks when we can't ring at all. The plan for tomorrow is a quarter of Cambridge, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Rutland, which will be an advance for Peter. The first suggestion was Cambridge, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, but this is an interesting situation in which adding a method makes it easier to find a simple composition. Jonathan's going to call it, and I don't know which composition he will choose, but with CYNR it's possible to get a simple 5-part composition with the calling M H W or W M, using a 3-lead course (2 leads of Rutland and 1 lead of another method) and a 5-lead course (1 lead of Rutland and 4 leads of other methods).