Here is the handbell roundup for June 2014, as compiled from records published on BellBoard.  As I sit writing this, I am in Croatia, and a long way from any handbell ringing, so it is great to see how productive everyone else has been......

Let's start with some milestones:

• Maureen Hanney has rung her 50th handbell peal
• David Atkinson has rung his 1500th handbell peal for the Chester DG. 
• Peter King has rung 100 handbell peals for the Middlesex CA and London DG.  Amazingly, this peal puts him at the top of the table of people who have rung the same number of handbell peals as tower bell peals (thanks to Andrew Craddock of Pealbase for that one).
• Rupert Clarke and David Marshall have rung 299 handbell peals together (you'll have to check the footnote for why the odd number)

And then some firsts:

• Kate LeChevalier has rung her first treble bob
• James Ramsbottom has rung his first Stedman Triples in hand (as, rather amusingly in a quarter, has Richard Pearce)
• Alison Brooke has run her first spliced
• and blowing our own horn, first of 8-spliced by Angela Deakin, Jonathan Frye and Tina Stoecklin (yeah!!)
• Katherine Young has rung her first on eight.
• first Stedman Caters for David Jones, Helen Phillips (who also called it, very nice), and Phillip Hopkins. 
• first quarter in hand for James Allen
• first Bristol Max for Alban Forster and William Bosworth
• Jean Nixon has rung her first handbell peal

And some notable performances:

• On the expanding horizons front, we see David Pipe has been introducing some more people to Magic Blocks
• Simon Humphrey has added a wry second performance in the amusing footnote department.
• Then there is a peal of Zanussi which wasn't a first for anybody, and then another one.  Oh for that depth of talent......
• A brace of handbell peals to celebrate Roger Bailey's birthday.
• There seems to be a band working up to a significant spliced peal at Northallerton
• a first quarter on  Peter Felton's 'asylum bells', which he made himself from Simon and Richard's instructions......

Finally, our featured performance:

Well, we think ringing 23-spliced in hand puts you in a small society of ringers.  Ringing it by drawing pairs immediately before the attempt is probably a lot smaller.  So hats off to those Cambridge ringers, but we think next time they should try it with non-adjacent pairs.  Just for the challenge of the thing......

Society of Cambridge Youths
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

University Church of St Mary the Great
Sunday, 22 June 2014 in 2h20 (11 in G)
5152 Spliced Surprise Major (23 methods)

224 each Ashtead, Bristol, Cambridge, Cassiobury, Cornwall, Cray, Double Dublin, Glasgow, Ipswich, Jersey, Lincolnshire, Lindum, London, Preston, Pudsey, Rutland, Superlative, Tavistock, Uxbridge, Watford, Wembley, Whalley, Yorkshire. 160 changes of method, all the work.

Composed by Norman Smith

1–2 Elizabeth A Orme
3–4 Jonathan A Agg
5–6 Philip J Earis
7–8 David J Pipe (C)

Pairs drawn immediately prior to the attempt.