We were supposed to go for a Simons' quarter on 14 a few weeks ago, but it was cancelled because I had to drop out. Soon afterwards a Five o'Clock Club band rang the first online 14-bell quarter, of Little Bob, which I also couldn't ring in. But I had my chance yesterday, and after a few false starts while getting to grips with the rhythm, we rang a reasonable quarter despite several patches of internet lag at my end.
I haven't done a lot of ringing on more than 12. Many years ago I rang a tower bell peal on 14, at Winchester Cathedral. Even longer ago I rang a couple of quarters on 14 and 16 during Keele ringing courses. Those were spliced Plain and Little Bob, all in three-lead PLP courses. I always found it very difficult. More recently we have had occasional attempts at plain hunting or three leads of Kent on 14 or 16 at the end of a handbell day. Yesterday's quarter was easier, partly because I've had a lot more practice on 12 now, and partly because I was able to do some Mabel practice on 14 to get used to the rhythm and counting. I still find myself occasionally dropping my bells in too soon, though.
I rang 9-10, and after a couple of courses I had got used to the relative positions - for example, what one bell would be doing while the other bell was making seconds, and which dodges matched each other. Sometimes I would count all the way through the row, mentally pronouncing the higher positions as E T A B so that they were all single syllables. Most of the time though, I wasn't explicitly counting, instead relying on the external rhythm and progress through each row.
Our plan for the Simons' quarter had been to ring the Cam variation of Kent, but I think Little Bob is easier. I don't know what we will decide to do if and when we reconvene the Simons.
You need 13 courses for a quarter of Little Bob 14, giving a length of 1352. That's a little on the long side, and the ringing tends to be slow, so it takes ages. Yesterday Simon Rudd called this composition, which I think Peter Randall had come up with.
1352 Little Bob 14 W M H 23456 -------------- s - $ 46352 4 $ 43625 3 - - 56342 - 4 45362 - - - 23456 -------------- 3 = bsb 4 = sbsb $ = 123456 place notation
It keeps 5-6 coursing from the first M to the last W. For a simpler calling I might go for
W H 23456 ----------- - 42356 6 - 34256 6 - 23456 ----------- 6 = bbsbbs
which I expect is the minimum number of calls, or maybe
W M H 23456 -------------- - s - 46235 - * 34256 -------------- 6 part, calling ss at * in the last part
These would throw 5-6 around much more though.