We used to write a monthly round-up of other people's handbell activities, highlighting firsts and notable performances. After a while it became too much effort to keep up, so we stopped, but there have been some interesting peals recently, so here's a summary.

Although there's a lot of online ringing going on, and a lot of quarters, there have still only been two peals on Handbell Stadium (Yorkshire Major and Cambridge Royal) and two peals on Ringing Room (one of 7 Minor, everyone ringing one bell, and one of Chandler's 23-spliced, everyone ringing one bell except David Pipe who rang 1-2). Certainly online peals are difficult, because of the high chance of significant network delays during a longer performance. But the difficulty also seems to increase with the number of people, so there's an argument that a handbell peal of major in Ringing Room should be easier than a tower-bell peal of minor.

Real handbell ringing got started again in June (at least in the UK; I think it was possible sooner in Australia and New Zealand, and I'm not sure what the timing was in North America) and several bands started ringing peals again. A quick search in BellBoard shows 228 handbell peals since 1st June. Here are some highlights.

• Graham John rang his 2000th peal, which was the Cambridge Royal that we rang on Handbell Stadium. Later he rang his 500th peal as conductor, which was 15-spliced Surprise Major on handbells.
• Jack Page, Daniel Page and Colin Newman have rung several peals of spliced treble dodging minor, including some first handbell performances of a few compositions.
• The Perrins family with Chris O'Mahoney and Murray-Luke Peard rang a peal of Stedman Cinques, which was the first on 12 handbells for ANZAB.
• Jack Page, Daniel Page, Graham John and Janet John rang Horton's Four, conducted by Jack Page. That's the fifth handbell performance of this classic composition.
• Earlier in the year, before lockdown, the same band rang Norman Smith's 23-spliced, also conducted by Jack. They now seem to be working on Chandler's, which has been rung far fewer times on handbells.
• Kath Firman rang her 2000th peal, which was Bristol Maximus, and became the first person to ring 100 peals of Bristol Maximus on handbells. It was also her 1000th peal with Graham Firman. It must have taken some planning to hit those milestones simultaneously.
• Kira Chase called a peal of Bristol Major, which was her first of surprise in hand and first as conductor. 
• Graham and Kath Firman, Ewan Grant-Richardson and Ben Carey rang Norman Smith's 23-spliced, conducted by Ben.