Last weekend was an intensive ringing weekend, although not quite as intensive as originally planned. It all started with an invitation to attempt Cyclic Six Maximus on handbells as part of a weekend of peals celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first performance of David Pipe's classic composition. That was going to be at the famous handbell address of 19 The Green, Romanby, Northallerton - Jennie and David Town's house. The plan for the weekend evolved to include first a tower bell peal of Cyclic Six on Saturday at Stockton, and then a Friday evening handbell peal of Cambridge Royal in Northallerton.

Things turned out a bit differently. First the handbell peal of Cyclic Six evaporated, for reasons that I won't go into. Next the Friday evening peal was changed to Bristol Major because illness removed a member of the band. We rang a very good peal with only about half a dozen trips in total. As it was relatively short notice I called the Roger Bailey composition instead of revising the Mark Davies composition. We also rang a good peal in the tower on Saturday, but the difficulty was getting from Penrith (I stayed at Julia's after the Friday evening peal) to Stockton through the snow.

It would be good to go and ring handbells in Northallerton again, especially if I can combine it with something else. It's quite a journey, but more practical than going to Reading. In any case we want to organise a handbell Cyclic Six with a northern band - I really did a lot of practice in advance of this weekend and I don't want to waste it. Watch this space!