On Monday we had another go at Cornwall with Julia and Nick, and succeeded with a good peal. I decided that ringing the tenors would give us a better chance, so we changed the band around a little. I found that it still takes some concentration to keep the treble bob hunting on the front and the back out of step in the right way. At one point I found myself double dodging on the front when it should have been a single, which threatened to desynchronise us, but I managed to recover at the half lead. Another time I forced the bells at the back into an incorrect dodge, then realised that the bells at the front had dodged at the same time - not right! Again, we were able to recover around the half lead, with the help of the trebles.

I called the composition by James Smith, which I like even more now. Here it is again, with some commentary.

5024 Cornwall Surprise Major
James A Smith

M  B  W  H  23456
-----------------
-     -  3  54632
   2     -  43265
   5     2  32465
   -  -  -  35264
   4     -  42356
   5     -  34256
   5     -  23456
-----------------
For handbells: 62% coursing for 3-4 and 80% coursing for 5-6.

• Starting with middle and wrong leads to the coursing order 34562 - a memorable one with 3-4 and 5-6 coursing.
• The three homes are just padding, and throw 3-4 and 5-6 around a bit.
• Two befores keep 3-4 coursing and produce the coursing order 62345, which introduces the motif of 65 course ends. There are three homes in this position, and calling the first one gives 63425.
• We are still in a coursing order where five befores will keep 3-4 and 5-6 coursing for four of the five courses, and indeed we call the whole block of five.
• Back at 63425, call the remaining two homes to get the other 65 course ends and return to 62345.
• One before gives 56234. Now comes what I think is a clever manoeuvre. The idea of calling wrong and home, used in the David Maynard composition of Bristol, swaps each of the first two pairs in the coursing order, giving 65324. In David's composition, this is used to move between two coursing orders that have 3-4 and 5-6 coursing. Here, however, it takes us to a coursing order that's in a block of five befores from the plain course.
• From this point on it's easy. Call fours befores to return to the plain course, then finish with three homes, padding them out with blocks of five befores. In these last two blocks of befores, the base coursing orders are 52436 and 54326, so we get 3-4 and 5-6 coursing in four out of the five courses each time.

Incidentally, I met James Smith in a handbell peal in which David Maynard called his 5154 of Bristol. The fourth ringer was Peter Blight, who I rang with many times in the Imperial College days.