Surprise Practice at Dunham

Date/Time
Date(s) - Tue 11th Oct '22
19:30 - 21:00

Location
St Margaret, Dunham Massey (10, 25-2-24 in C)

Categories

• Chester Branch
• East Branch
• Mid Branch
• South Branch
• Wirral Branch

In the recent surveys of ringers, many people said that they would like to see more specialised practices rather than just general branch practices.
As part of this, I’ve been working on setting up twice monthly Surprise Practices. These are based on a model that I trialed with a lot of success in the Durham and Newcastle Association, some years ago. It is aimed at both experienced Surprise ringers but also at those who are wanting to start dipping their toes in the Surprise paddling pool. There are the key ideas behind this:

• – Initially, practices will take place on the second Tuesday at Dunham/Bowdon and the fourth Tuesday at Bredbury.
• – We will work on both Minor and Major (some may want to just focus on one or the other and that is absolutely fine)
• – We’ll have learning aims for each practice so that we build up capability steadily; for Major we’ll work through the Core 7 methods https://wiki.changeringing.co.uk/Project_Pickled_Egg_-_Part_12; for Minor we’ll work through ART’s Surprise Minor Stepping Stones which you can see attached.
• There will be a quarter peal or more each month to allow us to consolidate what we’ve learnt.
• Everyone will need to do their homework before each practice!

The dates through to the end of the year are as follows:

• Tuesday, 11th October – Dunham
• Tuesday, 25th October – Bredbury
• Tuesday, 8th November – Dunham
• Tuesday, 22nd November – Bredbury
• Tuesday, 13th December – Dunham

 

And the learning foci for the first 6 months is below. It is ambitious, but I always think we should start with a structure – this can flex and change over time but it gives us purpose and direction:

October:

• Major – Cambridge and Yorkshire; Minor – Cambridge and Primrose;
• Quarters – Cambridge Major and Minor.

November:

• Major – Cambridge, Yorkshire, Cornwall; Minor – Primrose and Ipswich;
• Quarters – Yorkshire Major; Primrose Minor.

December:

• Major – spliced Cambridge and Yorkshire, Cornwall;
• Minor – Ipswich and Primrose; Quarters – Spliced Cambridge and Yorkshire; Minor – Ipswich.

January:

• Major – Cornwall and Superlative; Minor – Ipswich and Norfolk.
• Quarters: Cornwall S Major; Norfolk S Minor.

February:

• Major – Spliced Cambridge, Yorkshire and Cornwall, plus Superlative; Minor – Norfolk and Bourne.
• Quarters – Spliced Cambridge, Cornwall, Superlative; Minor – Bourne.

March:

• Major – Superlative and Bristol; Minor – Bourne and Hull.
• Quarters – Superlative Major; Minor – Hull.

If you are interested in taking part, please can you drop me a quick email on andrew.darling@me.com or a text on 07786 511 788. Obviously, organising and administering  something like this is extremely complex, so if there’s anyone who would be willing/interested in helping out I’d be keen to hear from you!