Peals

Method Analysis

	TOTAL	Conducted	TOWER	Conducted	HAND	Conducted
Minimus	8	2	8	2	0	0
Doubles	51	6	46	6	5	0
Doubles & Minor	5	2	4	1	1	1
Minor	273	156	178	68	95	88
Triples	48	9	48	9	0	0
Major	803	245	657	180	146	65
Caters	34	0	28	0	6	0
Caters & Royal	1	0	1	0	0	0
Royal	138	58	119	49	19	9
Cinques	15	0	15	0	0	0
Maximus	45	11	45	11	0	0
	1421	489	1149	326	272	161

Leading Towers

Warwick, St Nicholas	64	Warwick St Mary	16
Allesley	61	Long Buckby	16
Claybrooke	52	Blaydon on Tyne	14
Wellesbourne	49	Whilton	13
Packwood	39	Hartlepool St Oswald	13
Moulton	29	Fillongley	12
Daventry	28	Keresley	12
Coventry Cathedral	23	Bishopwearmouth	11
Weedon Bec	20	Southam	11
Coventry, Stoke	20	Bedworth	11
Kingsbury	19	Exhall	10
Chilvers Coton	18	Harbury	10
Selly Oak	18	Birmingham, Yardley	10
Roker	17

Leading Guilds/Associations

Coventry DG	825	Yorkshire Association	25
Durham & Newcastle DA	165	Lincoln DG	22
Peterborough DG	126	Non Association	19
Lancashire Association	74	South Northants Society	16
Worcester & Districts DA	48	Southwell DA	12
St Martins DG	30	Derby DA	11

My first peal was at Plain Bob Major at Staindrop, Co. Durham on 19/5/82 - it seemed to take an awfully long time, but was actually only 3 Hours & 2 Minutes. It was my third attempt for a peal. I range the same bell in 2007 to mark the 25th anniversary of my first peal. Success was still only fleeting at first. Two other peals in 1982 - trebling to Surprise Major, and then six in 1983, out of many attempts! Included in this was my first as conductor on 26/11/83, Bob Minor - 7 variations on W-H-W - the ringer of the fifth gleefully telling me he had just made the bob and run out twice 42 times!

Things took off in peal ringing from here, I rang over 100 peals with "The Rev. Kev" over the next 4 years. The main advantage was his conducting ability, especially then to minor and simpler major, meant virtually no peals were lost to conductor error. Simon Rogers, of Warwick, conducts a large number of my peals now and is extremely competent, miss-calling perhaps 3 or 4 in 15 years; and he does not just call simple things as I do! He also keeps up the interest by ensuring that we ring a lot of methods that are new to us.

100 peals was reached on 8/2/86, 200 on 10/8/87, 300 on 22/7/91 (the slowdown being caused by my move to Coventry), 400 on 23/4/94, 500 on 28/9/96, 600 on 15/8/98 and 700 on 11/8/00. I reached 750 peals by ringing Yorkshire Royal at Chester Cathedral for the Chester Guild, (appropriately!), on 27/8/01, 800 on 24/6/02,900 on 29/09/03 and my 1000th peal on October 18th 2004. The next hundred was completed on 5/11/05. 1200 reached on 25/10/06, 1300 on 13/09/07 and 1400 on 10/11/08. I reached 1000 tower bell peals by ringing London Royal at St Clement, Danes on 28th August 2006, coincidentally it being my son's 13th birthday!

My first handbell peal was unusual. We had attempted, and lost, a quarter at Liverpool Cathedral on 10/2/85 and were due to ring a handbell peal in someone's house afterwards. This fell through at the last moment and we so drove to a place called Crank in Merseyside and rang Plain Bob Doubles in a Reliant Robin! 1-2 on the passenger seat, 3-4 in the driver's and me on 5-6 in the back. It was a freezing cold day in February! I eventually reached 100 handbell peals on 14th June 2004, over half of them in the previous 18 months. The next 100 only took 30 months to achieve.

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