The judges for this year's competition were Alan Regin and Simon Rudd, and an excellent job they did too. The judges had a chance to ring the bells beforehand to a plain course of Stedman Caters and so as well as noting the odd struckness of the bells they commented on the 'interesting' climb up into the ringing chamber (more like a substantial ladder than just a steep staircase). The test piece was 209 changes of Stedman Caters (1, 6, 8s, 16/ 1s, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17), a nice composition with a number of 6, 8, 10s and both front and back bell forward and reverse rollups.

The brief comments from the judges were as follows:

• Team 1 An unsteady start which improved, 8 & 9 tended to push at hand causing a few of the faults

• Team 2 Similar 8 & 9 handstroke problem coupled with slightly delayed tenor backstrokes, last 6 sixes particularly well rung

• Team 3 Set the best tenor beat, good team ringing, slightly more edgy than their confident practice

• Team 4 The word "brinkmanship" came to mind as they entered into changes with five seconds to spare causing a slightly unsettling effect to the start

• Team 5 Steadiest pace of the teams so far but still some problems with tenor backstrokes and a small method mistake around the 6th and 7th sixes but the ringing brightened up following a good recovery

• Team 6 Opening rounds in the practice looked like this band would nail it but actual test piece became one of an unfulfilled promise

Barry D Mack
(Published in Ringing World 5123-0693)