Two of our current ringers (and two recent members) are alumni of Cambridge University. More specifically, they are life members of the Cambridge University Guild of Change Ringers. So what?
2009 is a special year for Cambridge University, which is 800 years old, so the Cambridge University Guild, whose members ring in churches around the world, decided to celebrate the fact. On 17th January, there were to be performances of 800 changes (of a method appropriately called Cambridge) in as many churches as possible. Resident Guild members rang in all the Cambridge city churches, as well as many of the surrounding villages. Non-resident members rang wherever they could muster a band across the UK and around the world.
In Wokingham, we wanted to be part of this, so we invited six other Guild members from surrounding counties to join us at All Saints for a special performance. We had a last minute problem when one of the intended band was sick on the day, but fortunately we had a reserve, who came over from near Wallingford at 45 minutes notice to fill the gap.
We rang 800 changes of Cambridge Surprise Major in 26 minutes. That is quite fast for these bells, but the ringing was good with a nice rhythm.
John Harrison (January 2009)
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