Belated congratulations to two Wirral Tower Captains who both celebrated their 85th birthdays recently - Alec Martin (Oxton) and Les Coventry (Bebington). Thanks to Val Beecroft for advising me of the celebrations which took place in the Ringing Chamber at Bebington and to Ian Robertson and Peter Newton for kindly forwarding photographs taken on that occasion.
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| The Guild 8-Bell striking competition was hosted by the Mid Branch on
Saturday 17th September, with the band representing Wirral finishing an extremely
close second behind eventual winners, Mid. Ringing a plain course of
Lincolnshire at Over, the Wirral band ended up with 12 faults, an
agonising 1 fault behind the Mid branch band, who finished with 11
faults. The reports from the judges and the other bands and
listeners were very complimentary and all noted that the ringing
improved as we went along, finishing with some excellent ringing. The Wirral band was as shown alongside: |
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| For the record, Chester were 3rd, East 4th and South 5th. Thank you for those who took part and to Peter Hughes for organising the band and running the ringing. Hopefully next year we will be able to go one better! | |||||||||||||||||
The August Bank Holiday Saturday evening outing saw ringers from the Wirral branch enjoy a pleasant evening in Chester. Ringing took place at the challenging ring of 8 at Handbridge and the 12 at the Cathedral. Methods rung included Plain Bob Triples, Grandsire Triples, Yorkshire Major, call changes on 10 and 12, plain hunt on 10, Grandsire Caters and Little Bob Royal.
Following the ringing, a good meal was enjoyed at the Bear & Billet, with beer from the Okells Brewery from the Isle of Man. The Bitter, IPA and Summer Storm were all very drinkable, and a good evening was had by all.
Thank you to Randle for making all the arrangements. Thanks also to our friends from North Wales who braved the Bank Holiday weekend traffic to attend.
| Congratulations to Ben Plant (right) of Wallasey St Nicholas who has rung his first Quarter Peal, this on the back six at St Nicholas today. Ben started ringing only at the end of November. This achievement follows hard on the heels of that of Daniel Kingsley (see News Desk item of 28 Nov) who, by coincidence, rang his first Quarter Peal away from cover, also on the back six but at Port Sunlight this same day. Both Ben and Daniel were amongst the junior ringers who supported the ringing, organised by the Chester Guild, at Chester Cathedral earlier this year. | 
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9 Feb 05
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Congratulations again - but of a different kind to those reported below. At 4:50 a.m. on Tuesday 8th February Janet Jones of West Kirby gave birth to a 7lb 0oz daughter, Abbie Elizabeth Pamela, sister for young Reece. Both these young ladies are very well, as is the proud and happy father, Eric, although it is understood that the West Kirby practice that evening was one or two ringers short! On Wednesday 9th, a Quarter Peal was rung at Port Sunlight to welcome Abbie. (See also 26 Feb) |
Elsewhere this same afternoon, Daniel Kingsley (see also 28 Nov) of Port Sunlight rang his first Quarter Peal on eight with such amplomb that the conductor did not need to give a single prompt!