It doesn't end there! We also congratulate Heather Nuttall of Heswall who has rung her First Quarter Peal, this at Thurstaston on 14th November.
Last night Geoff and Sue Sparling were at the Wallasey St Nicholas practice for the last time before departing to their new home in Devon today. The photograph below was taken (remotely!) by Alf Plant, the new Tower Captain at St Nicks.
Janet Jones writes: On Sunday 14th June, after Sunday service ringing (naturally!), the West Kirby ringers, friends and family took part in the Wirral Bikeathon 2009 in aid of Leukaemia Research.
Also to be found there: Ode to Joy video-clip taken at Young Ringers' Meeting (see 21 Mar 09 below).
Also, a young ringers' training meeting was held today at Burton. Their progress during the full day session was quite amazing! The helpers found the day somewhat more challenging than anticipated, having to ring methods (up to Beverley Surprise Minor!) to provide the level of challenge demanded by the 'encouragement' of the whipmaster, Eric Jones.
L to R: Becky Davies, Eric Jones, Helen Powell, Brenda Humphreys, Peter Newton, Fiona, Lisa & Heather Nuttall, Peter Humphreys, Kyle and Kieran Houghton and Bob Peers (also present, behind camera, Jane Davies).
Also (kindly reported by Margaret Allin of Heswall) Jane Davies, Wirral Branch Secretary, advises... Peter Hughes, former Tower Captain at Bidston, adds...
L-R: Geoff Cowell (Bidston), Peter & Brenda Humphreys (Port Sunlight), Ann Davies, Sue, Geoff, Hazel Bailey, Alison & Alf Plant, John McCulloch (Wallasey St Hilary), Jean Taylor, David Williams and Peter Charnley.
15 Sep 09
Congratulations Sam Jackson of Thurstaston who, on Sunday, rang his First Peal, this at his home tower.
11 Jul 09
Congratulations to Heswall on winning, for the first time, the Guild 6-Bell Striking competition at Chelford today.
L-R: Georgina Lyons, Margaret Allin, Mike Morris, Lisa Nuttall, Samantha Harrison and John Willasey with Judge Mike Orme.
09 Jul 09
Frank Parry's 75th Birthday
On arriving at St Michael's, Shotwick on Sunday morning (5 July) Frank was greeted by the sound of the bells being rung earlier than usual to mark his 75th birthday the previous week.
The occasion was also marked in a Quarter Peal rung that same afternoon at Chester Cathedral.
L-R: Max Pemberton, John Collinson, Cathy Robertson, Frank, Gwenda Edge, Dave Hocker, Brenda Humphreys, Matthew Lewis, Edwina Zaccharias, David Lewis (totally eclipsed!) and David Johnson.
West Kirby Ringers' Bikeathon
A good day was had by all and thankfully it wasn't too hot!
01 Jul 09
Congratulations to Matthew Lewis (see picture 26 May item below) on conducting his first Quarter Peal this at Backford on Tuesday 30th June.
Young Wirral Ringers gather for service ringing and fun (see Pictorial Report)
12 Jun 09
Congratulations to Rebecca Davies on ringing her first Quarter Peal this at Burton on Sunday 7th June.
06 Jun 09
Results of the Wirral Branch 6-Bell Striking Competition held at Thurtsaston of Saturday 6 June...
More on this to follow. (See Report)
Band Position Faults
Heswall 1st 16
Port Sunlight 2nd= 18
Wallasey St Nicholas 2nd= 18
Burton 4th 20
Thurstaston B 5th 29
Shotwick A 6th 32
Neston 7th 36
Bidston 8th 52
Shotwick B 9th 64
Thurstaston A 10th 80
04 Jun 09
Bryan McCahey from Liverpool recently ran into two Wirral 'ex-pats' down in Devon. Ken and Gill Edwards rang on the Wirral for many years before leaving for Hampshire in 1980. They now run a farm near Barnstaple, North Devon and Ken is tower captain at Shirwell. He is enjoying the challenge of introducing change-ringing to a call-change tower. Practice night is Wednesday and all visitors are made extremely welcome. Ken and Gill send their best wishes to all old friends. They are pictured here at Shirwell last month.
02 Jun 09
A copy of the report on Eric Jones' 40 years as tower captain at St Bridget, West Kirby (see 27 May 09 below) in The Ringing World is now recorded on this website.
30 May 09
Congratulations to Jane Davies on conducting her first Peal on tower bells on 4 April. (Yes, 4th April! More 'Archive' than 'News Desk'. Webmaster has been asleep. Thanks to Lisa Nuttall for drawing this to his attention)
Furthermore, this is believed to be the first ladies' peal by past and present Wirral Branch members.
27 May 09
Geoff and Sue Sparling participated in the performance of John Lennon's Imagine on Liverpool Cathedral Bells on 16 May. (The link takes you a video-clip of the ringing on YouTube) 
"Just thought it would be interesting to the Wirral ringers that Heswall has had a first! The other Sunday for matins we rang 4 spliced with a Heswall band. Rutland, Yorkshire, Cambridge & Plain Bob. John [Willasey] is really pushing the more advanced methods for us and now getting results! Let's hope we can keep it up. Needless to say, we have a good base of beginners that are now trebling successfully - David, Fiona & Heather."
26 May 09
Congratulations to Helen Powell (Neston) and Matthew Lewis (Shotwick) (pictured left) who, together, rang their first Quarter Peal of Major and to Kieran Houghton (Port Sunlight) who rang his first Quarter Peal of Triples.
(Had the Tower Captain at Port Sunlight attempt taken a little more care in its organisation, the plan to ring Major would have taken place and could have led to a young ringers' Triple Major!)
06 May 09
Young Wirral ringers have been making real progress in recent weeks, notable performances being:
Matthew Lewis (Shotwick) First Minor
Matthew Lewis and Helen Powell (Neston) First Inside; Also First Minor for Helen
Kieran Houghton (Port Sunlight) First Inside
Amy Robson (Thurstaston) First Minor
Helen Powell First on 8
With thanks to your Branch Secretary, Jane Davies, for drawing all these to my attention.
Also many congratulations to Eric Jones who, this year, completed 40 years as Tower Captain at West Kirby. A Quarter Peal was rung on Easter Day at St Bridget's in celebration (see below). If you would like to know more about the history, then simply look at page 486 of this week's Ringing World (Issue No. 5115 dated May 8, 2009).
West Kirby, Mers. 12 April, 1344 PB Triples: Robert Peers 1, Antony J Power 2, Tom Ward 3, Janet M Jones 4, Robert Preston 5, Eric R Jones 6, Randle T J Tinkler (C) 7, Gregory Buckridge 8.
04 May 09
Easter Monday Outing Photographs
(Courtesy Cathy Robertson)
L to R: David and Matthew Lewis (Shotwick), Maurice Grisenthwiate (unattached), Eunice Parry (attached to Frank!), Alison Plant (Wallasey St Nicholas), Jane Lewis (Shotwick), Jane and Becky Davies (Burton), Amy, Peter and Sarah Robson (Thurstston), Frank Parry (Shotwick), David Jones (Neston), Peter Humphreys (Port Sunlight), Geoff Sparling (Wallasey St Nicks), Brenda Humphreys (Port Sunlight), Cathy Robertson (Shotwick), Randle Tinkler (West Kirby) and Sue Sparling (Wallasey St Nicks).
" Look to! - Treble's going - She's Gone - - - - - Go Belfast! - sorry, Plain Bob!"
28 Apr 09
Congratulations to Peter Charnley of Wallasey St Nicholas, who learned to ring there in 1995 and has been a faithful supporter ever since, on ringing his first Peal on 18 April.
(With apologies for lateness in reporting this achievement due to your webmaster being incapacitated during the extended period of absence of his PC!)
31 Mar 09
Passing of Roger Newton of Bidston.
(Updated 04 Apr 09)
Roger's widow, Norma, and family write...
To Friends of Roger,
It is with sadness and rejoicing that Norma and the family would like you to know that Roger passed away at 6:00 p.m. on Monday evening. As many of you are aware Roger has bravely battled cancer for more than 5 years and through that time has been an inspiration and amazing example as an Ambassador of Jesus Christ.
This weekend Roger took a turn for the worse and his whole family had the wonderful priveledge of spending our last weekend together. He was so peaceful and we are convinced he was so enjoying everyone being there he didn’t want it to end. But, we all knew his life's journey had an eternal destination and surrounded by his immediate family, kids and all, Roger completed his last steps into the arms of his Heavenly Father.
Norma and the family would like to extend their warm welcome to you and anyone who knew him to join us on Wednesday 8th April at 1pm for his Funeral and Celebration of Life at St Oswald's Church Bidston. At Roger's request all gifts and donations will be given to St Oswald's Church and Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology. Please make all cheques payable to St Oswalds Church who will share it out.
Norma would love to hear from you by post (7 Allerton Road, Birkenhead, Wirral CH42 5LN), phone (0151 649 8284), face to face or email (norma.n@ntlworld.com).
Thank you so much for your prayers and support to us as a family at this time.
It was Roger's express wish that the new band of ringers, who he had been teaching at Bidston, should ring before and after the funeral service. Therefore there will be no open ringing at the service. I do know, however, that some of you are arranging your own ringing tributes and I would be grateful if you would send deatails of these to the new Tower Captain at Bidston, Claire Gartland - clairegart@hotmail.com.
Roger, who was just 65 years old, learned to ring in Bristol in the 1950's but took a break which was to last 47 years before he started again at Bidston in 2005, becoming Tower Captain there in 2006 until a few weeks ago.
29 Mar 09
Congratulations to Cathy Robertson of Shotwick who, on Wednesday 25 March, rang her first Quarter Peal while in Lincolnshire.
21 Mar 09
Young Ringers Event on 15 March
The group photograph below was taken at the Young Ringers' Meeting held on Sunday 15 March at Bebington then at the home of Wirral Branch Secretary, Jane Davies. Please advise your webmaster if any of the details in the caption are wrong. It is intended to include a short report on this website soon.
(NOTE: The previously recorded video-clip of handbell ringing had to be removed as the download exceeded the allowed bandwidth for our website. Your webmaster still has this, and other video-clips, of the handbell ringing. We will find some way of distributing these, together with a selection of photographs, to participants in due course).
L to R: Jenny Stoddart (West Kirby), Rosalind Stockhill (Bebington),
Helen Powell (Neston), Nathan Petit (Upton), Rebecca Hoskisson (Neston) (stooping), Scott Henderson (Bidston), Grant Henderson (Bidston) (seated), Lisa Algawi (Thurstaston), Paul Oliver (Thurstaston), Kieran Houghton (Port Sunlight), Sam Jackson (Thurstaston), Matthew Lewis (Shotwick), Amy Robson (Thurstaston), Sarah Robson (Thurstaston), Fiona Nuttall (Heswall), Kyle Houghton (Port Sunlight), Heather Nuttall (Heswall) & Becky Davies (Burton).
17 Mar 09
Bryan McCahey, Peter Hughes' Best Man at his wedding in York last year, has sent your webmaster a copy of the report of the wedding he recently submitted to The Ringing World.
This provides an excellent opportunity, albeit belatedly, of passing on Peter's thanks...
Through your Branch Secretary Peter Hughes wrote [8 December 08]...
We would like to thank the Wirral Branch for the numerous Peals and Quarter Peals rung for our recent wedding. It was good to see that you were all thinking of us, and we were very touched to see Wirral ringers at our blessing at Bidston. Please can you pass on our thanks to Branch members at some appropriate time.
It has been a pleasure to ring with you all over many years. We hope to see you all again soon.
With best wishes.
Peter and Jenny
Note:
11 Mar 09
Geoff Sparling writes...
Congratulations to Jane Davies on scoring her first Handbell Peal [on 5th March] and also conducting it to make it her first peal as conductor.
It all started with a quiet conversation following the AGM at Bebington last November. Jane asked if Sue and I would teach her to ring handbells. We started the following Monday morning.
A few weeks later after Jane had called a few touches it was casually mentioned that when Sue & I had both rung our first peals as conductor, they had both been on handbells. Would Jane like to make it a threesome? Jane readily agreed and so "The Project" was born. A deadline was immediately set as Jane hopes to call a tower-bell peal at Burton at the beginning of April.
After three practice quarter peals, the two reported below plus this Quarter Peal, and with a month to spare, the project was brought to a conclusion in fine style.
12 Feb 09
Congratulations to Gaynor Vaughan (nee Roberts) of Thurstaston who, last Saturday, rang her first Peal.
09 Feb 09
Congratulations to Jane Davies who, today, rang her first Quarter Peal in hand, conducting it too! Then rang another in which the conducting was shared by all three ringers. (Nice to report some cheering news for once).
20 Jan 09
The funeral will take place at St Saviours Church Oxton, where Alex spent 43 years as tower captain, on Wednesday 28th January at 11am.
There will be open ringing before the service (between 10:30 and 10:50am) and then for 30 to 45 minutes after the service. All welcome.
19 Jan 09
I regret to having to report that Alex Martin, who had suffered a broken hip after a fall, died in hospital during last night.
Details of the funeral, will be at St Saviour's, Oxton, will be advised here as soon as known.
Peter Humphreys, Wirral Branch Webmaster.
05 Jan 09
On the evening of last day of 2008 Bob Peers rang his 2008th Quarter Peal, this at Port Sunlight. A Quarter Peal at Burton that same morning had been hastily arranged so that Bob could reach his target, having lost one the previous day.
Congratulations also to Nigel Griffiths of Burton who, on Sunday 4th January, conducted his first Quarter Peal, this at his home tower.