Harmonisation of Decisions

The minutes of the 2006 Central Council meeting in Leicester report the following interchange regarding the Committee reports:

David Manger challenged the Committee's view that defining a quarter-peal would not be welcomed by quarter-peal ringers: such ringers did not regard the Council as relevant to them; the Committee should talk to these ringers - he proposed that the subject be revisited. John Cater did not agree that rules were wanted: Heather Peachey added that trying to police and keep records would be an impossible task, but performances should be recognised by publication in The Ringing World; Robert Lewis confirmed that it was the policy of the paper to publish quarter-peals: if there were rules it would make that task far more difficult. The Vice-President did not expect that quarter-peal ringers wanted a committee to review and analyse quarter-peals; Chris Rogers pointed out that quarter-peal ringers were not a group apart: we were all quarter-peal ringers. Michael Henshaw acknowledged that several of the Council's committees were geared around peal-ringing: perhaps there could be some recognition of quarter-peal ringing but without the formality of rules; other speakers agreed that the Council should seek ways of offering support, such as encouraging the publication of quarter-peal compositions. Sam Austin referred to the naming of methods rung in quarter-peals: there could be rules to enable them to be included in the Methods collection: the Vice-President, speaking as Chairman of the Methods Committee, responded that would not be workable as a new Decision would have to define a quarter-peal.

This discussion was concluded without any action by the Council to look into the matter further.

The following was an attempt by Graham John to see if it was possible to define a quarter-peal in the decisions and also address some of the related issues arising, such as the treatment of partial extents below Major. It was posted to Ringing Theory on 14 June 2006, and copied to the then Chair of the Methods Committee.

Objectives

• To allow methods to be named and included in the CC method collections if they are first rung in a quarter-peal
• To remove the restrictions on stages below Major which prevent the popular custom of ringing unusual peal lengths for special occasions
• To reduce the minimum peal length to 5000 for all stages as a logical consequence of allowing peals to contain partial extents
• To permit peal lengths of Major longer than 40320 to be recognised
• To harmonise the decisions at stages above and below Major

Suggested Changes to the Decisions

B. Particular conditions required for peals on different numbers of bells

1. Peals of Minimus shall be rung on tower bells only.

2. Peals of Minimus, Doubles, Minor and, Triples etc shall be rung on four, five, six and, seven etc bells respectively, or on five, six, seven, and eight etc bells with the tenor as cover, and shall consist of at least 50405000 changes rung in any combination of the following, each starting from rounds:-

(a) Extents, in which each of the possible rows at that stage occurs once and only once.

(b) Round blocks of two or more extents in which each of the possible rows at that stage occurs the same number of times.

(c) One true touch that contains a subset of all the possible rows at that stage, or one round block of two or more extents in which some of the rows from one extent only are omitted.

3. Peals of Major, Caters, Royal, etc. shall be rung on eight, nine, ten, etc. bells respectively, or on nine, ten, eleven, etc. bells with the tenor as cover, and shall consist of at least 5000 true changes.

4.3. Peals of 'Variable Cover Minimus', 'Variable Cover Doubles', and 'Variable Cover Minor' etc shall be rung on five, six, and seven etc bells respectively and shall consist of at least 50405000 changes rung in any combination of the following, each starting from rounds:-

(a) Variable cover extents, in which each of the possible rows, treated as being at the next higher stage, occurs once and only once.

(b) Round blocks of two or more variable cover extents in which each of the possible rows, treated as being at the next higher stage, occurs the same number of times.

(c) One true touch that contains a subset of all the possible rows at the next higher stage, or one round block of two or more extents, treated as being at the next higher stage, in which some of the rows from one extent only are omitted.

(cd) Extents or round blocks with the tenor as cover as permitted in 2 above.

5. Peals of 'Variable Cover Triples', 'Variable Cover Major', 'Variable Cover Caters', etc. shall be rung on eight, nine, ten, etc. bells respectively, with a cover bell which is not always the tenor, and shall consist of at least 5000 true changes. The truth is determined by treating all the rows as being at the next higher stage.

64. Peals of 'Minimus and Doubles', 'Doubles and Minor' and 'Minor and Triples' shall be rung on five, six and seven bells respectively and shall consist of at least 50405000 changes rung in any combination of the following each starting from rounds:-

(a) Extents or round blocks at the lower stage as permitted in 43 above.

(b) Extents or round blocks at the higher stage as permitted in 2 above.

(c) Mixed stage extents, with a cover bell when ringing the lower stage, in which each of the rows possible at the higher stage occurs once and only once.

(d) Round blocks of two or more mixed stage extents, with a cover bell when ringing the lower stage, in which each of the rows possible at the higher stage occurs the same number of times.

The peal is described as 'Variable Cover Minimus and Doubles', 'Variable Cover Doubles and Minor' and 'Variable Cover Minor and Triples' respectively if the cover when ringing the lower stage is not always the same bell.

7. Peals of 'Triples and Major', 'Major and Caters', 'Caters and Royal', etc. shall be rung on eight, nine, ten, etc. bells respectively, with a cover bell when ringing the lower stage, and shall consist of at least 5000 true changes. The truth is determined by treating all the rows as being at the higher stage. The peal is described as 'Variable Cover Triples and Major', 'Variable Cover Major and Caters', 'Variable Cover Caters and Royal', etc. if the cover when ringing the lower stage is not always the same bell.

85. Reports of variable cover peals shall state the number of different cover bells and the number of changes of cover bell.

D. Nomenclature and Extensions

1. The stage names for different numbers of changing bells are:-

4 Minimus, 6 Minor, 8 Major, 10 Royal, 12 Maximus, 14 Fourteen, 16 Sixteen, etc.

5 Doubles, 7 Triples, 9 Caters, 11 Cinques, 13 Sextuples, 15 Septuples, etc.

2. (a) The title of a hunter shall consist of Name, Class (with the exception of Grandsire, Double Grandsire, Reverse Grandsire, Little Grandsire, Union, Double Union and Reverse Union) and Stage.

(b) The title of a principle shall consist of Name and Stage.

(c) The title of a differential shall consist of Name, "Differential" and Stage.

(d) The title of a differential hunter shall consist of Name, "Differential", Class and Stage.

(e) If a non-Little Plain method with double symmetry and either one plain hunting hunt bell or two or more principal hunts, all of which are coursing, has the same number of leads in the plain course as the corresponding method with no internal places below the hunt bell or principal hunts, they shall have the same name but with the prefixes "Double" and "Single" respectively.

(f) Where a principle or differential has a distinct reverse, both methods shall have the same name but one with the prefix "Reverse".

(g) A method may not be given a name if the title excluding the Stage would be the same as a method in a different type or class.

3.(a) Methods at different stages in the same type and class shall only have the same name if they are related as in the Decision on Method Extension.

(b) Methods at different stages in the same type and class that are uniquely related as in Parts A to D of the Decision on Method Extension shall have the same name, and where not uniquely related one relationship shall have the same name.

(c) Methods in the same class that are related as in Part E of the Decision on Method Extension shall have the same name.

4. The band that first rings a new method in a pealsingle-method or multi-method touch of at least 1250 changes, or an extent in the case of Doubles or Minor, complying with Parts A to D of the Decision on Peal Ringing, of a new method or an extent in the case of Doubles or Minor, or includes it in a multi-method peal complying with Parts A to D of the Decision on Peal Ringing, shall name the method and publish it in The Ringing World, subject to D.2 and D.3 above, and to the power of the Council to change the name or leave it unnamed if it considers it necessary.