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Long-term subscribers to ''The Ringing World'', and particularly those who have an
interest in peal ringing, may have noticed that a cluster of peals appear annually under
the heading of ''East meets West''. The name refers to a long-established peal band that
has toured every year since 1969, apart from 1975 (due to family commitments) and
2020 (Covid).

The tour was established by Howard Egglestone, along with John Hunt, Jim Towler
and Cyril Wratten, a quartet who shared similar values and aspirations when it came to
peal ringing. Howard, in particular, was much inspired by the accounts of Bill Pye’s
legendary peal tours that ran intermittently from 1901 to 1934. Bill simply surrounded
himself with talented ringing friends, took on the vagaries of early twentieth century
transport, and rang peals in classic methods on the finest bells in different parts of the
country. His band often rang two peals every day for a week and whilst they evidently
enjoyed some strong companionship they were principally gathered for high-class
ringing.

Adopting Bill’s approach, Howard and John raised a combined band, half from East
Anglia where Howard lived, and half from the West Country, which was John’s patch.
Based in the Bristol area, they dubbed themselves ''East meets West'' and thus laid the
foundations for one of the most successful and enduring touring peal bands.

The tours were initially arranged during the summer months but following a series of
very hot weeks they shifted to springtime or autumn. These days our preference is for a
tour based on a long weekend and rather fewer peals. The only other touring bands that
share our longevity are the original ''Tom Lock Peal Tour'' that started in 1948 and the
Around Tour that began in 1963. Both these bands, like our own, have flourished under
various leaders and organisers over the years and continue to this day.

From the outset ''East meets West'' has always strived to maintain the highest of
standards, combining a careful selection of classic methods on eight, ten and twelve
bells with the best of compositions. That Bristol and London on all numbers dominate
our repertoire should be no great surprise, whilst compositions by Albert Pitman and
Chris Kippin are firm favourites in the Spliced lexicon. Each tour also features two or
three rather more obscure or new methods to lend variety.

Another feature of the tour is that it has always comprised a relatively small number of
ringers, all of whom get on well together and share a strong commitment and loyalty to
the enterprise. The four founder members toured regularly for more than 35 years
before they were no longer able to do so, whilst the rest of us have typically notched
up a similar number of appearances. Remarkably, eight members of the band have
each rung well over 200 peals on tour.

With the passage of time it became clear that it would be an interesting and useful
exercise to gather together all our peal records and make them widely available. So,
with help from several people over many months, the peal reports have all been placed
on ''BellBoard'' and a digital ''East meets West'' peal book has been created. The book is
there primarily for posterity and it will be updated regularly.

'''''Martin Whiteley'''''

[[Media:EmW_peal_book_2024.pdf|The East meets West Pealbook (pdf)]]

East Meets West Pealbook - Revision history

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