Gathering together on a specific date to ring a Quarter Peal commemorating a specific and important event on that day is a good recipe for anxiety. I as conductor certainly felt that way. It was a warm occasion; certainly in the day's temperature (a bit over 90F) but certainly also in fellowship, with a nice balance of Birmingham, Atlanta, and Marietta ringers as can be seen in the QP report below. Our first foray into the method came unstuck after one of the six parts (the old faithful 'bobs in, home, and two at fourths: Diary p. 53). We put it down to "practice", and started again. A nicely struck and confident 5 parts later it/we failed again - and I should have been able to quickly put it back onto the tracks - but failed. A 10-minute rest left us just enough time for one final try - and bingo! Craig's tenor-covering drove us expertly and remorselessly to completion, and the rest of us complimented that, to a man/woman, with a solid rhythmic piece of ringing. At the call of 'that's all', only three minutes remained before the start of the six o'clock Vespers in the very-nearby Cathedral! The early anxiety was well repaid.
Birmingham, Alabama
Cathedral of St Paul
Sunday, 31 May 2009
1260 Plain Bob Triples
1 Lyn Barnett
2 Catherine P Brown
3 Jennifer Johnson
4 Ted Clark
5 Bill Buckner
6 Jeremy Johnson
7 Derek J Wilsden (C)
8 Craig Lagrone
Rung on the Solemnity of Pentecost for The Celebration of The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Ordination to the Priesthood of The Very Reverend Richard E. Donohoe, S.T.L, Rector. Rung in
gratitude for his inspired leadership which was the impetus for this beautiful ring of tower bells being in Birmingham.
