I started ringing in 1983 while I was at Collage. It took about 6 to 8 weeks to learn to handle a bell, and it will take me the rest of my life to learn the rest!
After starting to ring at Liss on a regular basis I found that my ringing was slowly improving. I then got a job in London and had to give up ringing for about 6 months. This meant that on my return to ringing my performance had fallen back.
I quickly picked up from were I had left off and moved on form learning to treble to doubles to ringing Plain Bob Doubles inside. I was going great guns when again because of work reasons I moved to London. It was during this second ringing spell that I rang my first quarter peal on the treble at Liss.
Well when I gave up ringing the second time it was 1986 I thought It would be for good this time, but some thing stronger in me made me occasionally turn up out of the blue at Liss and ring. Well this continued up to 1989, when in that year I attended the Annual District Meeting. I had still remained a member of the Winchester & Portsmouth Guild although I had stopped being a regular ringer. At that meeting I raised the issue of not enough practices held on a weekend. This issue was glossed over by the senior members of that committee. I had at that meeting a supporter, this association was to be a monumental force in my future ringing life.
The annual Meeting is held in January. One of my other hobbies is drama and I was for many years a member of a local bunch of budding actors that put on a Pantomime. Well pantomimes are usually preformed in December at Christmas, but in Liss we do things differently, our pantomime is in February during the school half term. I had booked tickets to go and see the show, just for old time sake, when I had a call at work from a Liss ringer who's son was also a Liss ringer. He wanted to go ringing in London on the same day as the Pantomime, His mother is very persuasive I suppose because she is a School teacher. I agreed to miss the Panto, and ring with Michael from Liss.
I meet Mike at Waterloo and we went to a cafe just round the corner from Southwark Cathedral. It was at the Cathedral Mike and I meet a ringer from Buckinghamshire who was to become a great ringing friend and company us on further bellringing trips.
I continued to improve ringing an eventually managed to grasp Grandsire Doubles. This led on to Grandsire Triples. I am currently learning the bells before, for the greatest peal ever composed for Grandsire Holts Original. If all goes to plan I will attempt to call this in October 2000.