ASCY TOUR OF
NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA

My guidebook suggested that to do justice to a holiday in Australia and New Zealand you need a couple of months, New Zealand being worth a fortnight in itself. Not only are there huge distances involved, but also a lot of scenery to admire. Some ringers have different priorities though, and Master Dickon Love and Secretary Phil Rogers were tasked with planning a tour that visited the major cities, included peals on all rings of twelves and above, as many other peals as possible, a good dose of practices and quarters with local bands, while leaving people enough time to do their own thing if they wanted. To have achieved it was a triumph of logistics, communication and hard work.

At the risk of this sounding like a ringing tour report it is worth just giving the order that cities were visited. We started in Wellington (2 nights), then Christchurch (2 nights), Melbourne (3 nights), Sydney (5 nights), Adelaide (3 nights) and finally Perth (4 nights). You can get used to waking up not knowing what day it is but when you wake up not knowing what city you are in you start to worry about your sanity. One could go days without seeing some of the other members of the group if you happened to be in different peals or eating arrangements, meeting up at the airport for the next leg. A great adventure.

When you travel such large distances the pressure is on to score peals, and a record was notched up that Johnny Wilkinson would have been proud of - 22 from 24 attempts. It was calculated that those peal attempts had 1,500 calls and changes of method in the right place and just one in the wrong place giving an accuracy of 99.9%! Dear to quite a few of the party’s hearts was ringing peals at all the twelves. All six "ticks" were safely obtained. Then the final challenge on the last weekend in Perth – a creditable peal of Yorkshire Sixteen which saw a couple of people ringing on ultra high numbers for the first time. We did have some Cumberland-esque "Yorkshire and score" attacks, and the Junior Steward’s composition of Yorkshire Maximus got almost as many outings as Keith Game’s white t-shirt.

Visits by the College Youths are preceded by certain expectations. On the one hand there is the expectation of very competent, if not excellent ringing. We managed the former most of the time, and the latter at least some of the time. Some of the rings of twelve, for instance St Paul’s Melbourne, provided a very good test, and those who rang the peal at St James’ Old Cathedral in Sydney carried the scars of battle for several days afterwards.

But on the other hand there is a reputation that College Youths are somewhat aloof, only interested in peal ringing, and unwilling to help at the grass roots. Judging by the comments received from many of the local ringers this reputation has largely and rightly been put to bed. Over the course of three weeks we managed to ring with over 130 local ringers, enabled many to make progress in quarters, and had many hours of thoroughly enjoyable practices and social gatherings. In the evensong sermon at St George’s Perth, the College Youth visitors were likened to "Good Shepherds" - somewhat generous, but quite touching.

A major feature of ringing tours is of course eating and drinking. Ringing and sightseeing fills in the gaps between restaurants, desperate attempts to find a decent pint or beer, and hotel bars. There were two semi-formal dinners with local College Youth members and guests in Sydney and in Perth. Both were memorable and convivial evenings, followed by painful mornings. We were also treated to fine hospitality at David and Elizabeth Bleby’s home in the Inman Valley, including a ride around the estate in the back of a 4x4 that Alton Towers visitors would pay good money for.

Unbelievably, there was also time for a broad range of extra-curricular activities. Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge is unforgettable and almost worth the cost. Before our 8am climb we had to take a breathalyser test – our PR machine went into overdrive to cover up the story - "Eight CYs sober at breakfast shock!" Fortunately Prince Harry arrived in Sydney and we were relegated to the inside pages. Tony Daw enhanced his Action Man credentials with golf, skiing, diving, rafting, and double handling, even leaving time to challenge David Baverstock as King of the Sharks.

It is difficult to do justice to the achievement that the Swan Bells project represents. As you fly into Perth the Qantas arrival video promises to show you the top five tourist attractions of the City. I thought to myself "fat chance of it recommending spending twelve hours up a bell tower". Imagine my surprise then when a visit to the Swan Bells came second after going for a walk in Kings Park! The Swan Bells have become a major feature of this beautiful city, a wonderful blend of the old and the new, a unique public demonstration of the science and art of ringing, and a great credit to Leith Reynolds and the Perth ringers. The bells are rung every day to a constant flow of fascinated tourists, and the advance publicity of the "world famous College Youths" visit led to the highest visitor figures for two years.

All in all we rang four peals at Swan, and had seven hours of other ringing. Of particular significance was a peal of 6204 Stedman Cinques, rung 215 years after the first peal of Stedman Cinques which was rung by the College Youths on the same bells (in their previous home of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster). 47 courses in the tittums makes you thankful that compositions of Stedman Cinques have developed a long way since Thomas Blakemore’s day.

The ringing chamber at Swan also gave us the venue for the formal Country Meeting of the Society. Country Meetings are never overflowing with business, and this was no exception. Holding the meeting in an alcohol-free zone contributed to its quick progress. The formalities culminated in the Junior Steward presenting the organisers, Phil and Gwen Rogers and Dickon Love, with presents on behalf of a very appreciative touring party.

Only one thing exceeded the diversity of the experiences, the slickness of the Rogers/Love organisation, and the success of the ringing – and that was the warmth of the welcome from the local ringers and other members of the Society at every destination, and their hard work in ensuring the tour ran smoothly. From Wellington to Perth the custodians of the antipodean ringing assets paved the way for us, embraced us at their practices, and even more importantly pointed us in the direction of the best pubs. Having now had tours of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the stage is being set for an invitation to College Youths living outside the UK to visit us in 2005. We look forward to repaying your kind hospitality.