The Ancient
Society of
College
Youths
Est. 1637

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ASCY TOUR OF
NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA

10th September - 2nd October, 2003

Diary of the Touring Party Part 2
(Up to the minute news from Down Under. Larger pictures will be available once the tour is over.)
Wednesday 17th - Saturday 20th September

Wednesday 17th September

The flight from Christchurch was a late flight and so didn't touch down in Melbourne until early on the Wednesday morning. The flight was fairly uneventful, although David Baverstock's rapport with one of the air stewardesses yielding some additional alcohol for some of the party. It is therefore unsurprising that after a couple of further drinks in the Lindrum Hotel, he fell fast asleep in the hotel bar. Those drinking with him decided to leave him there, although his room mate (Simon Linford) finally took pity on him and woke him up some time later, albeit with some difficulty!

The day was quite heavy on ringing compared with some of the previous days. Two peals were attempted in the morning in the suburbs of Melbourne at Roman Catholic churches. One was a 6-bell peal of Surprise Minor (8 methods, 6 of the extents being spliced) at Gardenvale. The other was a peal of Superlative Surprise Major at West Heidelberg. The band were met by Andrew Chin, who learned to ring at Heidelberg and had recently conducted the first peal on the bells (on the back six). He was therefore able to take part in the first peal on all eight bells, which also proved to be his first peal on eight! Both peals were successful.

In the afternoon, there was an hour's general ringing at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral. This is an anticlockwise eight and is the only complete ring of bells cast by Murphy of Dublin left in the world. The bells have never been tuned and certainly exhibit some interesting features!

During this ringing, a band of eight ringers went over to St James' Old Cathedral for a peal of Bristol Surprise Major. The party was ably looked after by Graeme Heyes, himself a member of the ASCY. The bells are very hard work as they are hung in a freestanding frame inside the tower, but all the work that had to be put into ringing them paid off as the resulting peal sounded very pleasant. Graeme was able to join the peal band in the pub afterwards for a well earned beer!

Those not in the peal visited the practice at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne at the kind invitation of Helen Pettet, where they were made very welcome. After the practice the whole group went together for some food at an Italian restaurant where the touring party were able to meet the Melbourne ringers in more informal surroundings.

WEST HEIDELBERG, Victoria
St Pius X
Tenor: 5-3-27 in C
Wed 17th Sept 2003 in 2h 36
5184 Superlative S Major
Comp D F Morrison
1 J Roderick N Lebon
2 Peter C Randall
3 Simon J L Linford (C)
4 Karen Lebon
5 Andrew Chin
6 Peter H Gardner
7 Derek J Thomas
8 Fr David A Gibbons
1st peal on the 8 bells.
1st on 8 bells: 5.
Rung Non-Association.

GARDENVALE, Victoria
St James
Tenor: 5-3-9 in B
Wed 17th Sept 2003 in 2h 45
5040 Surprise Minor (8m)
(1. Norwich; 2. London, Wells; 3. Durham, York; 4. London, Wells; 5. Durham York; 6. Beverley, Cambridge; 7. Cambridge, Surfleet)
1 David E Rothera
2 Michael P Moreton
3 Dickon R Love
4 Keith G Game
5 Martin Cubitt
6 Bernard H Taylor (C)
MELBOURNE, Victoria
St James' Old Cathedral
Tenor: 13-0-7 in E
Wed 17th Sept 2003 in 2h 57
5056 Bristol S Major
Comp R W Lee
1 Dickon R Love
2 Gwen Rogers
3 Peter C Randall (C)
4 Carol Brown
5 Fr David A Gibbons
6 David J Baverstock
7 Philip Rogers
8 Derek J Thomas
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St James', Gardenvale

The peal band at Gardenvale (l-r) Iain Welling (who met the band at the tower), Dickon Love, Keith Game, Martin Cubitt, Bernard Taylor, David Rothera, Michael Moreton.

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St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Melbourne. The bells are in the right hand tower in the foreground.

Ringing at St Patrick's.

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St James' Old Cathedral, Melbourne.

The peal band at St James': Gwen Rogers, David Gibbons, Carol Brown, Peter Randall, Derek Thomas, Dickon Love, Phil Rogers, David Baverstock.

Thursday 18th September

The majority of the day provided an opportunity for people to go sightseeing in Melbourne. One group went to Melbourne Zoo, others climbed the observation tower or visited the Melbourne Cricket Ground and museums. A further group took the train to the small town of Ballarat where they attempted a couple of quarter peals. The first was at St Peter's where they were met by a large group of local people including the local press. Visiting bellringers from the UK was big news over there and the press took the opportunity to take photographs, although the only subject that the ringers could discern was Rod Lebon's left ear! At St Peter's they were joined by a couple of ringers from Melbourne to ring a quarter peal of Plain Bob Major. From here they went on to the ring on the magnificent bells of the City Hall where they rang a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples.

Meanwhile back in Mellbourne, a peal was successfully rung at St Paul's Cathedral of Yorkshire Maximus in the evening. One thing that should be noted about Melbourne is the distinct lack of restaurants open after 9pm, including the curry houses. Having been stung the night before by this fact (Phil Rogers was on the verge of eating in a McDonald's Restaurant - that is how bad matters got), a bit of research produced a late night eating suburb of Melbourne. Once the Secretary was happy looking for food, most of the remainder drank in the pub opposite the Cathedral. Peter Gardner in particular enjoyed this particular evening!

 

MELBOURNE, Victoria
St Paul
Tenor: 29-1-12 in C sharp
Thur 18th Sept 2003 in 3h 41
5040 Yorkshire S Maximus
Comp M B Davies
1 Fr David A Gibbons
2 David J Baverstock
3 Peter C Randall
4 Simon J L Linford (C)
5 Michael P Moreton
6 Peter H Gardner
7 Gwen Rogers
8 Dickon R Love
9 David E Rothera
10 Bernard H Taylor
11 Derek J Thomas
12 Philip Rogers

BALLARAT, Victoria
St Peter
Tenor: 11-2-26 in F sharp
Thur 18th Sept 2003 in 48m
1344 Plain Bob Major
1 Keith G Game
2 Karen Lebon
3 Carol Brown
4 Marian J Batty
5 Martin Cubitt
6 Greg Beeston
7 Anthony R Daw
8 J Roderick N Lebon (C)
BALLARAT, Victoria
City Hall
Tenor: 22-0-10 in D
Thur 18th Sept 2003 in 51m
1260 Grandsire Triples
1 Keith G Game (C)
2 Marian J Batty
3 Karen Lebon
4 Carol Brown
5 Martin Cubitt
6 J Roderick N Lebon
7 Anthony R Daw
8 Greg Beeston
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The Master sitting outside the Platypusary in Melbourne Zoo.

St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne (currently in scaffolding while restoration takes place on the west towers). The bells are in the right hand tower in the foreground.

Friday 19th September

It was an early start to head for the airport to Sydney allowing us to touch down shortly after lunchtime. The change in the weather was very marked with the first real heat of the holiday. The Old Sydney Holiday Inn is in "The Rocks" and overlooks Sydney Harbour, very close to the Bridge.The party was welcomed at the hotel by Rusty Walters who distributed maps and travel information including details of a very good nearby real ale pub called "The Lord Nelson".

The first ringing was at St Mary's Basilica - a superb ring of 12 in the central tower of this Roman Catholic Cathedral. We were met by John Fryer and some of his band who joined in the practice. The views over the harbour and the city from the transcept roof outside the ringing room door are spectacular. Ringing then continued at St James, King Street. This is a very new ring of bells (first rung in July) and proved to be very pleasant.

Some of the group then went on to join the practices at St Benedict's, Broadway and St Philip's, Church Hill. Others went for food and drink in various areas of this cosmopolitan city.

 

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Ringing St Mary's Basilica

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Ringing at St James', King Street

St James', King Street

Saturday 20th September

The start of Society Peal Weekend. Two peals were attempted in the morning. One at St Mark's, Darling Point of Yorkshire S Major was unfortunately unsuccessful, as was a quarter peal attempted straight afterwards. However, a successful peal of Bristol S Maximus was achieved at St Andrew's Cathedral. The afternoon saw one further successful attempt: the Secretary called a peal of Pitman's Four at St Philip's, Church Hill.

In the evening, the ASCY Australia Informal Dinner was held.

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SYDNEY, New South Wales
Cathedral Church of St Andrew
Tenor: 29-1-4 in C sharp
Sat 20th Sept 2003 in 3h 24
5040 Bristol S Maximus
Comp John S Warboys
1 Stephanie J Warboys
2 David J Baverstock
3 Gwen Rogers
4 Dickon R Love
5 Peter C Randall
6 David E Rothera
7 Bernard H Taylor
8 Philip R Goodyer
9 Derek J Thomas
10 John S Warboys (C)
11 Philip Rogers
12 Simon J L Linford
Rung for Society Peal Weekend.

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SYDNEY, New South Wales

St Philip, Church Street
Tenor: 18-2-21 in E
Sat 20th Sept 2003 in 3h 15
5152 Spliced S Major
1 Fr David A Gibbons
2 Peter C Randall
3 Gwen Rogers
4 Dickon R Love
5 Christopher D O'Mahony
6 Anthony R Daw
7 Philip Rogers (C)
8 Derek J Thomas
Rung for Society Peal Weekend.
040.jpg (16037 bytes) The ringing gallery in St Philip's, Church Hill, just prior to the peal.

FOLLOWING FEW DAYS

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