Surprise Major Weekend in Perth, 30 May - 1 June 2025
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Lunch break during the Saturday ringing at St Hilda's (photo courtesy Adam Beer)
A surprise major weekend was organised in WA for 31 May/1 June. We started early and successfully with a QP of Cambridge S Major on the evening of 30 May. After much gentle and supportive persuasion, Charlotte Greenhalgh reluctantly agreed to ring inside, and (as expected by the rest of the band) nailed it. This was Charlotte's first QP of major (of any sort).
Saturday morning started with a 10/12 bell practice at The Bell Tower. Not surprise major, but too good an opportunity to miss when we had some extra interstate ringers to lend support. From there we moved to St Hilda's for the afternoon for three general ringing sessions and a QP, interspersed with lunch and a lot of tea and biscuits. The general ringing started with a focus session for new and emerging treble-bobbers and some good Cambridge S Minor. During the afternoon the repertoire expanded to Yorkshire, Superlative, Bristol and London S Major and finished with an excellent QP of Yorkshire S Major.
Sunday began with the usual service ringing and then returned to St Hilda's for the afternoon. There was some brain testing for the Cambridge S Minor ringers with a bit of Primrose S Minor added to the mix, and consolidation of all the surprise major methods we'd rung on Saturday. A QP attempt of London S Major came to grief a few courses in, but was still excellent practice and enjoyable up until then.
We were very pleased with the turnout from WA ringers over the weekend, some coming a fair distance to attend on both Saturday and Sunday, and others who might not have thought of coming, being brave and joining in. It was extremely helpful to have some interstate ANZAB friends with us to support the ringing and thanks go to Alan Champion, Patrick Meyer, Charlotte Sorell and David Sorell for making the journey West, and thanks to ANZAB for supporting their travel. Thanks to those who led the ringing sessions - Richard Offen, Ian Harris, Vicki Greenhalgh and Callum Crofton, and of course thanks to those who contributed lunch food and ongoing tea/coffee/biscuit sustenance, with special mention to Callum and Richard for hosting dinner on Saturday evening.
While the weekend officially concluded on Sunday evening, it turned out we weren't completely exhausted and after a day off, we went ahead with our usual monthly surprise major practice on Tuesday evening. This was a great opportunity to consolidate and for some to expand further. After sailing through a course of Yorkshire S Major, it surely is only a matter of time and opportunity before Charlotte adds another QP of surprise major to her list of achievements.
Thanks to all who made the weekend a success. I'm already looking forward to the next one!
Vicki Greenhalgh