First posted: 3 September 2026

A Peal with Footnotes


The Peal Band with Bill Perrins second from left

The peal rung at Christ Church St Laurence Sydney on Saturday 29th August is notable for its large number of footnotes. Phil Goodyer organised the peal to mark the 50th anniversary of the first peal rung at Christ Church St Laurence, the first peal he conducted.

A footnote that caught my attention was "100th 1st peal ringer for a peal". Checking with Bill Perrins he confirmed that there are now 100 different people in whose first peal he has rung, including himself in that list, in his first peal in October 1964.

Bill wrote: I hadn't kept track of such things at all but Pealbase does provide the statistic and I noticed a couple of years ago that I was up around 97. Fairly quickly I snapped up Marion Brown and Cassandra Olive from Hobart. Because of some surgery earlier this year I had to withdraw from what turned out to be Alan Cutter's first peal but Philip's rerun of the CCSL peal provided an opportunity with Richard Winkler in the band. And so it turned out at the second attempt. It was gratifying that Richard came in at number 100 as I had a hand in his early lessons at St Mark's.

Bill added: Mainly first pealers are the only one in a band. I think my record would be four in the first peal at Castlereagh in April 2003. Of those four, only Thomas went on to ring any more peals. I can't equal Rusty's five in the local peal of Bob Minor at St Philip's on ANZAC Day 1986.

Deryn Griffiths

latest first

2026

Sydney 12-bell Weekend - 12 October

Sydney Ringing School - 7 October

VIC ANZAB Branch Practice - 1 October

CCCBR Meeting 2026 - 29 September

WA Branch Practice in Bunbury - 24 September

St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Adelaide - Next step in sound remediation - 16 September

Using BellBoard - 11 September

Armidale Ringing Featured - 9 September

Handbell Practices - 5 September

A Peal with Footnotes - 3 September

Bridgetown Ringing Weekend - 1 September