Last weekend, the youth team travelled to London to compete in the Ringing World National Youth Contest. Our team was James on the treble, William on the second, me (Jenna) on the third, Azriel on the fourth, Rosy on the fifth and Daniel on the sixth. We were the Cornish Pasties!
Firstly, we went to St Lawrence Jewry to practice our test piece and try some call changes on 8 for 30 minutes. The bells felt quite heavy, but it was good to get started. Next, we rang at St Michael Cornhill and did some rounds and call changes with other teams on 12 for 30 minutes. This was my first time ringing 12 bells and once I got the hang of it, it was really good. The people we were with were really lovely.
Then we walked to St James Garlickhythe to do our test piece for the contest on 6. We met the Devon team there and had a group photo. There were jokes about jam first or cream first, obviously it is jam first! The bells felt quite light and were nice to ring. I think the test piece went really well and we rang well as a team.
After that, we rang at Christchurch Spitalfields and did some call changes on 8 for 30 minutes. Two of the stays were broken which made ringing a bit tricky. This was followed by St Giles Cripplegate for some rounds and call changes for 30 minutes. Then, the final place we rang at was St Mary le Bow, where we first did some mini rings, hand bells and workshops. We rang with other teams in rounds and call changes for 1 hour. The bells felt a bit heavy, but it was fun. You could stand on the balcony and look down at the street below.
We ended the day at St Paul’s Cathedral where took photos with all the teams in the competition. Then we went inside for the award ceremony, and we came joint 6th with Devon! It was massive but beautiful inside. I was really proud of our team and can’t wait to do it again!
A big thank you to all the support and lovely messages we received on social media, it was really lovely to read them all.
