April 2008
You may have seen from our pictures in the local papers that the St Laurence team won a bell-ringing competition earlier this month but that's not going to stop me telling you all about it again. Six of us went over to Rowley Regis on March 1st for the Striking Competition organised by the WDCRA (the Worcestershire and Districts Change Ringing Association). This is the first time that anyone can remember the Alvechurch ringers entering a competition and we decided to ease ourselves in gently by going for the simple Call Changes category. This just tests our ability to ring bells in a variety of predefined sequences at a regular pace. Call Changes are what we ring most Sundays so we've had plenty of practice but we were still very surprised and pleased to win. There are more details and pictures of our team on the web site at: http://www.alvechurchbells.org.uk/striking.html
The Friday after the competition we entered teams in the Association's Quiz Night at Beoley. We didn't do quite as well here but consoled ourselves with the thought that the winning team has to arrange next year's quiz and we escaped from that chore.
Our social life is really getting very busy. Some of us are joining the Beoley Team for their annual coach trip on May 10th. They're going to be ringing at churches in North Somerset with a break for lunch in Glastonbury. Visitors are welcome so ask one of the ringers for details if you feel like a day out and a chance to look around a few country churches.
We have had to change the date of our Table Top Sale. Last month we said it was going to be on May 10th but we discovered that that would clash with the Spring Fair at the Baptist Church. There's no sense having two similar events on the same day so we've moved our sale to June 7th. Tables are £5 each from Karen on 0121 445 4980 and we're still looking for items to sell from our table.
Before that we have a concert from the Gemini choir on April 26th. Tickets will be available from the Flower Mill or from any of the ringers and we'll advertise more details around the village closer to the date.
General ringing carries on much as usual. Easter will have come and gone by the time that Grapevine appears but you might have noticed that we had a week off. Traditionally no bells are rung during Holy Week until the first service on Easter Sunday.
Easter will have come and gone and I hope we'll have got all our egg tubes back in full of your loose change. We'll be collecting in the Ark on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday but if you missed us then it's still not too late. Any of the ringers will be happy to take your money.