[r-t] Major records

[Ben Willetts]

Robin:
> where does it say in the decisions that the
> next record peal of major has to be 80640?

It doesn't.  This was discussed a while ago (on c-r or r-c I think) and came
to the conclusion that you couldn't ring a longer peal of Major than 40,320
changes.  The argument was as follows.

Decision (D)B3 states "Peals of Major ... shall consist of at least 5000
true changes."  There are two possible interpretations of "true" ("No change
repeated" or "No change rung more than once more than any other change"),
which would offer a 40,320-maximum or unlimited number of changes,
respectively.  Nowhere in the Decisions is "true" defined, so we must look
for analogues.

Consider Minimus methods.  The CC does not recognise methods such as Kent TB
which have every change rung twice in a 48-change plain course.  The reason
must be Decision (E)A1(b) -- "A method ... shall be a true round block ..."
because they do not contravene any other Decision.  Therefore we must assume
that "true", in the context of the CC Decisions*, means "no change
repeated".

Therefore peals of Major must contain no repeated changes, and 40,320 is the
longest you can get.**

Ben

* assuming the word "true" means the same thing in different parts of the
Decisions.
** except for Variable Cover, which is treated as Caters, anyway.