[r-t] Phobos music - new surprise royal and max methods

[Philip Earis]

The talk of Phobos-esque treble-dodging major methods made me think of using 
the same concept on 10 bells. I think there's bags of potential with the 
overwork.  The only drawback is its inherent BD falseness, though I don't 
feel this is critical.

Anyway, there have only been six treble-dodging royal methods rung with the 
Phobos overwork:

Southampton University -3-4-2.5.6-2.7.8-6-7.6.78-9, 2 (a)
End of Exams           -3-4-2.5.6-34-5-6-67-6-7 (f)
Harrison               -3-4-2.5.6-34-5-6-7.6-56.7 (f)
Lochdubh               -3-4-2.5.6-34.7.58.6-6.7-6-1 (mx)
Tanglefoot             -3-4-2.5.36.4-47.58.6-6.3.6-2.7 (h)
Ujay                   -3-4-2.5.36-4-3.6-6.7.6-6.7,0 (l)

Tanglefoot is the earliest, dating from 1995.  Though not a bad method, the 
work below the treble is pretty uninspiring, with the messy notation around 
the half-lead making you avoid regular halflead-ends/heads. It weighs in 
with a meagre 82 4-runs. Harrison (112 4-runs) is considerably better, if a 
bit more static on the front, but suffers from the same problem when the 
treble is in 9-0.

End of Exams (like Harrison, it also has 112 4-runs and was conducted by Tom 
Hinton - what has become of him?) was rung a couple of months later in 1997, 
and is an improvement. It uses a very simple right-place underwork, based 
around plain hunt on the front six, giving a coursing six off the front when 
the treble dodges in 7-8, and the coursing six reversed at the half-lead 
(hence 567890.... and 765432....). I like it a lot.

Ujay also uses plain hunting on the front six with a coursing six, but this 
time employs wrong hunting.  It is a fairly logical contraction of Phobos 
maximus, and a decent method from the Rob Lee stable.  It was first rung at 
the end of last year, and has 104 4-runs in its plain course. The 10ths 
place leadend change works well with this overwork to spread the music 
around the course a bit too.

Southampton University has a very impressive 128 4-runs. Indeed, it is a 
pretty decent all-round method.  The only drawback is the 78-9 notation 
around the half-lead, which is a bit sledgehammer-like.  By changing the 
half-lead and leadend changes to 10, you get a more fluid and better method. 
It's damn good, and unrung as well. Southampton University was first 
conducted to a peal in 2002 by Tim Collins.  Who actually came up with the 
method, then?

And finally, we come on Lochdubh Surprise Royal. We are now in the realm of 
seriously good shit. Amazingly, this 124 4-run gem has only previously been 
rung in spliced. Whose method is it? You've got almost Bristol Royal beneath 
the treble, and the method uses this to devastatingly good effect, elegantly 
pouring in the music with fully regular half-leads. The only slight drawback 
is the mx group has a slow progression of music from big bells to little 
bells, but this is a very minor quibble.  The only further comment I would 
add is that the method can actually be tweaked to improve the music, by 
changing the -34.7 section to 34-7, thereby getting the bells into the right 
order a row earlier and giving two extra rollups in the course.

This modified new method (&-3-4-2.5.6.34-7.58.6-6.7-6-1, mx, 124 4-runs) is 
the dog's. Ring it, people.  I may even go so far to say that it should be 
one of the four 'standard' treble-dodging royal methods, along with Bristol, 
Triton and something else to be decided.  Yorkshire if you want to be 
boring, MBD's Rabbit to be exotic. Is anyone up to producing a decent 
spliced composition? For comparison, Bristol has 112 4-runs in the plain 
course, Triton has 98 whilst Cambridge has 66.

Clearly, this new royal method can be simply extended to a new surprise 
maximus method with the Phobos overwork 
(-3-4-2.5.6.34-7.58.6-9.70.8-8.9-8-T, g, 232 4-runs). Again, good shit.