[r-t] Methods and peals

[Mark Davies]

Barrie Hen writes:

> You live in adifferent world.

Definitely. And I'm so glad. :-)

> There is probably no ringer  living within 10
> miles of me who has ever looked at the method  collection.

Several things here:

1. Even in remote backwaters of our ringing Isle, I bet there are Plain Bob
and Grandsire ringers within 10 miles. PB and G are in the method libraries.
OK, I accept that they predate the CC/MC! The point is, ringers ring the
methods in the method collection. Even if they don't look at the
collections, their teachers have, or the teachers of their teachers.

2. Within 10 miles of me there are very few, how shall we say, highly
technical ringers; however there are many many ringers who use Abel or other
ringing software which contains the method libraries. Within a slightly
wider area, there are quarter-peal bands looking for new methods to ring,
and branch masters looking for special methods for practices, as well as a
couple of peal bands either ringing new stuff or looking for recent new
methods to try out. And I can hardly claim Cheltenham is the centre of an
area of ringing excellence!

3. "CCCBR dont even  require you to tell them what a new method is". I'm
pretty sure they do. Tony is very good about this - he insists on getting
the place notation of any new method rung, and he checks each and every one
very carefully. If you name a new Royal method, and it turns out it is an
extension (by the current rules) of a Major method with a different name,
you can be sure he'll spot it and let you know. In this area, I salute the 
hard work the MC have done over many decades.

MBD