[r-t] Proportion of Surprise Methods

[Don Morrison]

2009/3/26 edward martin <edward.w.martin at gmail.com>:
> Not according to my understandong of
>
> "C. Classification of methods with two or more hunt bells
> 1: Each hunt bell is either a principal hunt or a secondary hunt."
>
> Obviously (to me that is) what they mean is there is but one 'principal hunt'

Read that again. It says "Each [not every, though I don't think that
matters] hunt bell is either a principal hunt or a secondary hunt."
Nowhere does it say "there is only one principal hunt." Note that it
says "a principal hunt," not "the principal hunt." In the case of
Grandsire the treble is either a principal hunt or a secondary hunt:
in particular, it is a principal hunt. Similarly, the 2 is either a
principal hunt or a secondary hunt: in particular, it is a principal
hunt.

To see this, look at the rest of that paragraph. It says

"The properties (a) to (e) are considered in turn and the paths of the
hunt bells are examined until a hunt bell is found whose path has that
property. The principal hunts are all the hunt bells whose paths have
that property, unless the paths of some but not all of these hunt
bells are Little, when the principal hunts are those hunt bells whose
paths are not Little. (a) Plain hunting; (b) Treble Dodging; (c) Treble Place;
(d) Alliance; (e) Hybrid."

Note that there explicitly can be multiple principal hunts.

Following the procedure described in that paragraph we first look at
the two hunt bells, and see if either of them is of type (a) Plain
Hunting. Yes, they both are. Thus the primary hunts of this method are
all those bells that are plain hunting. It is further complicated if
some are little paths and others are not, but in this case neither
hunt bell is following a little path, so both the treble and the 2 are
principal hunts. And, according this, the CC's definition of principal
and secondary hunts, Grandsire has no secondary hunts.

Secondary hunts, according to this definition, are things like the 2
in a slow course method, or the 5 in Boxford Bob Doubles.

That may not be what you, or even I, might like to think of as
principal and secondary hunts. But if we are trying to following the
CC's categorization of methods we have to use their definitions in
order to make it all work the way they intend it to.




-- 
Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
"We believe that labels are important, but mostly for bottles of
wine."  -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude (from the artists' web site)