[r-t] Shipway Minor

[Alexander Holroyd]

In the unlikely event that anyone is not deriving sufficent excitement 
from the current lively discussion on CC decisions, here is a little 
diversion.

Shipway is a natural even-bell variant of Stedman, consisting of alternate 
quick and slow "eights", i.e. forward and reverse hunting on the front 4 
with dodging behind.  3rds is made at the eight end, resulting in a 
principle on every even stage.

Despite the elegance and simplicity of the method, it seems to be rather 
awkward to get an extent of the minor stage.  This may partly explain why 
minor was apparently not named until 1993 (with a pretty challenging 
extent by Jonathan Deane, I believe), while major was pealed in 1840.

In particular, there seems to be a belief that it is impossible to get an 
extent without "disrupting the front work".  If I remember correctly, 
exactly this assertion was made in the RW when it was named in 1993. 
(Perhaps someone with easy access to back issues could check this).

However, this belief turns out to be wrong!  I have recently found an 
extent that does not disrupt the front work -- see below.  It uses 3 
different types of calls, but they are the nicest 3 one could hope for: 
Stedman Triples type bobs and singles, and a Stedman Doubles type single 
in the middle of an eight (henceforth called an extreme).  Moreover, the 
density of calls is not at all unreasonable (for a "problem method").

The extent has some quite strange properties.  The two extremes in the 
part at first look like a Q-set, since they come in two "complementary" 
eights, with the hunting order on the front and the bells in 56 reversed. 
However, they aren't.  We leave an eight with an extreme, but rejoin it in 
the same place at an eight-end (and vice versa).  Not really sure why this 
works.

I'd be interested to see other extents.  In particular, the plain course 
consists of 12 out of 15 eights of the group generated by the place 
notations -,3,4.  Thus 6 true courses are very easily produced, but that 
leaves out 6x3=18 eights to be added somehow.  Can this be done in any 
reasonable way?

Ander

http://www.math.ubc.ca/~holroyd/comps/shi6.txt

720 Shipway Minor
Alexander E Holroyd

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0  123456
---------------------------
   -       s -X  -    234156
   -   s s -     s -  123546
-    X- s       -    231645
---------------------------
3 part

- = 34 at eight-end
s = 3456 at eight-end
X = 56 places in middle of (slow) eight

Start with rounds as the 5th row of a quick eight