[r-t] Methods Committee proposed change 3.0(D)

[Mark Davies]

This change ("Allow a wider range of peal constructions") is a little 
more involved because the idea behind it is to make dealing with truth 
more consistent across stages. It's therefore an opportunity to simplify 
Decision D(B), which in its current form is extremely convoluted.

Here is our first stab at new wording - this would replace D(B) in its 
entirety. The current idea is to separate out the definitions of stage 
categories, peal length, and truth, rather than mixing all those 
concepts together as in the current Decisions. As before, comments on 
the technical accuracy and effectiveness of the new wording are welcome. 
And remember, this is a temporary replacement for one year only!

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B. Particular conditions required for peals on different numbers of bells

1. Single-stage peals. Peals of Minimus, Doubles, Minor, Triples, Major, 
etc shall be rung on four, five, six, seven, eight, etc. bells 
respectively, or on five, six, seven, eight, nine, etc bells with the 
tenor as cover. Peals of "Variable Cover Minimus", "Variable Cover 
Doubles", "Variable Cover Minor", etc shall be rung on five, six, seven, 
etc bells respectively, with a cover bell which is not always the tenor.

2. Multi-stage peals. Peals of "Minimus and Doubles", "Doubles and 
Minor", etc shall be rung on five, six, etc bells respectively, and 
contain at least one round block, starting and ending in rounds, at the 
lower stage. Peals of "Variable Cover Minimus and Doubles", "Variable 
Cover Doubles and Minor", etc shall be rung on five, six, etc bells 
respectively, and contain at least one round block, starting and ending 
with rounds, with a cover bell which is not always the tenor. Both types 
of peal shall also contain at least one round block, starting and ending 
in rounds, at the higher stage.

3. Length. Peals involving no more than seven changing bells, which 
includes "Variable Cover Minor and Triples", shall consist of at least 
5040 changes. Peals with more than seven changing bells, which includes 
"Triples and Major" and "Variable Cover Triples", shall consist of at 
least 5000 changes.

4. Truth. A peal may contain any number of uninterrupted extents or 
multi-extent blocks: these are round blocks starting and ending in 
rounds in which every possible row at the effective stage occurs the 
same number of times. In multi-stage peals, each such round block may be 
rung at either the lower or higher stage. Additionally, a peal may 
include a single uninterrupted round block, at either the lower or 
higher stage for multi-stage peals, in which each of the possible rows 
at that stage appears at most one more time than every other possible 
row. In variable cover peals, the higher stage is the effective stage 
when assessing the truth of any round block with a cover bell not always 
the tenor.

5. Reports of variable cover peals shall state the number of different 
cover bells and the number of changes of cover bell.

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MBD