[r-t] New Surprise Minor Composition

[Alexander Holroyd]

The holy grail of Standard 41 Surprise Major would be an all-the-work 
"normal length" peal composition of 5040.  So far as I know, no-one has 
any idea whether this is possible.  The required 41*5 leads for the 
all-the-work property is just 5 leads short of 5040, so the problem 
seems very difficult because there is so little "slack".  I believe I 
have shown through exhaustive search that is is not possible in a 5-part 
structure, but that is just a flea-bite of the full search space, and 
it's not clear what to try next.

A few years ago I started considering whether it might be possible to 
get a 5-part 5040 consisting of 5 leads of each of the 41 methods, plus 
one additional method to mop up the remaining 120 rows.  I eventually 
managed to come up with quite a few solutions for the 41 methods, but 
infuriatingly, in every case it was not possible to join the remaining 
rows into a method or methods without jump changes (or without splicing 
in and out of the 41 somewhere other than the lead end, which would 
defeat the purpose).  This search was not exhaustive, but I was out of 
options.

One could simply leave out the missing 120 rows to get a 4920 of 41 atw, 
and with the right choice of solution, each row then appears either 6 or 
7 times.  However, I'm not sure how much appetite there would be for 
ringing that!  As a final fall-back, I looked for ways to bump the 
length up to a sub-5040 peal length by ringing some but not all of the 
missing rows.  It turns out that there is a very nice way to do this, in 
a minimum length of 5000, with the extra method being a perfectly nice 
symmetric regular method (seemingly the first Little Surpise Minor 
method rung).  My understanding is that these days such a composition 
counts as a perfectly legitimate peal. (Needless to say, I would rather 
ring a 5040, but I don't know how to get one!)

The above process led to a collection of leads of the methods. Joining 
them into a peal was also quite challenging.  Methods having 2nds and 
6ths place variants must have both versions, and so cannot have calls 
(otherwise one cannot really legitimately claim to have rung both 
methods).  On the other hand, a lead can be rung in either direction.

I tried to optimize for ease of ringing.  There are still quite a few 
changes of overwork.  A possible variant would be to ring a whole plain 
course of Cheeky Little at the beginning (or end). Harder arrangements 
are possible too.

Many thanks to my new and old Bristol friends for ringing it so 
seemingly effortlessly today!

enjoy, Ander

https://complib.org/composition/77205

5000 42-Spliced Surprise Minor
Alexander E Holroyd
23456    1    2    3    4    5    Methods
24635        s    –            CyCu;No.
62543                        MuHeWhBk
56243            –            PrCmLi.
43625                        AbLfBmRoNe
45362    –            s        Ke.IpAkWk;
45236            –            StAdCh.Wm
24653                        ClCtSaMoWoNb
36524    –            –        Ws.HuLoCo.
45362                    –    BoYoBvSuDu.
42635    –                    We.BcNfNw
5 part.

Contains 120 Allendale (Ad), Alnwick (Ak), Annable's London (Ab), Bacup 
(Bc), Bamborough (Bm), Berwick (Bk), Beverley (Bv), Bourne, Cambridge 
(Cm), Canterbury (Ct), Carlisle (Cl), Chester, Coldstream, Cunecastre, 
Durham, Hexham, Hull, Ipswich, Kelso, Lightfoot (Lf), Lincoln, London, 
Morpeth, Munden, Netherseale, Newcastle (Nw), Norfolk (Nf), 
Northumberland (Nb), Norwich, Primrose, Rossendale, Sandiacre, Stamford, 
Surfleet, Warkworth (Wk), Wearmouth (Wm), Wells, Westminster (Ws), 
Whitley, Wooler, York; 80 Cheeky Little (Cy); 209 com; atw, including 
plain leads of all methods having 2nd and 6th place variants.  Each row 
occurs 6 or 7 times.

Cheeky Little Surprise Minor:  &34-3.4-2-34,1

Bristol Society
Ringing Room, UK
Saturday, 6 March 2021 in 2h 17

5000 Spliced Surprise Minor (42m)
Composed by A E Holroyd
1–2 Julian O Howes
3 Lucy A Warren (C)
4 Philip J Earis
5 Alexander E Holroyd
6 Alan G Reading

This composition, containing the standard 41 surprise minor all the 
work, is rung for the first time.

https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1423167