A TEAM of bellringers representing St Mary’s Church, Down St Mary, won the annual “Devon North Church Bellringing Competition” on Saturday, May 11.

Held this year at Ashwater in West Devon, located between Holsworthy and Launceston, the competition forms part of the qualifying round where the top five placed teams go forward to the Devon Association of Bellringers Major Final at Lydford on June 8.

There they will compete against the five qualifying teams from Devon South.

Competition peals consist of 66 changes where bells are required to alter position following a set pattern known as “60’s on 3rds”. The rules dictate a team will be automatically disqualified if they deviate from this pattern or the length of the peal is shorter than 15 minutes duration.

Marked by judges who listen to the ringing and award faults depending on number of factors, which include; fluency of ringing, speed of ringing, clearance of the bells from one another and quality of rising and lowering of the bells from a stopped position.

The Competition Results were: 1 Down St Mary 19 1/4 – George Facey Shield, 2 Clawton 33 – Arnold Cup, 3 Sampford Courtenay 38 ½, 4 West Down 39 ¼, 5 Burrington 39 ¾, 6 Anstey 52 ½ and 7 Bow 70 ¾.

If anyone is interested in learning to ring please give Bob Robinson, tower captain at Morchard Bishop and Down St Mary, a telephone call on 01363 877523 for further information.

Bob says that anyone is able to ring, the general rule being that if you are able to ride a bike, you will be able to ring church bells.