Since we started 6 months, LUSCR has seen a huge jump in progress almost every single week by our learners, and a good range of outings and events. We still hold practice weekly at St Mary de Castro on Wednesdays from 7pm until 8:30pm, and we must give a huge thank you to Lewis Benfield for his continued support every single week letting us into the church and letting us use the bells. We also wish to thank those who come and help us out by boosting our numbers, and of course if anyone can help in future that would be hugely appreciated!

November saw us attend the Northern Universities Association (NUA) and have a Leicester presence there for the first time in many years, and despite coming last in the striking competition, we had a great day out and met many people, enjoyed touring the towers as well as getting lots of higher numbers ringing we wouldn’t normally get. A big congratulations must go to Ellen, who despite only having been ringing for about a month, rung very respectable rounds on 12, and showed incredible collectedness for what must have been a rather daunting bit of ringing for her!

By December, all of our learners were confidently ringing rounds and call changes unaided for brief stints, and having been ringing for such a short time it was very impressive indeed, so well done to Clothilde, Ellen and Kirsten.

Alongside tower bells, a student and staff band had been ringing handbells in lunch breaks at university, and this month saw the first QP for Will Norton of treble dodging minor in hand, of Oxford Treble Bob Minor.

In February, we achieved the first all student length of ringing by an all student band for over 20 years, which was some very respectable rounds including 2 ringers who had been ringing for under 6 months at this point, so congratulations are to them, and to Danté who did a marvellous job leading for us, having done very little of this in the past.

March was a very productive month for us too, as we attended an outing to Birmingham as we were invited by BUSCR. This was a superb day out with tower grabs, rounds on 16 (very bizarre) and pizza. We also had a first QP this month, with Sophie who did a smashing job of tenoring to a quarter of Plain Bob Doubles. Sophie is moving along very quickly and will be ringing surprise for the Guild’s firsts month in October if she keeps this pace up!

Once again, congratulations to all of our ringers who have been very dedicated and progressing incredibly well as a result. Thanks go to all the support from everyone and we hope to see you at future LUSCR practices!

Joseph Blake