I carelessly mentioned to the Editor over a post-practice pint that I’d rung quite a lot of quarter peals in 2022 and – the beer talking no doubt – I offered to take a look to see if I’d rung more than anyone else in the Guild. If you don’t like numbers pass swiftly on…

Imagine my disappointment when the Editor provided the following analysis from Bellboard:

So well done Lewis (and note that he rang a further 7 quarters in Leicestershire which don’t appear here because his middle initial was not included in the submission to Bellboard; I have 9 quarters missing for the same reason). This was not the result I was looking for so following the maxim ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ I thought there must be a better way to look at the data. The table above is quarters rung in Leicestershire, so I decided to have a look if quarters rung for the LDG gave a fairer ranking (i.e. me higher). This produced the following:

So now well done Eliza! And yes a better result for me.

But note that this search picks up a lot less results – lots of quarters aren’t attributed to a Guild. And a scan down the rest of the table showed that Lewis has rung a further four quarters without the ‘D’, which would bring him up to 1^st equal … except that I rang a further four quarters without the ‘P’ which I think puts me in first place by this measure! The right result!

Finally I decided to look at quarters rung anywhere by Leicestershire ringers. I couldn’t find a quick search that listed this so I only provide what I think is the top 10. Disaster though! I should have quit while I was ahead!

1	Alistair Donaldson	166
2	Robert P Watson	67
3	Lewis D Benfield	51
4	Steve Millington	49
5	Michael Angrave	29
6	Eliza I Lewis-Skeath	29
6	Terry Iliffe	29
6	Ian Stonehouse	25
9	Mark J Pendery	24
10	Alison M Harvey	21
10	Neil W Harvey	21
10	Sally A Brown	21
10	Sophia Stonehouse	21

Well done Alistair!

There results are of course reliant on my ability to search Bellboard records accurately. There may be duplications, quarters missing and any number of other inaccuracies. To meet newsletter publication deadlines the results were extracted on 29^th December.

Any disputes will be resolved by the Guild President, if raised in person after buying her a drink. She can usually be found in the Three Nuns after Loughborough All Saints practice on a Wednesday evening.

Happy Quarter Peal ringing in 2023!

Robert (P) Watson

Postscript….

The leading towers for quarter peals in 2022 are as follows:

Or perhaps this needs to be locations rather than towers, as 80 Leconfield Road does not have a tower!