Thursday 18th was a long day and the culmination of a couple of
years preparation.
Simon Linford wanted to set the record for the most "all the
work" Spliced Surprise Royal, which had stood at 28 methods for
about 30 years. There was a catch - the Central Council
hasn't got a specific record for most methods all the work - it
just counts the longest length of spliced, which was 20000 in seven
methods (also all the work), so in order to set a record something
longer would be required despite it being a different
objective.
John Leary was commissioned to produce a composition, and had
produced a 10800 in 30 methods a couple of years ago; unfortunately
he died not long afterwards. Simon assembled a band and we
started to practice for it with normal peal-lengths in 14, 23 and
finally 30 methods, before an abortive attempt at the real thing in
2008. It wasn't until the end of 2009 that the project came
back on line; a couple of practice peals were scheduled and the
10800 was nailed in 6 hours on a very chilly January 3rd this year at St Thomas',
Oxford.
Rung in memory of the composer, as has been explained this was
not a record; the composition was dubbed the "Unfinished Symphony"
and someone else had to extend the composition. Then Robin
Hall added a new challenge: domestic arrangements were about to
change for him with a move to Shanghai at the end of March, which
would count him out unless the pace picked up.
Philip Earis picked up the composition and within a couple of
weeks had a convincing extension of the original composition up to
20160 changes in 56 methods. We managed to find an available
diary date, so the challenge was on with two months to learn the
methods and no time for a practice peal.
The original 30 methods were seriously challenging - Bristol
being the only standard method, and no common leads between any of
the methods. Neither was the extension trivial: although some
more standard methods were added there was a lot of new stuff which
could trip you up if you didn't know it well enough. Philip
did a great job and we had a very musical work.
The actual day came round all too soon. I had an early
start from Birmingham to drive to Oxford for the 9am start,
allowing plenty of time for traffic. Still with method-sheets
in hand (you can always learn a bit more) it felt exactly like I
was facing a difficult exam as I walked to St Thos. From the
banter outside the tower I think everyone else felt similar...
The peal started spot on 9am, and from there on it seemed to go
in a bit of a blur. Clearly we'd all done our homework, but
56 leads in a part means it's a long time before you've been
through a lead of each method - about 1h15m a part. I've
often heard it said that every peal is the same length - the odd
thing is that this does seem to be the case, even for a 20k.
You get the highs when you realise you can probably remember all
the methods and when you've reached half-way; then there are the
lows when you're getting mentally drained and you realise there's
still several hours left to go.
After 8 parts the end was in sight - if you've done your
homework correctly you've made sure you've revised the last part
quite thoroughly, but still you have to stand there and churn it
out. Simon asked everyone to turn up the concentration a
notch. I could swear I heard David Pipe say "up to 11".
After 11h 19m we struck rounds: . the job done. Fantastic
effort arranging and conducting by Simon, great composition focus
from Philip, and everyone stayed on the ball. And while the
first pint was still going down, the euphoria was building and the
inevitable question floated across the table: "what's next?"
Full details of the peal can be found on Campanophile here.