How time flies! I have realised that b the time articles are
submitted for the next issue of the magazine Christmas and the new year
celebrations will have come and gone! I will have plenty to report on then! The
highlight will of course be our appearance at the All Saints Carol Service.

In the meantime we have continued to be busy,

Only a few short weeks ago a new ringer called Diane joined
us. She had previously played handbells in the Philippines before she moved to
Yorkshirre and had found our details on the internet. She has been regularly
travelling all the way from Clayton to our practicesand has now joined us for
two performances – talk about being thrown in at the deep end!

On 12th October we took 2 octaves of bells to Baildon where
we played for the Parkinsons Group of which our Roger is a member. They made us
very welcome and many of them enjoyed playing with us at the end of our
performance.

Only two days later we were at Oxenhope as one of the many
turns in a fund raising musical evening. Because of all our equipment we
performed first but our space was needed straight afterwards so we had to pack
up in record time of less than 5 minutes. The other acts were varied including
young piano players, a choir and irish folk singers and we enjoyed sitting back
to watch them afterwards.

At the end of October we were at the West Yorkshire mini
rally to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the North East region of Handbell
Ringers at Sowerby Bridge. Because this was only a small rally we had more
opportunities than usual to ring both as part of the massed ringing and just as
our group which made it a very enjoyable day. We returned with plenty of tips
for improving our playing from experienced conductors and musical directors.