Grandsire Doubles - a Touch
Grandsire Doubles - a Touch
Why a Touch?
This page deals with the what and how of ringing the method but why is a Touch interesting? A plain course of Grandsire Doubles takes 30 changes. With 5 bells there are 120 possible ways in which to sequence the bells ( 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120 [or 5!]). In bell ringing this is called the Extent of a given number of bells. Introducing Bobs and Singles makes it possible to cover all 120 changes.
After becoming comfortable with a plain course of Grandsire Doubles the next stage is to learn how to perform a Touch [Glossary: Touch]. Continuing on from the description of a plain course this page describes a Touch of Grandsire Doubles on 6 bells.
My only previous experience of learning a Touch was for Plain Bob Doubles for which only Bobs [Glossary: Bob] are required. For Grandsire Doubles both Bobs and Singles [Glossary: Single] are required.
Why do you need both Bobs and Singles for Grandsire Doubles when you only need Bobs for Plain Bob Doubles? Well, if you really want to know, it's complicated . . .
How to ring a Touch of Grandsire Doubles
As with a plain course of Grandsire Doubles the Tenor (bell #6) is always in 6th position and the Treble (bell #1) performs a sequence of Plain Hunts. The other four bells perform the method.
At any one point in time one bell is Plain Hunting and the other three are working. When either a Bob or a Single is called the bell that was Plain Hunting starts working and one of the other three working bells changes to Plain Hunting.
| What to do at a Bob | What to do at a Single | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| about to do | place at call | new work to do | next piece of work | new work to do | next piece of work |
| 3rds | lead | 3rds (unaffected) | dodge 4-5 down | 2nds | plain hunt |
| dodge 4-5 up | 2nd | 3rds | plain hunt | long 3rds | dodge 4-5 down |
| dodge 4-5 down | 4th | double dodge 4-5 up | 3rds | double dodge 4-5 up | 3rds |
| plain hunt | 5th | double dodge 4-5 down | dodge 4-5 up | double dodge 4-5 down | dodge 4-5 up |
Reminder: the Treble is in 3rd place when a Bob or a Single is called.
The following illustrates how the working bells are affected by when a Bob or a Single is called at a particular point.
| Bob | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | h | |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | b | |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | h |  bob |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | b | |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | h | |
| 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | b | |
| 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 | h | |
| 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | b | |
| 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | h | |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 6 | b | |
| Single | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | h | |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | b | |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | h | single |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | b | |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | h | |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | b | |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | h | |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | b | |
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | h | |
| 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 6 | b | |
Other useful hints
Passing the Treble
Works just the same as it does in a Plain Course of Grandsire Doubles! For some ringers this is how they ring Grandsire, they do not seem to think about the cycle of work, they only consider what to do after they have passed the treble in a particular place.
Front or back
If you look carefully at the table showing how the working bells are affected at a call you will see that the bells in 4th and 5th place do the same thing regardless of whether the call is a Bob or a Single and that something is a double dodge (of some sort).
I believe that this is true for other variants of Grandsire such as Grandsire Triples. The more general rule would be "if your place is higher than 3rd place at a call you double dodge".
If you are in lower than 3rd place when Bob is called you make 3rds. The tricky bit is what to do next, there are two ways that I know of that tell you what to do next.
- The first is that if you would have made 3rds if a Bob had not been called, then you are unaffected and continue as you would have done, i.e. dodge 4-5 down. If this is not the case, then after making 3rds you go into the hunt.
- The other way is for those who use the treble as a signpost. If the bell that you follow into the lead as you finish 3rds is the treble you will become the hunt bell. If at this point you follow any bell other than the treble you are unaffected and continue as you would have done, i.e. dodge 4-5 down.
If you are in lower than 3rd place when Single is called . . .
- if you were leading at the time (i.e. would have made 3rds) you make 2nds and go into the hunt.
- if you are not leading at the time (i.e. in 2nd place) you make long 3rds (i.e. four blows in 3rd place) then go back to the lead and dodge 4-5 down next time.
