On 9th July 2016, St Andrew’s bell ringers took part in The Essex Association striking competition finals at Mistley (near Harwich).
There were 11 teams taking part from all over Essex and each team had to ring 240 changes of any method.
This means concentrating hard for about 8 or 9 minutes whilst the judges listen for any irregularities (faults) in the ringing, for example, when 2 bell ‘clash’ together.
Each team is then given a total number of faults and the team with the least faults wins.
Our team performed well, registering 51 faults out of a possible 240 and finished 7th out of the 11 teams taking part.
The team was a mixture of youth and experience and included 2 young ringers from South Ockendon:
L–R: Clare Merivale, Jonathan Mills, Gavin Carpenter, Paul Bloomfield, Chris Pain and Clive Stephenson