On Saturday 12^th July, St Andrew’s bell ringers took part in the Essex Association striking competition finals at Sandon, near Chelmsford.

There were ten teams from all over Essex taking part and the standard of ringing was very high as it is every year.

Each team rang 240 changes of their chosen method which took about seven minutes. We were the first to ring and were pleased with our performance containing very few errors. The judges commented later that we ‘made a confident start’ and ‘set the tone for the day.’

We were delighted to finish in third place which is our best achievement in this event for about 30 years.

Our relatively inexperienced team rang as follows:

Marianne Hayward – Treble

Carys Hayward  – 2

Michelle Stephenson – 3

Nick Allen – 4

Clive Stephenson – 5

Mark Lendon – Tenor

Congratulations to all our ringers especially Carys Hayward who took part in this competition for the very first time, aged 15.

The photograph below shows our ringers in the order they rang.