A group of young ringers from Oxfordshire recently participated in a new striking competition competing against ringers from across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

Members of the Oxfordshire Diocesan Guild Youth Group met up at Wigginton on the 7th of October to compete in a raising and lowering contest. The group consisted of ringers aged 10 to 16, with 2 adults filling in to bring up numbers. 3 of those young ringers had rung together at the national ringing world contest and placed 4th.

They came out with a good result in this technical challenge and the leader of the band, Colin Lee, said “we were pleased with our result and pleased with how we rang.” and he hopes to take another group of young ringers to this same competition next year.

The youth band displayed both teamwork and precision in this challenge to get a great score of 77% accuracy, and they are continuing to gain more experience and practise to prepare for future contests.

The next competition for this youth group will be held in the Midlands which they plan to use as good practice for the national youth competition held in July.

If you would like to get involved in bellringing, contact your local church tower captain to start learning this age-old tradition.