by Robert Lewis and Adrian Udal
The second Ringing World National Youth Contest will take place from 10am on Saturday, 30th June 2012 at St Paul’s Church, Birmingham. This eight bell striking contest is an exciting opportunity for bands of ringers aged under 19 years (on 30th June) who may choose to ring Call Changes, Triples or Major. We were delighted with the success of the first competition held last March and look forward to seeing some of those contestants again this year, plus many ‘new faces’ too.
St Paul’s Church is in the historic Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham and is set in the centre of an elegant Georgian square. It was designed by Roger Eykyn, a surveyor from Wolverhampton, and consecrated in 1779. The painted glass East End window of the Conversion of St Paul by Francis Eginton was made between 1785 to 1791 and is particularly fine.
In 2005 a new 12cwt ring of ten in F# was cast by John Taylor & Co. in Loughborough. The project to install them at St Paul’s Church was to mark the 250th anniversary of the St Martin’s Guild and was overseen by Richard Grimmett. The outcome is a very pleasant light ten, the back eight of which will be ideal for our young bands to ring.
Throughout the contest refreshments will be available in St Paul’s Church. The other central Birmingham towers will open at various times during the day for teams and their supporters to visit when they are not competing.
We are delighted that Simon Linford, Master of the St Martin’s Guild, has again agreed to be our Chief Judge. Simon and his judging team did an excellent job at Pimlico for the inaugural contest on RW Centenary day (see RW issue 5253, p.1307) and he will again be assisted by a team of three young judges.
The results will be delivered at St Martin’s in The Bullring at the end of the afternoon. There will be prizes for both the best Call Changes ringing and the best Method ringing and the Whitechapel Trophy will be awarded to the team with the overall best performance. The current holders of the trophy are the Hertfordshire band.
Don’t delay – enter now!
The summer may seem like a long way off at the moment, but anyone wanting to enter a team in the contest will need to get their skates on. The closing date was Thursday, 5th April.
If you are an adult organiser or a young ringer who would like to enter a band in the contest please send an e-mail to our RWNYC address for an entry form and further information [note: entry has now closed].
A copy of the Rules, and the Declaration Form for each team's responsible adult, are below for download:
RWNYC – Rules
RWNYC – Adult Declaration