Ringing Forums

It sounds like it would be sensible to arrange to talk to the tower captain about how you are feeling.

There can be many reasons why someone will include or exclude a particular ringer when building a band for a quarter peal, usually to do with balancing the strength of the band to give the quarter the best possible chance of success or of being really enjoyable and well struck quarter or thinking about people you enjoy having lunch with afterwards.
If you had just been included in an opportunity then it may simply have been someone else’s turn to benefit from the strength of others in the band before your next attempt.

A tower captain has to manage a wide group from Sunday service ringers, some of whom may only regularly ring at that one tower, to occasional visitors from the wider area and regular supporters fall in between with a balance to be struck in how they support the local band vs. what they gain from joining the practices. It’s not always easy and tower captains are volunteers with human fallibility so if you feel hurt or angry about something that happens it is better to arrange to talk about it because otherwise you won’t know what they were thinking about when making the band decision, what they think would be good for your ringing development or what they are thinking about developing their core band and they won’t know how you are feeling and perhaps that you would like them to be more complete in future explanations if you are left out of an opportunity.

You won’t be in every quarter peal you would like to be in, this is normal, very few ringers are first choice for everything they can be available for and it’s not personal so whilst it can be frustrating it’s worth thinking about the perspective of the tower captain making the arrangements and trying to be a bit more tolerant and accepting that it’s hard to build each band for each opportunity needed to keep developing enthusiastic ringers.

cheers Lucy, if we'd got the quarter last Friday it wouldn't be so much of an issue but what especially hurts about this situation is that it's happened before. last year I lost a quarter of Bob triples around this time but instead of arranging another one for me a week later he instead got somebody else to ring in it whilst I had to wait a good three months before a friend of mine organised one for me with a totally different band. I really want to progress my ringing but at the moment I don't really feel like there is the opportunity for that especially as this tower captain has one or two favourites that call the encouragement he can throw at them.

In towers that are fortunate enough to have more ringers than bells, inevitably some will have to stand aside. Perhaps the TC wants to give others an opportunity to broaden their experience. No doubt your turn will come around again shortly. I mean no offence but perhaps you need to listen critically to your own ringing - is your striking consistently accurate or are there occasional 'wobbles' that affect the rhythm?

How many regular towers do you ring at? Is it enough? In my part of England, it’s never enough as there are a lot of practices that max out at Grandsire Doubles on an average practice night so it’s hard to get enough practice. The more places you ring at, the more good ringers you get to know, the more WhatsApp groups you’re invited onto, the more opportunities for QPs will present themselves. Last resort: you could always arrange your own QP if you find someone willing to conduct it.

It's a sad fact of life that most people are not going to care about your problems. Best just to be thankful for the opportunities you've already had and to organize attempts that you desire for your own development