The Association Inter-District 8-bell striking contest was held on June 30th at Aylesford. Those present were treated to a wonderful sunny day, copious refreshments and some excellent ringing from all six bands. The judges were Dr Andrew Kelso and David Hengeli of the Essex Association who had the task of judging our attempts to ring 211 Erin Triples without hesitation, repetition or deviation from the blue line!
Lewisham were drawn first and set a good benchmark for others to follow. They were followed by Ashford, Tonbridge, Rochester, Canterbury with the Maidstone District, who were the hosts, ringing last. There was quite a variation in approaches to the ringing, certainly in terms of speed. Unfortunately the Canterbury District band fired out the first attempt at the touch but they then gathered themselves together to deliver a creditable piece of ringing, although the faults from their false start cost them a place.
The results and judges comments were as follows:
| Place | Rang | District | Time | Faults |
| 1st | 4th | Rochester | 7m50s | 32 |
| Deliberate, consistent ringing with a high proportion of clean rows. Nice to listen to. Little trips followed by long spells of good ringing. | ||||
| 2nd | 6th | Maidstone | 7m15s | 34 |
| Struggled rather in the practice piece but settled down quickly to an excellent pace in test piece. | ||||
| 3rd | 2nd | Ashford | 7m17s | 35 |
| Some inconsistent leading but this was confident ringing with ringers working well together. Any faults were not propagated. The ringing showed a strong sense of purpose. | ||||
| 4th | 1st | Lewisham | 7m45 | 52 |
| Some hesitations that propagated through the change, but generally fairly steady after a strong start. Good and consistent tenor. | ||||
| 5th | 5th | Canterbury | 7m5s | 65 |
| Unlucky in that a restart was necessary but this cost the band only one place. The band recovered incredibly well during the second piece. | ||||
| 6th | 3rd | Tonbridge | 7m8s | 81 |
| The practice period had lots of starts and stops and made concentration on developing a consistent rhythm and speed difficult. Nonetheless the test piece settled well with quick recovery from any method errors. | ||||
So congratulations to all teams, but especially to the Rochester District who were worthy winners. Many thanks to Andrew and David for judging so expertly and also to the Aylesford band for their excellent arrangements.
To those who weren’t able to be there, you missed a marvellous morning out with some excellent ringing of which the Association can be proud.
Phil Barnes
Chairman, KCACR
Band photographs (names each given L-R)
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- Ashford District: David Manger (4), Stephen Davis (5), Pam Manger (3), Mike Godfrey (6), Maureen Poole (2), Mark Chittenden-Pile (7–C), Charles Sinden (8), Damien Smith (1).
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- Canterbury District: Susan Hills (1), Len Huckstep (5), Cathryn Hills (2), Stuart Palin (6), Clare Larter (3), Phil Larter (7-C), John Haimes (4), Philip Hills (8).
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- Lewisham District: Nick Wilkins (4), John Barnes (5), Philippa Rooke (3), Robert Pruden (6), Peter Swift (2), Colin Wyld (7-C), Rupert Cheeseman (1), Jon Fry (8).
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- Maidstone District: Terry Barnard (4), David Grimwood (5), Jackie Barlow (3), Darren Elphick (6), Adam Brady (2), Phil Barnes (7-C), Liz Barnes (1), Graham Heath (8).
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- Rochester District: Doug Davis (2), Emma Cundiff (1), Stuart Cox (3), Peter Joyce (6), Cathy Cheeseman (5), Neil Jones (7-C), Roger Pocock (4), Kevin Mitchell (8).
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- Tonbridge District: Daniel Jarvis (1), Howard Rogers (5), Catherine Lewis (2), Richard Barclay (6), Catherine Heathcote (3), Phil Jarvis (7-C), Jen Thomas (8), Tony Leeves (4).
