Ashford District
				120 Club results
				Programme for 2008
				District officers
				District web forum
				District towers

Web forum for the Ashford District

Damien Smith sends us the following useful message:

I mentioned at the ADM that I had created an Ashford District web forum. I had hoped to explain it in a little more detail, but hopefully this will give you all the input you need. A web forum is a discussion site for members to talk about various ideas, issues, topics, jokes, etc within a society/club. I know of a few of these both within the ringing circuit and through the school teaching line and they all play a very important role in communication between people, something that we as a District perhaps find hard due to the size of our plot. Therefore this little creation will hopefully flourish into something that all members can be a part of and keep themselves updated with the gossip and news from within our Ashford District. It is in its early stages and will need input from you all as to how it should be laid out. There are already some forums on there which I hope people will have a look at and contribute to.

The address of the forum is http://ashforddistrictkcacr.messageforums.net. Once logged in for the first time you will need to click on Register [fairly small type at top of screen]. After you have added a few details you will have access to the site.

Some basic things . . .

• Forum — The main subjects on the web forum. The "administrator" (me) creates these. There are currently five on the site. More can easily be added so if you have something you want to add then do please let me know!
• Topics — Different items within each forum. For example there is a forum titled District Meetings. Within this forum there are topics for each individual monthly meeting held in which people can discuss things. Members can create their own topics for people to view and write on by clicking on NEW TOPIC (i.e Thoughts for the next business meeting or comments about the proposed rule changes, etc)
• Reply — To leave your note/comment on the topic page. You can also subscribe to a topic so that you will receive an email when another member writes on it so that you can keep on top of the discussion. You can also do a Quick Reply if you want to add something quick and easily, however there are no options to subscribe to the topic.

I really hope that this outline doesn't completely boggle you and that it gives you what you need to get going on the site. It does take a tiny bit of getting used to but once you are on and have had a play it really is easy. I also hope that this does become something that the District uses and that it is available to ALL MEMBERS of ALL DISTRICT TOWERS so PLEASE tell your fellow ringers about it.

Any questions or queries then PLEASE let me know.

ADM 2008

At the ADM at Tenterden on 18 October the new District officers for 2008/09 were elected as under, with Damien Smith taking over from Stephen Davis as Chairman and Richard Edwards elected to the new post of Competition Coordinator:

• Chairman: Damien Smith
• Secretary: Pam Manger
• Treasurer: David Wilkinson
• Ringing Masters: Alan Bourner and Mike Godfrey
• District Reps: Pam Manger and Peter Sims
• Competition co-ordinator: Richard Edwards
• Newsletter editor and press rep: Peter Sims
• District bookstall: Mike Godfrey
• Tea committee co-ordinator: Mary Marshall
• Clothing sales: David Gower
• Training officers: The ringing masters
• John Castell Library custodian: Brenda Davies

Call change striking competition

The 2008 competition was held at Newington-juxta-Hythe on 20 September, and the judges were Cathy and Rupert Cheeseman from the Lewisham District. General comments: The 5th seemed to cause problems and the 2nd was close at hand when leading. The standard was very good and a pleasure to hear. Team D was difficult to judge so all pieces were listened to again to make sure of the scores.

The results were as follows:

posn	tower	judges' comments	ringing position	marks
1st	Frittenden	Used the full 20 rounds. Used minimum noumber of changes in the test piece. Steady rhythm, set a good standard for the competition.	A	80%
2nd	Smarden	Good piece of ringing but the speed was variable.	B	71%
3rd	Lydd	Very hard to judge - no crashes and very few clips but quite a lot of small gaps causing faults to mount up. Needed a steadier rhythm.	D	67%
4th	Lympne	Changes expanded and contracted but had fewer problems with the 5th. Handstroke leads gave most faults.	C	60%

Rupert and Cathy with the winning Frittenden band

Quarter peal week

We haven't had a quarter peal week since October 2004 and it is always a good opportunity to get lots of people involved in a District activity and to raise some money for the Bell Restoration Fund. This year's event is planned for the extended week (ie two weekends) 7 to 15 November.

You don't have to be a member of the KCACR to take part but you do have to be prepared to pay £1 to the tower that you are ringing in and £1 to the BRF for each quarter that you achieve. Our aim is to ring a quarter peal in every tower in the District during the week with as many people as possible taking part and even ringing their first quarter peal. If we can help someone to achieve something new during the week, it will be even more worthwhile.

The District will be divided into seven sections with two ringers allocated to each section to make all the arrangements.

On Saturday 15 November we will have a get together at Ashford tower, with ringing during the afternoon followed by a meal in the Church Hall with a lighthearted ceremony of prizegiving afterwards. You've heard of the Oscars, well this is the Sallys! We hope as many of you as possible will come.

Pam Manger

District striking competition 2008

Saturday 17 May saw the annual District striking competition being held this year at Kingsnorth. Those of us who had not been to the church for a few years were stunned by the transformation — the addition of a substantial hall and kitchen, plus a complete makeover inside and out were very impressive. A total bill in the order of £750,000. A great pity there wasn't any money available for the bells as they are far from easy — a real challenge in themselves without the stress of ringing for a competition.

Only four towers had managed to enter a band this year, with a fifth being made up on the day with ringers from various towers. Appledore were obviously lacking Gill and Fred Pearson who have moved back to Derbyshire, but unlike most bands in the District were still willing to enter, albeit with an inexperienced band. Unfortunately the stress of the occasion and the difficult bells caught them out and they failed to finish their test piece and so were automatically disqualified. The scratch band finished their piece but only by calling it into rounds so they magnanimously chose to disqualify themselves, despite the judges giving them a mark.

The results were as follows:

posn	tower	faults
1st	Hythe	38
2nd	Willesborough	62
3rd	Smarden	98
Disqualified	Appledore	—
Disqualified	Scratch band	—

Thanks to the judges, Peter Dale and Frank Lewis. Hythe will represent the District in the county competition to be hosted by Ashford District at Aldington on 27 September

Peter Sims

Brian Butcher (left) receives trophy from Frank Lewis, with Peter Dale looking on approvingly

The winning team (L to R): Jane Spencer, Brian Butcher, Rebecca Davey, Mark Chittenden-Pile, Richard Birch and Nigel Spencer

District calendar 2008

Unless otherwise noted below, all events consist of ringing from 3 to 4.15pm, with a service at 4.30pm. The service is followed by tea (and a meeting where marked with *) and then evening ringing until 9pm unless otherwise stated. Ringers of all standards (from rounds to Spliced Surprise) are very welcome and will happily be catered for. If you are trying to learn a new method then this is an ideal opportunity to ring with an experienced band and to have someone "hovering behind" to guide you through if necessary. Please tell one of the Ringing Masters what you would like to ring (they are not psychic — well not all the time!) and they will try to arrange something to suit you.

A new feature was added for the first time in 2007. You'll notice that all venues appear in blue and are underlined. This means that if you click on the place name you'll be taken directly to a largish scale map. At the top of the map, just under KCACR, there is a scale indicator, and you can click on this to make the map smaller or larger as you wish. Have fun!

District practices

The idea of these practices is to give people the opportunity to ring methods that they may not have the chance to ring in their own tower due to lack of numbers etc. We have divided these into a plain practice, usually held on a weekday evening in the second week of the month, and a Surprise practice held on the 4th Saturday morning — that is the Saturday after the District meeting.

Plain practices

In order to ensure that these more accurately reflect individual towers' specific needs, it has been decided to modify the format a little. Future practices will be specifically arranged to suit individual towers (usually on their normal practice night) and will focus on the methods etc that have been requested. This special practice will be limited to the people who normally practise there, plus invited ringers to assist with the learning. If your tower has a special requirement in terms of training, please contact Mike Godfrey or Alan Bourner and discuss it with them.

Surprise practices

These have been well supported in the past and cater for Surprise ringing in whatever methods the band can stand, BUT the chance is there for anyone learning to ring Surprise, or even to treble bob on the treble mdash; you will be especially welcome.

For more information on happenings in the Ashford District contact Pam Manger (District Secretary) at the address on the email page (on the left).

District Newsletter

The current edition (September) is now on the streets. As usual it is available free to all towers, but additional copies will be available for anyone who wants one from Peter Sims at sps.petersimms@btclick.com for 50p plus postage, or postage free for electronic copies.

The Tall Thin Controller II

We'd heard rumours that Chairman Manger was moonlighting, and these hitherto unpublished photos from a source in the Canterbury District seem to prove the case. What the Revd W Awdry would have thought of the lax discipline which allows members of the staff to imbibe mugs of coffee while apparently on duty in the signal box is anyone's guess.

Fresh light has been thrown on the above situation (though we're still not sure about the tea drinking). It seems that the TTC actually knows the FC and they appear to be on speaking terms, as the the photo on the left shows. On reflection the FC doesn't actually look all that F, but there you go. Webmaster is either too old or too young to know about these things.

Hythe afloat

This picture of Hythe ringers' float at the 2007 Venetian Carnival was sent in by a wellwisher whose name I can't remember. At least it does show that Brian and his mates do get out from time to time. (Incidentally, we understand that the entry won first prize in its class — not that we'd expect any less.) Photo courtesy of Philip Lane Photography.

120 Club for 2007/2008

Draws take place March to December and prizes are £30, £20 and £10 in all months. Peter Sims adds: It's good to report that all 120 tickets for 2007 were sold, and as a result £600 has been passed over to the KCACR BRF. Thanks to all who have bought a ticket and a special thanks to those who worked so hard in selling them all.

The ninth draw of the 2008 series took place at Ashford on 15 November, and results for the year are as shown below. The numbers in brackets refer to the share number, and NOT to the winner's age :-)

The results with the blue background are last year's, for comparison — just to make sure no one wins too often!