Introduction to Grandsire Caters Coursing Orders
Please start by looking at page 79 of the Ringing World diary, reproduced below. Our first objective is to work up to calling the quarter peal of 1259 at the bottom left hand corner. The notation is completely different to Plain Bob and Cambridge. The numbers are the numbers of the leads at which a bob or single is called, counting from the course end, thus the first course has bobs at the 1st, 4th and 5th leads. Quite a number of the courses have bobs at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd leads only.
1259 Grandsire Caters
23456789
————–
23456978 1 4 5
63452 5s
23465 1s 4s
42365 1 2 3
34265 1 2 3
43265879 1 3 4
24365 1 2 3
32465 1 2 3
43265978 1 3 4s
24365 1 2 3
32465 1 2 3
234655879 1 3 4
42365 1 2 3
34265 1 2 3
But let’s take a step back initially. The simplest possible touch is 72 changes (4 leads), with a bob every lead, which would be written as “1 2 3 4”. In that touch, the coursing order is 23468975 throughout, and so it’s a bit like a plain course of Plain Bob. For comparison, the plain course is 126 changes (7 leads) and the coursing order is 3468975, but you have to remember that 2 is following 1 all the time as the hunt bell. For this reason, the bob course is generally considered to be easier to ring than the plain course, not least because the act of calling the bobs tells everyone when to dodge. We find this useful in our tower when ringing G11 with inexperienced people in it.
The above will get your band used to ringing on 10, and make them comfortable with the dodging positions.
If you take the bob course, and omit the bob at 4, then it takes an extra lead to get to the course end. In addition, the 4th will stay in the hunt, and the 5th lead end (and course end) will be 142356789. What happens to the coursing order is that it remains 23468975 until the 4th lead end, when the 4th overtakes the 3rd as it makes 3rds, so that during the 5th lead the coursing order is 24368975. At the 5th lead end the 4th overtakes the 2nd and the coursing order becomes 42368075. This is the coursing order with which you start the second course. At this point, please note that the coursing order starts with the same three bells, and in the same order as the course end.
If the above is repeated twice more, you get the three course touch of 270 half way down the left hand edge of the page. The first one of the three, that is. Throughout this touch, the back bells stay in the order …68975… which can stay fixed in the mind as the plain course coursing order. You can label it as “backstroke home” position if you wish, and retain it on the back burner of your mind. The little bells are more interesting, starting 234 for almost 4 leads, the becoming 243 for a lead, and then 423 at the start of the second course. In other words, at the two plain leads the 4th moves down past 3 first and then 2. At the plain leads of the second course, the 3rd moves down past 2 and then 4 to give 342, and in the third course, 2 is in the hunt, passing first 4 and then 3 at the final lead end. Try it and see!!
The other two touches of 270 are really the same thing starting in different places, and there are actually another two possible touches like this. In every case, 5 bells stay fixed and three bells move cyclically. The most interesting one, and useful, is “1 4 5” as this gives 123456978 as the course end (coursing order 23467895), which has neatly put the back bells into the tittums position. The big bells course in the order 789, which gives some nice music, especially in rows like ***7*8*9*0, hence the name. Personally, I prefer the “56 tittums”, course ends like 1***569780, to the “65 tittums”, course ends like 1***659780. In the second and third courses 7, 8 and 9 are moved cyclically to get back to rounds.
I think that’s enough about those touches. In most lengths of G9 (quarters and peals) you get significant durations of ringing with the big bells fixed (the back burner coursing order) and move around just 3 or 4 bells on a regular basis. Thus the coursing order stays fixed for quite a while, with no need to change it frequently. One useful feature of G9 or G11 is that by having one plain lead in a series of calls, two bells get transposed. This is illustrated by a series of touches of 180 changes, not shown in the diary. These are touches of two courses, each having 5 leads, such as (and my favourite) “1 3 4”. What happens here is that the initial coursing order is 23468975, and at the first bob, 5 makes 3rds and 7 goes into the hunt. The second lead is plain, so 7 overtakes 9 giving 79523468. At the third (bobbed) lead end 6 and 8 are on the front, and at the fourth (bobbed) lead end 3 goes into the hunt whilst 4 makes 3rds. At this point the coursing order is 34687952. At the 5th lead end, which is plain, 3 overtakes 2 to give 32468795 coursing order and the lead end is 132456987. Repetition of the whole thing brings up rounds. This illustrates what happens in turning courses.
One last thing, it may help you if you ring the treble. That way you get to see the whole coursing order clearly, and without having to worry about where you dodge yourself, you can be sure of getting the bobs in the right place!!
What defines a course end in Grandsire caters?
For those used to Plain Bob or surprise methods, where the course end is always when the heaviest working bell gets back to home position, course ends in Grandsire can be a bit alarming!
The 9th being in 9ths place is a bit too simplistic for most Grandsire Caters. As the back 3 bells (7, 8 & 9) are usually fixed for a while, course ends are usually taken as the lead end when those three bells occupy those three positions.
I would not be able to track an 8-digit coursing order. Are there any tricks to doing this?
Consider the two course touch “1 3 4″. What happens here is that the initial coursing order is 23468975, and at the first bob, 5 makes 3rds and 7 goes into the hunt. The second lead is plain, so 7 overtakes 9 giving 79523468. At the third (bobbed) lead end 6 and 8 are on the front, and at the fourth (bobbed) lead end 3 goes into the hunt whilst 4 makes 3rds. At this point the coursing order is 34687952. At the 5th lead end, which is plain, 3 overtakes 2 to give 32468795 coursing order and the lead end is 132456987. Repetition of the whole thing brings up rounds.”
This is an introduction to “back burner”, although I used it to illustrate the way in which a plain lead swaps over two bells. This touch is virtually a bob course rung twice. In the bob course, the coursing order is 23468975 throughout, just as in the plain course it is 3468975 with the 2 jumping over the other bells in turn, because there is a whole series of plain leads (there would be wouldn’t there!!). If you ring a bob course, you don’t have to remember 23468975 in quite the same way as you might learn, or remember, 57293846 (say) which is a pig of a coursing order to remember. In the bob course you see the bells as fixed as if it were a plain course.
In fact come to think of it, if we are to consider G9 rung in short courses as the norm, then the bob course is a sort of “plain” course. So in the touch, the first plain lead turns 23468975 into 23468795, the second plain lead makes it into 32468795. This gives a course end of 32456987 (see my definitions above). The third plain lead gives 32468975 and the fourth one gives 23468975.
Any tips on conducting a quarter of Grandsire Triples? This one in the diary is apparently very musical
234567
———–
S 762453 2
S 357246 2
– 573246 4
– 735246 4
– 467523 2
– 354267 1
———-
Repeat 5 times
S for B at 3rd and
6th part ends
This quarter is based on the well known touch (not in the diary) with singles at leads 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. The rest of the leads are plain. It’s 168 long, with Queens and Tittums as the 4th and 8th lead ends. (There’s a slightly longer derivative with 3 singles and then 3 bobs which comes round at hand at 181 – see page 47).
So the quarter starts with the 2 singles, giving 13572468, which has a coursing order 3(in the hunt)57462. What follows is really only two whole courses, just like ringing a touch of 168 with bobs at 4, 8, and 12. Which touch is the equivalent of 3 homes in Plain Bob. So the three bells in the last three places are fixed, that is 246, coursing in the order 462. At the next three leads, the treble plus the hunt bell work their way through the coursing order, passing (in turn) 2 6 and 4. It is when those three bells have all made thirds that you know that there is a call at the next lead end. So the 8th lead end is 1573246 (CO 5(hunt bell) 73462), note the 462. A further 3 plain leads has the treble plus hunt bell passing 2 6 and 4 as before, and a bob at the 12th lead end produces 1735246 (CO 7(hunt bell) 35462).
In fact, to save having to count the leads, after the single at 4, watch 2 6 and 4 making 3rds, followed by a bob, and repeat that bit until such time as the 7th comes into the hunt.
From this point, you move towards calling it round. At the first lead after going into the hunt, treble and 7 pass 2 in the coursing order, and just at that point the coursing order (including the treble for the moment) is 354617(hunt bell)2. For a short while now it’s like Grandsire Caters. With a bob at the next lead, 4 and 6 are on the front (4 in the hunt) (CO 3514(hunt bell)672 and a further bob at the lead after that produces a coursing order of 13(hunt bell)54672, which is the lead end 1354267. This is the part end, with 4 6 and 7 back in their starting positions. Note the rotation of 2 3 and 5.
In the second part, again 2 single, and where in the 1st part we had:-
Queens 13572468
You get 15273468
due to the rotation of 2 3 and 5. This time, we have a coursing order ending ….463 When it was …462 in the first part. Again, call bobs at “Home” until 7th is in the hunt then two more bobs to get the 7 after 46 as before and produce a second part end. In the third part, 5 replaces 2.
So we have had in the first three parts long periods with three bells fixed, being in turn
Part 1 …246.
Part 2 …346..
Part 3 …546..
That’s the bit to use to remember what’s going on.
In the 4th 5th and 6th parts the “third fixed bell” which precedes 4 and 6 is respectively 3 2 and 5, because the half way single swaps 2 and 3.
So I would use this information to help call the quarter, both as an aid to calling it, and as an aid to keeping it right.
This is an introduction to “back burner”, although I used it to illustrate the way in which a plain lead swaps over two bells. This touch is virtually a bob course rung twice. In the bob course, the coursing order is 23468975 throughout, just as in the plain course it is 3468975 with the 2 jumping over the other bells in turn, because there is a whole series of plain leads (there would be wouldn’t there!!). If you ring a bob course, you don’t have to remember 23468975 in quite the same way as you might learn, or remember, 57293846 (say) which is a pig of a coursing order to remember. In the bob course you see the bells as fixed as if it were a plain course.
In fact come to think of it, if we are to consider G9 rung in short courses as the norm, then the bob course is a sort of “plain” course. So in the touch, the first plain lead turns 23468975 into 23468795, the second plain lead makes it into 32468795. This gives a course end of 32456987 (see my definitions above). The third plain lead gives 32468975 and the fourth one gives 23468975.
