London Bob Minor

About London Bob Minor

London Bob is the sixth place variant of Double Oxford Bob. All the interest of Double Oxford is preserved but London Bob is a Group l method, the only such method on this website. Group l: LE 16, 164523.

An alternative view is that this is Double Court with 5ths at the half lead.

London Bob Minor is highly structured with double court places and triple dodging at the front and Single Court places above the treble.

Method Structure.

Place Notation:
X 14 X 36 X 56, 16, Bob 14, Single 1456.

Grid:

Diagram: London Bob Minor, plain lead, change-rows and grid.

Plain Course structure
London Bob Minor is a static method below the treble but needs concentration on the hunting into the Lead End.

Learning London Bob Minor.

The Structure

London Bob takes a perfectly good doubly symmetrical method, (Double Oxford Bob), and wipes out the comfortable lead end dodge.

The triple dodge in 1-2 and the court work under the treble should be familiar from Double Oxford, The work above the treble is as per single court.

The Rules

London Bob Minor - the rules
This is a method to ring either visually (by grid structure), or numerically via the Place Notation. The structure is hard to express in concise language apart from "ring 6ths place Double Oxford".

Double Blue Lines

London Bob Minor, 1-2

Diagram: London Bob Minor, 1-2.

London Bob Minor, 3-4

Diagram: London Bob Minor, 3-4.

London Bob Minor, 5-6

Diagram: London Bob Minor, 5-6.

Artefacts

Single bell Blue Line features have been noted above. Some Double Blue Line Features have also been noted. However, this is a method rich in structural features and will repay time spent studying the way bells work together, or work apart as the case may be.

Place Notation and Grid

Learning London Bob can be approached equally well via the Place Notation as via the visual grid. Choose which method suits you most.

Pictels

A glance at the grid will reveal the treble hunting up and dowwn through 4-bell "cages". (This is a way of remembering the Place Notation as well). Pictorially these "cages" are useful, and the method can then be disected into pictels, viz:

Suggestion: Use a visual image of successive sections of the grid as a basis of remembering the grid structure, viz:

	Hunt and dodge 5-6 above
	Dodge in 1-2, hunt above
	Dodging both in 1-2 and in 3-4 at half lead
	Dodge in 1-2, hunt above
	Hunt and dodge 5-6 above
	Hunting at lead end

The above pictels are drawn to be easily memorised. They do overlap! The treble does not leap backwards and forwards it is one smooth continuous path.
These chunks of grid are easier to memorise than either the place notation or the whole grid.

Pictels are one of the memory techniques suggested for learning Cambridge Surprise Minor. Hence the progressive nature of London Bob Minor

Ringing London Bob Minor.

Track the treble

Awareness of the position of the treble is a key skill for most bellringing methods, and a significant help in ringing London Bob Minor. Some hints and tips for developing the skill are given in the techniques section.

Following the treble whilst ringing London Bob Minor is a "chicken and egg" situation. Ring by Grid, pictels, lines, place notation, and you will see how the treble fits in. Ring by the position of the treble and you can fix the structure around those positions. Eventually you automatically ring both by some form of structure and the position of the treble.

How do you get to the standard where structure and treble come together? Simple. Ring the method a lot of times, 1,000 courses is not too many.

Positional Awareness

The static nature of London Bob Minor frontwork lends itself to seeing bells in 1-2, in 3-4, and in 5-6.

Place Notation Elements

The method only contains 5 elements (X, 14, 36, 56, 16), all of which will already have been rung.

Place Bells, Pivot Leads, and Staging posts

e.g. For 3-4 pair, the pivot point is when they dodge together in 3-4 under the treble.
For 5-6 pair, the pivot point is when the pair triple dodges together in 1-2.

Awareness of other bells

Because of the static nature of the method, together with the coursing order, there is usually time for a quick thought about where the other bells working with yours will be at the following lead end.

Coursing Order in London Bob Minor

Natural coursing order is well preserved in London Bob Minor. The nature of the method means that the half lead is rung in pure coursing order as much as the lead end.

This is a very helpful method.

Ringing the Method

London Bob Minor is worth ringing just for "fun" although Double Oxford Bob will normally feel more comfortable and rewarding. However, it is a serious staging post towards more complex methods and can be approached using a number of techniques that are valuable in ringing more diffcult methods, especially ringing hunting at the lead end inside a highly structured method.

Bobs and Singles.

Bobs (PN: 14) and singles (PN: 1456) are much the same as in Single Court Bob Minor, the court places make life interesting.

Bobs cause the dodging in 4-5-6 to become 4ths place and dodging in 5-6. Consequently three bells in succession make 4ths and turn round, the first and the last are the bells unaffected by a call. However, the first of these has just made thirds, so the bob takes the dodge off the end of the places. The second has just finished a three-pull and goes back to do another three-pull. The bell that ran out makes 4ths and 3rds and dodges 3-4 up at the half lead.

Singles The interesting bell is the one that makes thirds at the single. The affect of the single is to cut out all of the dodging work on the front.

Touches of London Bob Minor

It is normal to use the tenor as the observation bell .
5ths place bell is the pivot bell and hence the first lead end is 164523

The calling positions for the tenor are:
In, 4ths, Home, Before, Wrong.