Newdigate Delight Minor

About Newdigate Delight Minor - Complib

Newdigate Delight has right-place Old Oxford Delight above the treble but it calls for leading wrong and dodging wrong across the Half Lead.

The intricacies of work in 1-2 and in 3-4 when treble is in 5-6 need careful study and practice.

At May 2025 there were just 4 performances including Newdigate Delight Minor on handbells.

Newdigate Delight Minor is one of a group of 5 Treble Dodging methods all having identical work below the treble.

• Ockley Treble Bob
• Capel Treble Bob
• Newdigate Delight (Ibid)
• Charlwood Delight
• Crowland Delight

Method Structure.

Place Notation:
X 34 X 14 X 12 X 16.34 X 12.56, 12, Bob 14, Single 1234.

Grid:

Diagram: Newdigate Delight Minor, plain lead, change-rows and grid.

Plain Course structure
All the excitement happens when the treble is dodging in 5-6 with the bells in 1-2 ringing "point-near-far-point", and the bells in 3-4 ringing Kent Places with a double dodge in the middle.

Learning Newdigate Delight.

Approach

If you are essentially a "lines ringer", then the notes above and a review of the lines will get you going. The Place bell sequence is as per St. Clement's (5ths place bell is pivot).

If you are essentially "grid / place notation ringer", then the notes above will be of passing interest. You will want to study the pairs in detail, particularly 3-4 but also as some of the spacings are weird.

The Rules

Ring Old Oxford Delight over Ockley Treble Bob.

Double Blue Lines

Newdigate Delight Minor, 1-2

Diagram: Newdigate Delight Minor, 1-2.

Newdigate Delight Minor, 3-4

Diagram: Newdigate Delight Minor, 3-4.

Newdigate Delight Minor, 5-6

Diagram: Newdigate Delight Minor, 5-6.

Artefacts

The Blue Line features worth noting are the pointy work at the front, and the compromised Kent places in 3-4.

Place Notation and Grid

The grid is a better memory aid than the Place Notation.

Pictels

There is no compelling reason to chop it up into picture elements.

Goals and learning approach

What you are trying to achieve needs to drive your approach.

Ringing by structure

Before you start on Newdigate Delight, make sure you have extensive experience of Old Oxford Delight above the treble.

It would be sensible to get to performance standard in College Bob IV Delight before learning Newdigate.

If you are ringing Newdigate Delight purely to gain experience in backward leading and dodging then use whatever is your favoured approach to get going. Ring some courses, review your experience.

Performance Level

If you are wishing to achieve 720s, Quarters, or peals:
start with the structural ringing as above, add in the bits that are natural to you.
Study the lines and spacings.
Practice a lot.
Achieve some performances .

Method Mastery Level

It is unusual for a band to wish to achieve mastery in a method like Newdigate Delight.

Ringing Newdigate Delight.

Track the treble

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

However, it is NOT suggested that ringers attempt to ring Newdigate Delight Minor simply to gain "track the treble" skills. There are better methods in which to develop that skill.

Positional Awareness

The backward work under the treble is stable rather than fluid; after a while the extended Kent Places become easier.

Place Notation Elements

The method only contains 5 elements X, 12, 14, 16, 34, as per Old Oxford Delight, plus the 16.34x12.56.12x34.16 ; enjoy!.

Double Place Bells

142635 LE 12: St Clement's College Bob; Rochester T.B.; London S

1-2:1-2, 1-3, 1-5, 1-6, 1-4, 1-2
3-4:3-4, 5-2, 6-3, 4-5, 2-6, 3-4
5-6:6-5, 4-6, 2-4, 3-2, 5-3, 6-5

Pivot Leads

Pivot bell, is 5ths Place Bell.
For 5-6 pair, the pivot point is when the pair ring the point near far point together in 1-2.
For 3-4 pair, the pivot point is when they ring the extended Kent Places together in 3-4 under the treble.

Staging posts (handrails)

For an experiienced ringer, the long dodging across the Lead End (in 5-6) is a good point at which to "take stock".

Awareness of other bells

This is a complex method, the bells working togther are very helpful to each other.

Coursing Order in Newdigate Delight Minor

Natural Coursing order is well preserved above the treble, and at the half lead.

Ringing the Method

The great benefit of ringing Newdigate Delight is that enables practice at all of techniques which are used in the simple Surprise methods.

Touches.

Touches based on the tenor as the observation bell work just fine.

For 240, call Wrong, Home, Wrong, Home

For 720, call Wrong, Home, Wrong, repeat twice