TALK about a towering achievement! A team of bell-ringers from the Bell Tower in Perth has been named best ringers in the southern hemisphere.
The volunteer ringers earned the top gong at the 56th annual Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers Ringing Festival in the NSW Nepean Valley.
The competition sees teams of 10 pre-record a piece of precision ringing. The aim is to achieve perfect striking, with no faults or pauses.
Conductor Richard Offen, deputy chair of the Swan Bells Foundation, said it was a thrill to win.
“St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney usually takes the prize. It is just down to who is better on the day,” he said.
The Bell Tower team recorded what is known as a Grandsire Caters, which showcases the 400-year-old art of change ringing.
“The tunes we play are not based on music but mathematical permutations, which have to be memorised,” Mr Offen said.
“Everyone records their piece on a given afternoon and recordings are sent off to be judged.
“For a couple of our members it was the first time they had competed, so it was a great experience for them.
“I have been ringing bells for 55 years but I still find competitions a bit nerve-wracking; you have to be on your mettle.
“To be a good bell-ringer you need a sense of rhythm and good hand, eye and ear co-ordination.”
Mr Offen said the Bell Tower provides the world’s most near-perfect conditions for ringing.
The tower houses 12 14th-century bells originally from London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields, which rang out in 1771 on the homecoming of Captain James Cook.
“Part of the reason I emigrated to Perth was the Bell Tower,” Mr Offen said.
“I used to ring the same bells 40 years ago when they were in London, little dreaming one day I would be ringing them in Perth.
“They had a lot of work done on them prior to being shipped out, so it is a very different experience ringing them now.”
Mr Offen said fellow bell-ringers come to Perth especially to ring the bells. And there is plenty of camaraderie among the clappers.
“Anywhere you go in the world you can meet other bell-ringers and find an instant group of friends,” he said.
The winning Perth team was led by WA District ringing master Andrew Ling, and included Kate Thomas, Jocelyn Sloan, Ian Harris, Mike Colinson, Callum Crofton, Andrew Baxter, Lloyd Cartwright and Rhys Greenhalgh.