Grandsire Doubles

In Grandsire the calls come when the treble is in 3rds place on the way down, so at a handstroke.

If you want to make yourself double-dodge 4-5 down, then the call is at your last blow as you lie in 5ths.
If you want to make yourself double-dodge 4-5 up, then the call is at your first blow in 4ths before the dodge.
If you want to call a bob leaving yourself unaffected making 3rds or a single to make yourself make 2nds over the treble, then the call comes at your first blow at lead.
If you want to call a bob to make yourself make 3rds and go into the hunt or a single to make yourself make long 3rds, then the bob comes when you are in 2nds place coming away from lead.

Call yourself half-hunt…
Just as with Plain Bob Doubles PBPBPB or BPBPBP is a 60. Ring the 5 or 3 respectively. Let’s see what happens when you ring the 3. You’ve just finished making 3rds so your next work is going to be 4-5 down. But because we’re ringing the BPBPBP touch, you now call a bob and double-dodge 4-5 up. The next lead is a plain lead, so you make thirds as normal. Then you have a bobbed lead (a bobbed lead is a lead where there is a bob), so you call a bob and again you double-dodge 4-5 up, instead of 4-5 down. You have another plain lead, make thirds. And then for the third time you call a bob and double-dodge 4-5 up. You make thirds one last time and the 60 comes round. All “half-hunt” means is that you ring this repeated pattern of 3rds and double-dodge 4-5 up. Half-hunt is special because it’s the most regular pattern a bell can have in a touch of Grandsire Doubles and so the nearest thing you can get to an observation or unaffected bell.

However, this is only a 60 and we really want a 120. So what we do is replace any one of those bobs with a single and repeat the whole thing. This gives us BPBPSP BPBPSP, or BPSPBP BPSPBP, or PBPBPS PBPBPS, or… you get the idea!

Call the other half-hunt bell half-hunt…
If you're ringing the 3 then to call the 5 half-hunt you might like to call PSPBPB x2.

The first lead you dodge 4-5 down as usual. Then you call the single when you are in seconds place coming away from lead. So make long thirds.
Your next work is dodge 4-5 down and the following lead you will make thirds and go into the hunt. Make the call at your first blow in lead.
Hunt for two leads - when you get to the back the second time you need to call a bob at your second blow behind and double-dodge 4-5 down.
Now dodge 4-5 up. At the next call (the second single) make seconds and go back into the hunt. The call will be at your first blow in lead.
Again, hunt for two leads - when you get to the back the second time you need to call a bob at your second blow behind and double-dodge 4-5 down.
Dodge 4-5 up. Finally you will make 3rds unaffected at the last call, call the bob when you strike your first blow at lead.
"That's all" comes the blow before you get rounds, so when you are in seconds place.

You may like to work out the touch you are going to call beforehand, in fact I would strongly recommend this the first few times you call a touch in any method. Once you have got used to it you will probably be able to work out what happens as you go along.

Another common 120 of Grandsire Doubles is SBSP twice repeated...
i.e. SBSP SBSP SBSP. You can also have all rotations of this, so then you would start with another lead - say the plain lead, which would give you PSBS PSBS PSBS.

With Grandsire Doubles you can also have 240's where you have each change twice...
The most commonly rung of these are called Morris' 240's after their composer. You can find some of these in the Ringing World Diary

For a quarter peal of Grandsire Doubles you need ten 120's and a 60...
just as for a quarter peal of Plain Bob Doubles. You can use the 240's and other lengths too if you like.

Grandsire has a reputation of being hard to call. I do not understand exactly why this is and do not agree with it. If you do your preparation and work out where the calls will come as described at the top of this page there is absolutely no reason why you should find it any harder than Plain Bob.

On to Plain Bob Minor.

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