Stedman Triples - Part One

Unlike Plain Bob and Grandsire, Stedman is not built up from leads but from sixes. A six just means six changes. A six can be a quick six or a slow six, depending on whether the bells on the front are right hunting or wrong hunting. (Right hunting is normal hunting as in Plain Bob, it means when you come down to the front you are leading at handstroke and then at backstroke. Wrong hunting is the other way round, so when you come down to the front you are leading first at backstroke and then at handstroke.) Away from the front all bells double-dodge and a double-dodge fills up a six.

The relevance of this for calling touches is that you put calls in at the 5th change of a 6 and so the first step is to learn where these points are. A slight further complication is that we actually start ringing Stedman at the 4th change of a six, so there could be a call immediately.

Blue line of Stedman
Triples with calling positions marked

To the left is a diagram of the line, with the calling points and the starting points marked. The calling points are marked with a red dot and are numbered. The starting points are less obvious but are numbered with the numbers in circles. To begin with you will only need the calling points which have letters after them (these are explained below).

Some notes before we look at some touches:

There is a calling position at the last dodge of every double-dodge.
All calls are at handstroke.
The pair 3 and 4 is called S (for slow).
The pair 5 and 6 is called H (for half-turn).
The pair 7 and 8 is called L (for last whole-turn).
The pair 12 and 13 is called Q (for quick).
In easy touches especially, bobs often come in pairs in Stedman. This means that none of the bells change the way (quick or slow) that they were going to go in.
You can call touches by counting the sixes or by learning at which calling positions the calls come for your bell. I shall start by describing the latter method.

168 changes - S or H or L or Q, all repeated once...
These are several simple touches which can be called from any bell and in which you are always unaffected.

One such is to call bobs at the S positions (positions 3 and 4) and then call them again the next time you get to these points. So four bobs in all and you ring 2 plain courses in all. Suppose you are ringing the 4.

At a handstroke call "Go, Stedman Triples".
The 3 position comes upon you immediately, so at the very next handstroke (you are dodging into 5ths place) call "bob".
You go in slow and then the 4 position comes at your 2nd blow in lead in your first whole turn.
You then finish the rest of the course - i.e. finish the front work, go out, come back in and go in quick and then back out again.
As you come down again you will be back to your start position, so you again call a bob as you dodge into 5ths place at the end of your double-dodge in 4-5 and then call the last bob in your second blow at lead in your whole turn.
Again, ring the rest of the course. As you do your first dodge in 4-5 right at the end of this second course (remember you have to go in and come out quick first), you need to call "That's all!"

It works exactly the same starting from any working bell. For example, from the 6 you do the in-and-out-quick part of the plain course first, but the calls come in the same place in your path.

Instead of using the S positions, it works just as well with H or L or Q. These touches are all 168 changes long.

168 changes - SL or SQ or LQ, all repeated once...
You can go on to use eight bobs in total. Three touches that do this are SL, SQ and LQ and these are also 168 changes since your bell rings 2 plain courses again. Let's look at SL from the 4.

Begin as in the touch considered above, putting calls at positions 3 and 4.
As you get to the end of the slow work position 7 is the first blow of your last whole turn, and position 8 is your first blow in thirds as you go out slow. Positions 7 and 8 are the positions for which L is shorthand, so put bobs in at these two points.
Then you can go to sleep for a little (only don't go wrong) until you are about to go in slow again.
As you've just done, put bobs in at positions 3, 4, 7 and 8.
Call "That's all!" the change before the touch comes round.

84 changes - SLQ...
For only 84 changes you can call bobs at the S, L and Q positions and the touch comes round after one course.

Personally I found it quite hard to drill the calling positions for Stedman Triples into my memory, so I don't think you should worry if it takes you ages to get the hang of this stage.

On to Stedman Triples - Part 2.

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