31: Kent TB Minor - the plain course.
Lesson under construction
Of course, we don't want Kent TB to be only one lead long, so we don't normally want 2nds place made at the lead end. Instead, if 6ths is made at the lead end and everybody else simply plain hunts, the row 142635 is produced at the treble backstroke lead. From this row, we can continue ringing Kent, producing four more leads until we arrive back in rounds. We now have a full course of Kent TB Minor, with the following five lead heads:
123456
142635
164523
156342
135264
Note: The lead head is defined as the row at the treble's full backstroke lead; it's the first row of the following lead. You'll often hear people, especially conductors, refer to the lead head as the lead end. Strictly speaking, this is incorrect; the lead end is the previous row, i.e. the treble's handstroke lead. We'll look more at this particular set of five lead heads in a future lesson. They have a particular and very important significance.
The diagram below shows the plain course, with a line drawn through the work of the 4th. This is a good bell to ring to begin with because in 4ths place bell, you immediately ring one of the sets of Kent places, with a second set at the end of the first lead. You then have the slow work (2nds place bell), followed by another lead which contains the remaining two sets of Kent places (3rds place bell). The remaining two leads, 5ths place bell and 6ths place bell, are straightforward. They are just treble-bob hunting, but with plain leading on the front. The five different place bells are shown in circles on the diagram. 'nths Place bell' means the work rung in one complete lead by the bell starting in nth position. For instance, in the second lead of Kent TB Minor, the 4th rings 2nds place bell. Check that on the diagram to make sure you understand this concept of place bells.
If you've rung the first lead of Kent on at least some of the different bells and also practised ringing Forward Minor as suggested in the previous lesson you should be in a good position to ring the whole course of Kent. Also, if you've studied lesson 28 and understand coursing order, you'll find that the coursing order is a big help in Kent. In each lead, bells arrive on the back and on the front in natural coursing order (53246), and, apart from the bell ringing the slow work in each lead, they follow each other around in that same order. As with all methods in which the treble is fixed, the treble moves between the coursing pairs, so you need to keep a particular eye on the treble. You need to do that anyway, because the treble is the key to what you do. Kent TB can be summed up by the following principles; I hesitate to call them rules because they're not so much something that you memorise as something that you study, think about and come to understand:
- Ring Treble Bob Hunt throughout, but with plain leads on the front unless:
- If the treble is in 1-2 when you arrive in 3-4, make Kent places in the direction in which you are going.
- If you meet the treble on the front, dodge with him, then do lead, 2nds, lead, 2nds, etc until the treble returns to you. Dodge with the treble and become 3rds place bell.
Those three points are all you need to know to ring Kent on any number of bells. That said though, do study how they relate to the diagram above. Try also to see how they relate to the grid of the method (Lesson 10), and remember the other pointers I gave you in Lesson 30 when we were ringing our first lead.
You'll find it useful at this stage to write out a lead of Kent TB Major, using the three points above and remembering why the grid for Kent is constructed the way it is (look back to the lessons on removing the falseness)
Here's a course of Kent Treble Bob Minor rung on Abel, one of the most popular ringing simulators, witha bizarre but nonetheless informative commentary. Mor on ringing apps and software in a future lesson.
