Grade	Team
7	Oxford D G
	Kent Young Ringers
6	Yorkshire Tykes
	Bedfordshire Young Ringers
	G&B
	Sussex Young Ringers
	Essex Young Eagles
	Worcester Cathedral
5	Lancashire Lads and Lasses
	Fen Tigers
	D&N Young Ringers
	Young@Herts
	Leicester Rising Ringers
	Bath & Wells
4	Derbyshire Young Ringers
	Lincolnshire Poachers
	Three Spires
	Coventry Spires
	Bucks & Berks Young Ringers
3	W&P Youths
	Surrey Strikers
	Go Bellistic! (SDGR)
2	Cheshire Cats
	Brumdingers

Recordings of the winning two contest pieces are available here:

ODG:

Kent:

Timetable

Various towers were open for bands. Please note that only competitors and authorised adults wearing contest-issue wristbands were allowed access to any of the towers.

The contest was open to bands comprising ringers aged under 19 on 31st August 2019. Bands chose to ring Major, Triples or Call Changes on eight bells.

Various towers in and around Liverpool city centre were open, all easily accessible by public transport, alongside the ever popular handbell workshops.

0900 – 1700	Contest Ringing	St Francis Xavier	L3 8DR
1000 – 1200	Ringing for all teams	Bootle	L20 9HJ
1030 – 1330	Ringing for all teams	Walton-on-the-Hill	L4 6XP
1100 – 1130	Ringing for: Bath and Wells Derbyshire Young Ringers Young@Herts	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1130 – 1430	Ringing for all teams	Tuebrook	L13 8AG
1140 – 1210	Ringing for: Cheshire Cats Oxford Diocesan Guild Surrey Strikers	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1200 – 1730	Handbell workshop	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1220 – 1250	Ringing for: Go Bellistic! Kent Young Ringers Three Spires	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1300 – 1600	Ringing for all teams	Penny Lane	L18 1EP
1300 – 1330	Ringing for: Leicester Rising Ringers Worcester Cathedral Yorkshire Tykes	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1400 – 1700	Ringing for all teams	Garston	L19 8EA
1500 – 1530	Ringing for: G&B Lincolnshire Poachers W&P Youths	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1540 – 1610	Ringing for: Bedfordshire Young Ringers Brumdingers Fen Tigers	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1620 – 1650	Ringing for: Bucks and Berks Young Ringers Coventry Spires Lancashire Lads and Lasses	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1700 – 1730	Ringing for: D&N Young Ringers Essex Young Eagles Sussex Young Ringers	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1800 – 1830	Results and presentation of trophies	Pier Head	L2 8TZ
1915 – 2045	Ringing for all teams	Liverpool Cathedral	L1 7AZ

Judges

Chief Judge – Julia Cater

I learnt to ring aged 7 at Winchester Cathedral, with my first peal aged 9.  I rang quite a few peals in my teens including in a few of the early young ringers’ peals; the records for some of which are being broken by the current young ringers today.  A step change came when I moved to Birmingham for my first degree which exposed me to a new level of methods, striking and brought interest in ringing heavier bells.  After graduating I rang with the Cumberlands, in London, as well in many record-breaking women’s peals. I continue to be an active bellringer and take pleasure in teaching bell handling locally as well as helping my own children learn.  It has been a privilege to be Chief Judge of this contest for the last few years and I feel immensely proud to have contributed to the ringing careers of young people.

Assistant Judge – Luke Groom

I learned to ring in 2010 at the age of 10 at Stoke Golding in Leicestershire, I rang my first quarter peal after two years of ringing and then my first peal in 2016. I didn’t ring many peals at first but soon began to ring a lot more. I was first involved in the RWNYC in 2011 in London ringing for the Leicester Rising Ringers and then was in the team in 2017 and 2018. I am very proud to have been in the youngest band to ring a peal of Bristol Maximus last year. I have also been able to ring peals of the 41 Spliced Surprise Minor.

Assistant Judge – Alex Riley

My dad taught me to ring when I was 8, at my home tower of Selby Abbey, and I rang my first peal aged 11. I took an interest in conducting and composing several years later, and I’ve published a variety of creations since. I was very active with young ringers in Yorkshire as conductor of the Yorkshire Tykes for 4 years – including during our 2017 RWNYC victory – and I’m pleased that the team remains strong and enthusiastic. Last year, I was privileged to conduct the youngest 10 and 12 bell peals, and the youngest peal of Bristol Maximus: the three achievements of which I’m most proud. In October I started studying maths at Durham University, and I’ve really enjoyed doing too much ringing with the University Society and local bands. I’m very excited to be back at the RWNYC, and I’m looking forward to hearing some great ringing!

Assistant Judge – Anna Sherwood

I started learning to ring at Tilehurst, Reading in 2009, aged 9. Despite this, I didn’t really progress until I was a bit bigger, ringing my first peal in 2015, and was later elected to the Ancient Society of College Youths in 2016. Since then I have gone on to ring my 100^th peal; a long length lasting just under six hours. I feel privileged to have been part of the recent record-breaking young ringers’ peals, including being in the youngest band to ring a peal on both 10 and 12 bells. Before moving to study at the University of Bristol last year, I ran local youth practices in Reading and participated in the RWNYC from 2015-2018, conducting two of them for the Oxford DG. Ringing in both Reading and Bristol has provided many opportunities and I now enjoy being part of a thriving and sociable university society.

Judging Approach

This year, the format of the competition is different. With teams competing back-to-back throughout the day, the judges face a double challenge of maintaining both concentration and consistency. As a result we have decided to use fewer judges and a new approach to our marking. Following experimentation and a number of discussions, we have agreed to use a combination of impression marking and HawkEar to help us put the teams in the right order.

Impression marking means we are judging the quality and feel of the ringing at regular, frequent and consistent intervals rather than row by row, using an agreed and pre-determined set of criteria. HawkEar is a computer technology designed by Ian McCallion which uses the sound of the bells to score the striking. It is a great tool for us because it doesn’t tire and isn’t subjective. Technology similar to this has been used in other situations like the National 12-bell striking contest. However, we are trying to be sensitive to the idea that we are not looking to score error-free ringing. Instead, with the assistance of Dave Richards and colleagues, we have agreed a fault counting approach which feels more appropriate than measuring standard deviations.

Once the judges have individually scored their impression of the ringing, we are collating this and then calibrating it against what HawkEar thinks, and using this information as a catalyst for discussion if required.  The end scores will be given as grades following the current GCSE 9-1 grading system (with 9 being the best score). As with GCSEs, we expect most of the teams to fall into the 4, 5 or 6 range.

Julia Cater

Chief Judge, 2019

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks are due to everyone who has helped to make this year’s contest a success, and in particular to:

• the local organising team of Len Mitchell, Fr Simon Fisher and Hamish Corfield;
• the four judges for working so hard and listening to the test pieces over an 8-hour period;
• Dave Richards for installing the sound feed and providing HawkEar data to the judges throughout the day;
• all of the stewards and helpers;
• the incumbents and local ringers at all of the towers for allowing us to ring;
• the authorities at St Nicholas Pier Head for so generously allowing us the use of the church and facilities for the whole day;
• Tom Hinks for running the handbell workshop;
• Ian McCallion who has very generously made the HawkEar software available to this year’s contest free-of-charge;
• the Girdlers’ Company for their very generous financial support of this year’s contest;
• the Team Leaders for organising, motivating and coaching the teams;
• you, the participants, for taking part.