The Ringing World National Youth Contest for the Whitechapel Trophy, first held at St Saviour, Pimlico in March 2011, was initially conceived as a “one off” event as part of the Ringing World’s Centenary celebrations. However, after the resounding success of this first contest, in which twelve teams took part, The Ringing World decided to hold the National Youth Contest again and thus it became firmly established as an annual event in the ringing calendar, held on various Saturdays in June or July. The second contest in Birmingham attracted 15 teams, with 16 teams entering both the 2013 and 2014 contests in York and Worcester respectively. The 2015 contest in Oxford attracted a record entry of 19 teams from across the country.
In the first four years of the contest, the overall format remained broadly the same, with competition ringing taking place during the course of the day on an easy going, fairly light ring of 8 (or back 8 at a 10 bell tower), with a 20 minute slot for each team (5-6 hours of ringing with 16 teams), judged by 1 Chief Judge, assisted by usually 3 younger judges. In addition to the competition ringing, general ringing at other towers and other activities have been organised. However, it was always recognised that there was a limit to the size of the entry which could be accommodated using this format, and the record entry at Oxford highlighted the need to make some strategic decisions about the future direction of the RWNYC to ensure that it could continue to accommodate an increasing number of applicants whilst maintaining the quality of the experience for everyone who participates. A consultation exercise therefore took place, as a result of which changes to the format were implemented for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
In 2019 the format changed again: a record 24 competition bands entered, ringing consecutively at one tower (SFX in Liverpool).
Covid hit bellringing hard, and the contest was cancelled in 2020. In 2021 it returned on a one-off September weekend – a group of Worcester ringers were keen to make a contest happen to keep youth ringing morale alive, and it turned out to be as big as ever. The legacy of that post-Covid contest was the introduction of six-bell bands in the contest, which now look set to stay and have enabled several youth teams to take their first steps in ringing together.
Early contests had involved general ringing towers that were simply ‘open’ – teams chose their own itinerary. This resulted in some huge queues for tower grabs, and as the number of teams continued to grow, around the contest’s tenth year individual team itineraries became the norm. Now each team follows a unique scheduled path around the host city – the spreadsheet is an organisational feat in itself!
In 2023 – 2025 attendance numbers continued to grow beyond the previous records, hitting 300 young ringers and beyond. Lifting the cap on the number of teams, allowing squads to enter several competition teams, was hugely popular, and almost every young ringer attending now participates in a competition band. 2025’s contest in Birmingham recognised this with the introduction of a basic call changes class – even young ringers with only a year or so of ringing experience can now have the pleasure of working with their band towards a performance goal on the day.
We look forward to welcoming teams, supporters and anyone interested in finding out more about what ringing has to offer at the next RWNYC!
