…taken from: www.ulscr.org.uk/2010/11/southern-universities-association-weekend-12th-14th-nov-2010.

This year it was decided that it was time for the UL to host the SUA competition. What could possibly go wrong?

The Friday ringing session was at St Mary-le-Bow, people just had to get there. It turned out that Bristol went to Hart Street Church for reasons best known to them, and the rest were just late! Eventually, keys, people (including what appeared to be several tons of baggage) arrived for some ringing. It turns out that Bow are quite challenging so we rang some rounds and call changes, possibly some Cinques and fired out Cambridge Max.

Unfortunately Charles had to book the upstairs room in Ye Olde Watling quite early so people had to leave and make use of the space (shame). Eventually the upstairs was crammed to bursting point with students, who proceeded to do exactly what students do! Most people returned to the church hall after this for sleep, I presume…

Southwark Tavern o’clock chimed for others who headed with speed to this establishment to find it too full for us. The more forward thinking people, The Camden and Poodle took a splinter group to the Blue Eyed Maid for all night karaoke action. In the end I believe two of this group slept up the tower at Hart Street…

Nine o’clock on Saturday morning meant it was time for the draw. As this took so little time, three keen and enthusiastic people went to try and ring a handbell quarter at Hart Street before the competition at eleven. This failed.

After an epic wait for the judge, Simon Bond, we were off. There isn’t much to say about the competition itself, apart from a band of bigheads who decided to ring 8-Spliced for their touch, which didn’t fire out. The UL touches, Plain Bob Major and call changes were perfectly acceptable and allowed Harry to ring in his first striking competition.

The lunchtime gap in the Crosse Keys did not seem to help the quality of the ringing produced by most, except the Cambridge lot who were observed to be drinking coke and working!!! The six-bell competition was held at the new six at St Katherine Cree a short walk from the pub, so teams disappeared for a while to ring and returned.

The results came out as Cambridge winning everything, the UL coming 3rd and 6th in the eight bell; 4 in the six bell. The six-bell judge Tom Lawrence commented that the band who tried to ring I’d rather be in The Tavern TB Minor was awarded marks based on originality not striking!

With the formalities over, a disco was arranged in the Church hall with the usual S Club 7, Wurzels, something else that got us dancing away and a complaint to get the police involved. Oops! I cannot recall any particularly embarrassing behaviour by anybody. Only Mariko managed to win the title of Captain Vom; and Southampton went home.

Sunday morning arrived, and the hordes descended on Southwark Cathedral for service ringing, totally bemusing the tower captain, Peter Valuks. Then people set a course for home, and that was that for another year.

A big thank you should go to Charles Herriott and Rupert Littlewood for organising such a good weekend; the judges and the rector at Hart Street who allowed us to occupy the Church Hall.

By Andrew Hills

…taken from: http://www.ulscr.org.uk/2009/11/southern-universities-association-weekend-13th-15th-november-2009/.

Having missed both the Freshers tour and the pub crawl this was my first UL event. I do not pretend that this is necessarily a true and accurate representation of the events occurring, but I hope that I have got some of it right at least.

On the Friday afternoon I met Heather and Nick H at Notting Hill Gate to get the Oxford Tube down. On arrival in Oxford we went first to the pub (I don’t remember which one) in order to collect Tom who had taken the cheaper and quicker option of a train ride. Suitably refreshed after a quick drink, (coke of course for me!) we headed on to the Carfax tower for the evenings ringing. Squeezing into a tower seemingly full of Bristolians was no mean feat and after a quick ring many headed off to the pub. Having stayed on for a while longer, myself and Tom found ourselves facing the challenge of having to locate the named pub for the evening, resorting eventually to asking a passing stranger, who, being a visitor to the city himself, had no idea but quickly whipped out his iphone and googled it. Thus back on track we retraced our steps and soon arrived at our destination for the evening. There henceforth followed a very social evening with ringers far outnumbering all the other patrons of the establishment.

Later on as many people had left, a small group of the UL contingent hurried out into the night desperate to find someone who looked like they knew where they were going. Fortunately we managed to tag on to a group of OUS members who seemed fairly confident of their directions and, after walking for what seemed like an age through the many twists and turns of the Oxford streets, we arrived at our lodgings for the weekend.

Waking at an early hour the following morning, there was rapid bustle as the hall had to be cleared and vacated during the day. Setting off into Oxford for breakfast, it was soon realised that we had hit upon a significant problem…. the chosen breakfast Spoons did not open for another 20 minutes… The large group of assorted bellringers milled uncertainly on the pavement outside and many prepared to settle down for a good long dither, some attempted to force entry, others were content to wait.

Then, just as a prolonged dither looked imminent, an enterprising few broke free from the crowd and struck out in search of a greasy spoon that would satisfy their needs. Sheep-like, around half the group broke away and followed these decisive leaders, a few minutes later finding themselves outside a small cafe that was indeed open and serving breakfast. Here began another dither as the size of the establishment and its prospective ability to cater for a dozen hungry ringers was debated. The inevitable result was to wander back to the Spoons where there were now only a few minutes to wait until opening time.

During the day on Saturday there was ringing at various towers around Oxford, which were [Those present insert your own impressions of the general ringing here as I can’t remember where we rang, let alone what it was like]. In addition there were also the striking competitions, ostensibly the main event of SUA, none of which saw the UL covering ourselves in glory, the eligible teams coming last in both the 6 bell and 8 bell competitions and the scratch teams coming, I think, 4th and 7th. During lunch a quiz was passed out, and covert spying missions and outright bribery were attempted to obtain all the correct answers. It is maintained that had a certain musicals round written by Jess not been removed, our score would have been much higher!

Having got all the business with the bells out of the way, the ringers went back to what they do best before returning to the hall for an excellent dinner and ample beverages. There followed a Ceilidh, a new experience for me but I can confirm it is definitely the most fun you can have with a large group of people you don’t know well, like a barn dance with better moves! After the last dance had been danced and the band had departed, the evening’s entertainments continued with an impromptu sing-song, initiated by the OUS but rapidly commandeered by the UL who were determined not to be outdone. We freshers received an education in the UL Songbook that night!

Many thanks go to the OUS for an excellently organised weekend!

By Mariko Whyte

…taken from: http://www.ulscr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/rep15_16.pdf.

This year’s SUA weekend was held in London (6th-8th November) which meant it was the UL’s turn to host.

The weekend began with some very pleasant ringing at St Mary le Bow (12 bells, 41-3-21) in the evening. There was a very good turnout of ringers, enough for at least two bands. The night concluded with a few laughs down the pub.

Saturday started with breakfast/drinking at the Liberty Bounds. It gave a good opportunity for everyone to meet up, as roughly half just turned up for the Saturday (including myself). The Liberty Bounds was a very good meeting point as it was only a 2 minute walk from St Olave’s, Hart Street (8 bells, 11-3-23) where the 8 bell striking competition was taking place. The competition started at 11:00 and UL were drawn at 11:40. By the time it was our turn to ring, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Fortunately, the ringing wasn’t compromised and the band rang some very good Grandsire Triples, which Richard Pullin conducted from the tenor. We then returned for lunch at the Bounds, where the results would be announced.

Once all the bands had rung, the judges, Mike Trim and Edward HughesD’Aeth, joined us at the pub, where they were ready with the results. They blamed any inaccuracies on a few tourists asking them for directions during the ringing. However, the results concluded with the UL being triumphant. This was slightly expected as most of the band ring at Hart Street most Thursdays.

After the 8 bell competition there followed open ringing at Christ Church, Spitalfields (8 bells, 17-1-6). Happily the rain had passed which made the day much more bearable. Richard was in charge of the ringing here where there was a good turnout of approximately 30 University ringers. Fortunately, it was a large ringing chamber so it didn’t feel too cramped. The bells were very easy going, so we managed some very respectable ringing.

Then followed the 6 bell competition at St. James, Garlickhythe (8 bells, 9-1-25). We were drawn first as a few of the UL ringers had to rush off to the College Youths dinner afterwards. We rang Grandsire Doubles, again called by Richard. The test piece was rung well and didn’t have any major hiccups. The waiting area for the competition was in the Hatchet where many students could get back to drinking. The 6 bell competition gave the opportunity for ringers who didn’t ring in the 8 bell to be part of scratch bands. Many of these bands rang some unusual, but amusing touches, such as backwards Cambridge Minor.

This made the Judge’s job, Peter Emery, much more difficult than a conventional striking competition. Amazingly, the UL won again.

During the time between the 6 bell competition and the ceilidh, everyone was welcome to eat dinner wherever they liked.

The ceilidh took place at Hart Street church hall, where there was a band of musicians waiting for us. There was good amount of people to fill the hall and there was beer on draught to help with the dancing.

I didn’t attend any of the Sunday morning ringing, but I heard nothing really eventful happened and it was service ringing as normal. Overall, the weekend was very well led by the UL. Thank you to those who helped organised it (Nix Ruberry & Chris Brown).

By Alan Eyles

…taken from: www.ulscr.org.uk/2013/11/southern-universities-association-weekend-2013-southampton.

This year’s SUA was hosted by Southampton University in Southampton (obviously) on 8th-10th November. The UL being organised as usual had managed to get a last minute band of 7 current students together although we all decided to only come down for the Saturday. This decision could be attributed to laziness or competition focus, I will let you decide. Due to not being there on Friday evening I cannot comment on happenings, although I am reliably informed by my inside informant (Tom Wood) that ‘nothing much happened’.

Whilst all the dedicated SUA ringers rose and had the draw at 9am, we all arrived after a lovely, comfy night’s sleep at 10am on Saturday morning to a gloomy, rainy Southampton. Luckily we quickly found a Weatherspoon next to the first church and settled ourselves to a good spoon’s breakfast. The 8 bell striking competition was soon underway, although we were reliably informed we were 3rd so had time to finish our food. The 8 bell competition took place on the back 8 at St Michael’s (10, 16-1-15). We only managed to get 7 current students (Boo!) but Robert Sworder was temporarily promoted to honorary UL member and made up the final member of our team. We rang a touch of Bob Triples conducted by Ryan Noble and it was quite good (for Bob triples).

After that moment of excitement, we hurried over to St Mary’s (10, 21-2-8) to join the general ringing. This, unfortunately, turned out to be a bit of a trek and ended in us all becoming completely drenched and looking very attractive when we walked into the ringing chamber. After a few touches pretending I knew what I was doing in caters we all went for lunch (Yay!). 50 students descending on a pub at once wasn’t really thought out, so the UL formed a breakout group to a good CAMRA pub. We did get a bit swamped by Saints supporters but a round of 4 drinks was less than £10! Thankfully we managed to restrain ourselves in preparation for the 6 bell competition and didn’t drink too much.

We quickly dashed to Tesco’s for some food and those in the Southwark band went to ring in the 6 bell competition at St Barnabas (6, 2-3-2). This left just Ben and I who decided we would kill time by joining the general ringing at The Ascension, Bitterne Park (12, 8-1-13). This was another trek away and it started raining again. To make matters worse I LEFT MY UMBRELLA IN TESCO! Worst thing ever. So eventually we made it to Bitterne Park and managed to fire out a few touches there, then headed back to St Barnabas to ring for the 6 bell competition. After figuring out how best to stand whilst cramped ringing in a porch we rang a touch of Grandsire doubles called by Chris Rimmer. We then returned to the church hall next door to wait for the results.

The moment we had all been waiting for arrived. We all went over to the church with our pints to hear the results. In the 6 bell competition the UL came 3rd (not bad) and in the 8 bell competition the UL(scratch) came 1st,claiming the title of the best University ringing society in the south (probably the world). Tom Hinks even went so far as to say it was a nice touch of Bob triples! Other societies’ results don’t matter/I can’t remember them. We then headed over to the church hall for a celebration with cider and beer kegs and a ceilidh (of course). After this I headed home, so I can’t tell you what happened on Sunday, but I am reliably informed that ‘nothing much happened’. Thank you to SUGCR for a great weekend.

Sophie Middleton

…taken from: www.ulscr.org.uk/2012/11/southern-universities-association-weekend-2012.

This year SUA was held in Bristol (9th-11th Nov). We all arrived on Friday evening, some of us earlier for a quarter peal at St James, some of us a bit later such as Roxy and me who, because of the crowdedness of the train, ended up sitting on the floor for the whole journey drinking Malibu from the bottle. Who says the UL isn’t classy? The first challenge was to find the pub we were supposed to meet at, harder than it may sound. We soon discovered how hilly Bristol was and after trekking around for a while we eventually found it. We soon settled down to drinking the usual real Ale and singing the usual UL/anti CUG songs.

Sometime in the evening we eventually stumbled out of the pub and headed up another massive hill to Kingsdown church hall our home for the weekend. We each grabbed our spots. Some of the more prepared people set up their air beds and we attempted to sleep. Well this was until the guys discovered the Sunday school’s toy store. We then had races on miniature scooters and cars until the early hours of the morning.

Saturday!

On Saturday morning we woke up a bit less than fresh but ready to ring. A 9:30 start at Redcliffe a 30 minute walk away meant a quick rush to the first church. The first tower Redcliffe was a 50cwt – 2qr – 21lb, 12 and obviously everyone wanted to ring. Sadly our competition was back at our church hall and the UL were second up. This meant that we had to leave almost straight away, but I still hadn’t rung. Luckily Robert Sworder was there to help and let me have a whole pull on the bell before handing it to him and running back up the hill. For the first striking competition the UL rang Grandsire Triples conducted by Andrew Hills.

As the competition was going on, the rest of the ringers were ringing at St John on the Wall (6). But sadly I missed that because of the competition. The UL met back up with the others at Bristol Cathedral (8) at 11:30. Then came Lunch. We managed to find Bristol’s Wetherspoons and all got our book of discount vouchers out careful not to drink too much to be ready for the 6 bell competition.

Whilst the other ringers were ringing at St Stephen’s(12) and All Saints(8), the competition was going on back up the hill at St Michael on the Mount (6). A church used by Bristol University ringers but not fit for inhabitancy by anyone else. The combination of having a long draft and being oddstruck made this striking competition trickier. The UL entered 3 teams a Bob doubles team that Jenny definitely rang in and was not replaced by Hills, a scratch Brentford bob team and a scratch Southwark team ringing spliced Stedman and surprise something. We all found the bells challenging.

Then it was results time! We all met up in the crypt of St John on the Wall to hear the judges’ comments. Bristol won both competitions, but the UL came second in the eight bell!!!! A surprising result compared to other years. We shall not mention our performance in the six bell, let’s just say it was not top 3… Than at 5pm it was back up the hill for the evening’s events. First of all the Bristol Ringers cooked a tasty pasta meal for everyone. Then, after an emergency alcohol run by the UL, it was time for the Ceilidh!!! Always the highlight of SUA. The highlights had to be Ben Barnes’ dancing after a couple of bottles of wine as well as uneven baskets involving Jacqui and Roxy and the Bristol Ringers forcing Glint to dance. Then we all attempted to sleep with Luke Camden’s incredibly loud snoring.

Sunday!

Sunday morning the Bristol ringers cooked us a good breakfast of bacon as we frantically cleaned up the hall ready for the church service. Some people went home, others went to ring at SS Philip & Jacob(8), but most of the UL stayed to ring at Kingsdown church and we had some really good service ringing, although one of the muffles did fall off. We then headed back down the hill to Wetherspoons for some brunch with our vouchers. On the way we met the Remembrance Sunday parade and service in the square so we stayed to watch and join in. Of course we ended up staying in the pub too long and had to run for the train, but we jumped on the train just in time and managed to get seats with TVs!

Thank you to Bristol Ringers for a great weekend.