Double Court Bob Minor, Double Norwich Court Bob Major, Cambridge Surprise

Right Places

All of the methods discussed on this page are "right place" methods. Any time a place is made—two consecutive blows in the same position in the row—it is a handstroke followed by a backstroke, or "hand to back". (Places that are made back to hand are called "wrong places".) This is achieved by having all pairs of bells cross every backstroke-to-handstroke change.

That last point—that all pairs of bells cross from every backstroke to handstroke—means that the process of going from backstroke to handstroke is always exactly the same as when starting plain hunt. If you ring a backstroke in an odd-numbered place, your next handstroke will be one place higher (later). If you ring a backstroke in an even-numbered place, your next handstroke will be one place lower (earlier).

Double Court Bob Minor

While the treble hunts up or down, places are made on either side of the treble. Effectively, the hunting only takes place on four bells. The pair of bells outside the group with the treble dodges.

At the half lead and lead end (while the treble lies at the back and leads), both inside pairs cross.

The bell that makes 4ths while the treble hunts 2–3 passes the treble and makes 3rds while the treble hunts 4–5. This is called "court places" around the treble. The 3rd place bell does this in the first half of the lead while 5th place bell does it in reverse in the second half of the lead

Double Oxford Bob Minor

If you ring Double Court with a Plain Bob lead end (someone makes 2nds, bells in 3–4 and 5–6 dodge) instead of a plain hunt lead end, and a Reverse or Double Bob half lead (someone makes 5ths under the treble, bells in 1–2 and 3–4 dodge) instead of a plain hunt half lead, you're now ringing Double Oxford Bob Minor.

The court places will then have a dodge before them and another dodge after them, with one dodge at the half lead and one at the lead end. Both dodges will be in the same direction, which can also be said to be the direction of the court places.

3rds place bell, having become that with a 3–4 up dodge, rings court places up: 4ths, pass the treble, 3rds, dodge 3–4 up (at the half lead). 6ths place bell begins with a 5–6 down dodge, passes the treble in 4–5, then dodges 3–4 down at the half lead to begin court places down: 3rds, pass the treble, 4ths, dodge 3–4 down (at the lead end).

Double Norwich Court Bob Major

Double Norwich is an expansion of Double Court to Major. The treble now takes three whole pulls to hunt from front to back, so there are three sets of hunting on four, with two pairs of bells dodging each time.

There are now court places in 3–4 AND 5–6. Both sets of court places also have a dodge before OR after, because for one whole pull the bell making the places is outside of the group of four that includes the treble.

Cambridge Surprise Major

In Cambridge the treble is treble-bob hunting rather than plain hunting, but the whole pulls in which the treble hunts have the same structure as in Double Court/Double Norwich.

While the treble dodges, places are made on either side of it. The overall effect of this is that when the treble dodges, most other bells hunt. There is one exception, when the treble is dodging in 5–6 (up or down). Ringers historically prefer methods where the penultimate place is not made above the treble, so instead of making 7ths above the treble dodge, there is a 7–8 dodge as well. This is what gives rise to the double dodges at the back in all stages of Cambridge.

The court places of Double Court and Double Norwich are expanded with a dodge with the treble in the center, and places while the treble dodges before and after the places while the treble is hunting. This entire sequence (usually also with dodges at the beginning and end) is called Cambridge places.

Court Places to Cambridge Places

• 4ths, pass treble, 3rds
• 4ths, dodge 3–4 down with treble, 3rds
• 3rds, 4ths, dodge 3–4 down with treble, 3rds, 4ths
• dodge 3–4 down, 3rds, 4ths, dodge 3–4 down with treble, 3rds, 4ths, dodge 3–4 down

Cambridge Surprise Maximus

Just for fun, here's Cambridge Surprise Maximus with all the places around the treble highlighted.

Cambridge Surprise Minor

Because of the no-penultimate-place-over-treble rule, this pattern is a bit less visible on only six bells.

Yorkshire Surprise Major

Yorkshire is Cambridge above the treble, meaning places are made above the treble's dodging and hunting just as in Cambridge. Below the treble is also Cambridge, but with a twist—2nds and 5ths place bells act as a sort of second treble, and the others ring Cambridge Surprise Minor (i.e. one stage lower) as if the second treble were "the" treble.

Cambridge: Structure of the Line

Most of what's above on this page is about overall method structure, not what specific place bells do or what the line looks like. But the overall method structure gives rise to the line structure for Cambridge on any number of bells.

Below I've drawn part of the lines of the 3 and 6 in the first lead of Cambridge Surprise Maximus. Both sections of line are simply treble bob hunting, but out of sync with the treble. When the treble hunts, the 3 and 6 dodge, and when the treble dodges, the 3 and 6 hunt. In fact, all of the bells are treble bobbing, when they aren't near the actual treble.

In order to pass the treble, however, each bell has to re-align with the treble's treble bobbing. When passing the treble not at the front or back, there are two shifts: to align with the treble, then to align with the other bells again after passing the treble.

There are three strategies used to shift treble bobbing alignment in Cambridge:

• An extra dodge (i.e. a double dodge)
• Missing or skipping a dodge
• An extra place (i.e. a place followed immediately by another place)

Consider 6ths place bell. It begins offset from the treble, hunting down while the treble dodges. If the 6 continued its offset treble bobbing, it would dodge 3–4 down. However, the treble needs to hunt 2–3! The 6 therefore continues to hunt down, no longer offset from the treble. Now that the 6 has passed the treble, it needs to offset its treble bobbing again, so it misses another dodge: 1–2 down. Instead the 6 hunts, which at this point means leading full.