Every Ringing World National Youth Contest brings a new set of challenges and this year was no exception.

The event was hosted by Birmingham and the ringers of the St Martin’s Guild of ringers did a truly fantastic job accommodating 37 teams of enthusiastic young ringers and their supporters.

The G & B Youth Team prepared well for the contest despite a few late drop-outs. The late withdrawals confirmed the wisdom of opting to enter two teams of six rather than a team of eight and of six, so that our party of youngsters finally numbered 13.

The youngsters had practiced monthly since September and usually this involved ringing on eight bells; it was only in the last couple of months that we focussed on ringing six and the exact formation of the bands and choices of what to ring were not decided until the final practices.

The method band rang at Edgbaston and entered with confidence. As the judges’ comments confirm, our team rang well and, listening outside, we were enjoying what we were hearing until . . . ! The “fire-out” happened suddenly and, despite the best efforts of our conductor, the mistake was irrecoverable. Unsurprising, emotions ran high, but there were no recriminations but simply tears of disappointment and sadness – what could have been.

You got off to a confident start, ringing at a good speed and the odd-struckness of the bells was dealt with well. It sounded like this was going to be a really strong performance, and the first half was great to listen to! Unfortunately, a method mistake in the second half meant this piece wasn’t completed, despite a very commendable effort to correct it.  We really hope you have better luck next year!

We had intended staying a while at Edgbaston – The Birmingham University Students had done a brilliant job at preparing refreshments for everyone and, in different circumstances, we would have stayed so that we might have treated ourselves to second helpings of the marvellous selection of cakes. In the event, we needed a change of scene to recover from the disappointment and so moved on to Erdington for the Call Change competition.

The G & B call change team, despite what had happened earlier, were extremely relaxed and, quite clearly, intended enjoying themselves. The chilled atmosphere within the team, together with a determined attitude from the joint conductors, led to a very pleasing performance.

This team quickly found its momentum, and produced the fastest piece of ringing of the day, with strong rhythm and pace. This team did lose momentum about halfway through the test piece, but we were incredibly pleased to hear this pick up again to a strong finish. We’d recommend working on the rhythm at the front of the change, to lock everything in. Well done to this team, they should be very proud of their performance.

With the contest ringing completed, we moved into central Birmingham. The events of the morning had brought the whole group closer together and the collective response was one of determination to make the most of the day. Our young ringers took full advantage of the hand-bell workshop at St Martins and the mini-rings at St Pauls. All of them rang on 16 bells at St Martins with several of our group being invited to ring the tenor. At St Pauls, our youngsters rang the ten as a team and, at both towers, we received some great feedback about the quality of their ringing and especially their ringing styles which are so tidy. Alfie and Toby also received personal invitations to ring for a service at St Philip’s Cathedral and they were buzzing about the quality of striking they experienced whilst doing so.

The Ringing World National Youth Contest provides a focus for Youth Team ringing across the country and it is no different for the G & B Youth team. However, the contest ringing is such a small part of the overall experience. Fundamentally, being involved in the G & B Youth team is about developing ringing skills and knowledge whilst creating strong and lasting friendships. This is certainly the case for the youngsters, but also for the adults who help and support them along the way. We came away from Birmingham with a sense of pride – not because we won, but because of the way we all (youngsters and adults alike) overcame together the disappointment of defeat.

It was announced at Birmingham that the RWNYC 2026 will be at Nottingham on July 4. The G & B Youth Team, will commence monthly practices in September and we also hope to have several special events along the way. All of the current team, who are eligible by age, plan to continue to be involved but we hope that there are other young G & B members who would like to join. Sadly, we have to say goodbye to Daisy Judson and Jacob Coates who are now too old but, hopefully, they will get involved in the ringing at the university towns they will be joining and, as with all G & B Youth Team graduates, they will always be welcome to and join in our activities when they come back home.