In our next lesson we examine bobs and singles in Grandsire
Triples. Armed with this knowledge we can then make some sense of the
chapter titles and peal instructions of Part 2 of Nine: a full peal --
Holt's Ten Part peal -- of Grandsire Triples.

To recap: Grandsire Triples, is rung on 7 bells; the treble always
plain hunts; one other bell also plain hunts, and in a plain course,
from which we start, this is the number 2 bell. The other bells plain
hunt except at the treble lead, when their course varies and they do
one of the following: dodge 4-5 down, dodge 6-7 down, dodge 6-7 up,
dodge 4-5 up, make 3rds (and lead again).

One of the effects of a bob or single is to change which bell is 'in
the hunt' with the treble. At a bob this is accomplished by a series
of double dodges, each bell dodging a couple of places earlier than
they would have expected to:

 if you were going to make 3rds,
  then make 3rd in the normal way -- you are unaffected by the bob;

 if you were going to dodge 4-5 down,
  then instead double dodge 6-7 down;

 if you were going to dodge 6-7 down,
  then instead double dodge 6-7 up;

 if you were going to dodge 6-7 up,
  then instead double dodge 4-5 up;

 if you were going to doge 4-5 up,
  then make 3rds, then go down to the lead;
  this bell has now gone into the hunt;

 if you were in the hunt,
  then double dodge 4-5 down;
  you have now left the hunt.

To double dodge means to do the same dodge twice, so if you are in
4-5 down, your normal course will be 5th place, then 4th place, and
down to 3rd place. In a dodge, you instead do: 5th place, 4th, back
up to 5th, 4th, and then 3rd and continue down to the lead. In a
double dodge you do: 5th, 4th, back up to 5th, 4th, up to 5th again,
4th, 3rd and down to the lead.

If we consider the normal dodging positions in Grandsire Triples we
have this as the first set of dodges expected in a *plain course*
(i.e. if no bob is called). For convenience I have labelled the rows
or changes (a, b, c etc)...

a 7654132
b 7561423
c 5716243
d 5172634
e 1527364
f 1253746 -- 1 & 2 plain hunt; 3: dodge 4-5 down; 4: dodge 6-7 down;
          -- 5: make 3rds; 6: dodge 6-7 up; 7: dodge 4-5 up;
g 2157364
h 2513746 -- 5, having made 3rds, goes down to lead
i 5231476
j 5324167 -- etc: continue plain hunting until treble leads again


If instead a bob is called we get the following (where the first four
rows are the same, i.e. the bob does not take effect until row (e))

a 7654132
b 7561423
c 5716243 -- 'Bob!' called when the treble is in 3rd place on the way down
d 5172634
e 1576243 -- 7 makes 3rds place; 2 double dodges 4-5 down;
f 1752634    3 double dodges 6-7 down; 4 double dodges 6-7 up;
             6 double dodges 4-5 up
g 7156243    5 makes 3rds place (unaffected); 7 into the hunt
h 7512634 -- last blow of double dodges, plain hunt after this
i 5721364    until treble leads next time
j 5273146

At a bob in Grandsire two bells each make 3rds place and go back to
the lead. One of them is the bell that will go into the hunt. It is
said to 'make first 3rds'. The other bell that makes 3rds is the one
that is unaffected by the bob; at a bob it is said to 'make last
3rds'.

Bobs are not enough to reach all permutations of the bells Grandsire
Triples -- we can ring 4998 like this, but there are 5040 possible
combinations. So we need to call a single, and in order to bring the
bells back to rounds we in fact need to call 2 singles.

There are two sorts of singles in Grandsire Triples: the standard
single, which we shall describe first, and another one, known as
'Holt's Single', which is needed in order to ring Holt's Ten Part
Peal.

First, then, the standard single. At a single, the bell which would
have dodged 4-5 up (and which at a bob would have made first 3rds),
instead rings 4 blows in 3rds place. That is, it effectively makes
both first 3rds and last 3rds; this is called 'making long 3rds'.

a 7654132
b 7561423
c 5716243 -- 'Single!'
d 5172634
e 1576243 -- 7 makes long 3rds place; 5 makes 2nds
f 1572634    other bells (2, 3, 4, 6) do same as at a bob

g 5176243 -- 5 leads again
h 5712634 -- last blow of double dodges, plain hunt after this
i 7521364   until treble leads next time
j 7253146

The effect of this, compared with a bob, is that 2 bells (in this case
5 and 7) have swappped places.


Finally, we have Holt's Single. Here all the bells above 3rd place
all ring 2 blows without changing:

a 7654132
b 7561423
c 5716243 -- 'Holt's!' or some such call
d 5172634
e 1576243 -- 7 makes 3rds and goes into the hunt
f 1756243 -- 5 makes 3rds, as at a bob; by not dodging 6 & 2
             and 4 & 3 swap places
g 7152634
h 7516243
i  5761423
j 5674132

which permutes the bells into a different order again.

<phew>, that was hard work, and is getting to the limits of my knowledge of Grandsire (I had to look up Holts's single -- not yet heard it called).

We now have nearly all the terminology to get some understanding of the peal instructions and chapter titles of part 2 of NINE. The only piece of that particular jigsaw still remaining is a brief note on when bobs and singles are called -- and what it means to be called Wrong, or called Right, etc.

simon