On Saturday 17th June, the Peterborough Guild hosted the Ridgman trophy contest. This is a 10 bell striking contest for guilds & associations that (roughly) border the Ely diocese. Hosting the event moves round the various guilds that are eligible to enter and Peterborough volunteered to host this year. The Guild last hosted in 2016, when it was held at Daventry. The test piece was two courses of spliced Plain and Little bob Royal.

The venue chosen was the back 10 at Towcester. While a twelve, they are an excellent ring of 10, easy to hear and not difficult to ring, thus making it a test of striking. Eight teams had entered, and the draw had been made in advance. One had withdrawn earlier in the week. Those that rang were representing Bedfordshire, Cambridge University, Ely, Essex, Lincoln, Peterborough & Suffolk.

The morning dawned and it rained, which concerned the team laying on refreshments. Bacon buns, tea, coffee, soft drinks and acres of cakes awaited the bands entering. After much prolonged discussion, a couple of gazebos were erected in the Chantry House gardens; one for catering the others for sheltering visitors; and we all crossed out fingers. As the bands started arriving so the weather started to pick up and the bacon rolls started disappearing into ringers' tummies.

The competition plan assigns each team a 30 minute slot, in which they have time to practice the touch before indicating they are ready to start and performing their test piece. Several bands struggled with the touch, there were a number of fire ups of varying degrees in the practices, but only one team came to grief in the test piece. After some deliberation, the results were announced in the church at 2:30 pm.

The results were:

Congratulations to Essex, who were awarded the trophy. Next year's contest is due to be held at Biggleswade, in the Bedfordshire Association on the 8th June.

The trophy:

Thank you to all those that came along and to those that helped out, from both Towcester and across the Guild.