Even that morning, text messages were going around trying to get a complete peal band; a bit of arm twisting: some successful, some not. Andrew Brown was stuck in London and nobody was sure whether he would arrive in time anyway. I believe that a few had collected at the church, St Mark’s, for the attempt but many more had gathered at the hotel in anticipation of what the final outcome of the attempt would be. Would one or two of us have our arms twisted, would Andrew Brown arrive in time, would there be a late start, or should we go for a quarter when we have enough?

The latter was by far the preferred option (I don’t include the avid peal ringers here of course) and so after checking into the Thistle Hotel, Exeter a gathering of people gradually came about. A band for Cambridge Royal was arranged and we all walked the “15 minutes” to St Mark’s. The walk was certainly nearer 25 minutes but it didn’t matter as the company was good and the bells were really quite superb.

Before we could all relax for the evening there was a second quarter peal attempt at St Petrocks. This church is on the edge of the cathedral precincts and was in a good location to finish before freshening up for the evening. A couple of people, me included, took the opportunity to grab these bells (I’d managed to get myself out of this quarter).