This year the Essex Trophy 10-bell Striking Competition was hosted on Saturday 14th Sept by the Middlesex County Association and London Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers on behalf of the Essex Association at Southgate Christ Church (24–3–7).

Six teams entered the competition this year and were drawn on the morning to perform in the following order:

1) Surrey
2) Kent
3) Essex
4) Guildford
5) Sussex
6) Hertfordshire

The test piece was 327 changes of Stedman Caters, and the competition was judged by Paul and Kate Flavell, ringers at Kingston upon Thames.

Sussex have won the competition for the past two years running.

This year we took the opportunity to include five members of the Association in our band, who regularly ring on higher numbers but haven't previously competed in this competition. Two out of 10 from the @rwyouthringing team and 4 under 25! Practices for the competition were held at East Grinstead and Horsham; these allowed the band to get used to both ringing the test piece and ringing with each other.

The acoustics in the ringing chamber were a little challenging making it difficult to hear a few of the bells, especially around the front end. Despite this the band produced some very respectable ringing and we were very pleased to achieve 3rd place behind Kent and Guildford.

Next year the competition will be hosted in Ashford Kent, where the test method will be a plain course of Cambridge Surprise Royal.