Harlington Alliance Minor

This post is the first of what I hope will be an occasional series, where I simply explain a method in words. How ringers think about a method in practical terms, when actually ringing, is often rather different from how we represent methods in diagrams! So learning a method generally involves some sort of translation into a format you can use. This is an example of that translation process.

As of this writing, I have not actually rung Harlington Alliance Minor! But I think it is a nice method and I would like to ring it. I’ll explain the method first, then at the end say a little bit about why I like it.

The method

Here is how I understand Harlington Alliance Minor. This is not the only way to think about it, but I believe it is a good strategy.

The treble

The treble is a hunt bell, meaning it does the same thing every lead. It is also mostly plain hunting! It dodges both directions at the back—5-6 up, lie at the back, 5-6 down—but does NOT dodge anywhere else.

Inside bells

The working or inside bells also mostly plain hunt. The exceptions are:

1. When you meet the treble at the back, dodge with it.
2. 2nds place bell, after leading, does not go all the way to the back but instead makes 4ths, 3rds, 4ths, then back down to lead. You can recognize that it is time to do this by noticing when you take the treble off lead (you lead after the treble leads). You can recognize that you are going to take the treble off lead when you dodge 5-6 up with the treble—you will then lie at the back and “follow the treble down” which doesn’t mean ring immediately after the treble, it means you’re the next strand in the weave going down after the treble. There will be one bell between the treble and you until the leadend (backstroke) where you do ring in 2nds place directly after the treble (which is the moment you become 2nds place bell).
3. When you lie at the back without meeting the treble, you will then do one dodge on the front. I don’t really have a simple suggestion for knowing whether to dodge and lead or lead and dodge. I think I will rely on all three of these points:
   • the dodge on the front happens at the half lead, when the treble is lying at the back.
   • 5ths place bell does the dodge first, 6ths place bell leads first. Hey, that means 6ths place bell begins exactly like 6ths place bell in Cambridge—hunt all the way down, lead full, dodge 1-2 up.
   • if I pass the treble 5-4 (5ths place bell) I dodge and lead; if I pass the treble 4-3 (6ths place bell) I lead and dodge.

A note on ropesight and course bells

Noticing that you’re meeting the treble at the back is a skill that can be learned! It is greatly simplified by the fact that in the vast majority of methods, particularly even-bell methods, the bells you meet at the back are your course bells or the treble. In a plain course you will always take the same bell off the back (this is your course bell or before bell), except once when the treble will be there instead, and the same bell will always take you off the back (this is your after bell), except once when it’s the treble instead. Ringing on more bells means more ropes moving, but it doesn’t mean more ropes to look at at the back. This is true for Plain Bob on any number of bells, Little Bob on any number, Cambridge Surprise on any number, Kent Treble Bob (but not Oxford Treble Bob)…and Harlington Alliance Minor.

All these methods (even Oxford TB!) share a (plain course) coursing order of up the evens, down the odds. So for minor, that’s 24653. Or 65324 as it would typically be written for composing/conducting purposes, with the tenor first. Your course bells are the ones before and after you in that order, e.g. if you’re ringing the 3, the 5 is your before bell and the 2 is your after bell.

Taking a moment before starting to ring to determine your course bells makes the following strategy possible when approaching and lying at the back:

1. Look for your course or after bell (normal to look at both, I can’t always keep track of which is which)
2. If they aren’t close, look at the treble!
3. If the treble also isn’t close, probably someone is wrong. It might not be you though!

This strategy is also an excellent first step in learning to put others right—imagine you’ve taken the treble off the back but your after bell doesn’t appear to be coming to meet you. You can tell them to lie at the back after you! I am always impressed when conductors seem to know what other bells should be doing, but I have discovered sometimes they don’t really—they just know this specific way to apply coursing order.

Back to Harlington…

Prerequisites

For this strategy to work, the treble needs to be in the right place. I think it is entirely reasonable to first learn a method with this assumption though!

To use this strategy on an inside bell, you need to be able to recognize whether or not you’re meeting the treble at the back.

You don’t absolutely need to recognize when you take the treble off lead, but it’s extremely helpful. Recognizing when the treble leads and identifying what place bell you become is also extremely helpful.

Advantages

This strategy works for plain courses AND for touches. No need to learn an additional strategy when calls are involved!

Okay but can I see the line?

Here is the full plain course with description of the line.

Why ring this method?

I have heard a general suggestion to ring Alliance methods spliced with Little Bob Minor, to make extents possible. An extent of minor, all the permutations, is 720 rows. But Little Bob only has the treble in first through fourth place, so it can’t produce all the rows. Harlington Alliance Minor is one of many methods where the treble rings extra blows in 5ths and 6ths place. So it can be spliced with Little Bob to supply the missing rows!

I think ringing the treble to Harlington Alliance Minor, or other Alliance methods with this treble path, could be a useful stepping stone between plain hunt and treble bob hunt. Or just a nice way to focus on 5-6 dodges! When ringers go from Plain Bob Doubles to Plain Bob Minor, I sometimes think the 5-6 dodges are a bit sloppy compared to the 3-4 dodges, because the 3-4 dodges are familiar. So an opportunity to practice 5-6 dodges might be useful.

Noticing where you pass the treble is an incredibly useful skill for nearly all methods. This method provides an opportunity to practice that in a fairly simple context. The emphasis is on noticing the treble at the front and back, which I think is easier than noticing where you pass it in the middle.

That’s all!