Introduction to Grandsire Caters coursing orders
Please start by looking at page 79 of the Ringing World diary, reproduced below. Our first objective is to work up to calling the quarter peal of 1259 at the bottom left hand corner. The notation is completely different to Plain Bob and Cambridge. The numbers are the numbers of the leads at which a bob or single is called, counting from the course end, thus the first course has bobs at the 1st, 4th and 5th leads. Quite a number of the courses have bobs at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd leads only.
1259 Grandsire Caters
23456789
--------------
23456978 1 4 5
63452 5s
23465 1s 4s
42365 1 2 3
34265 1 2 3
43265879 1 3 4
24365 1 2 3
32465 1 2 3
43265978 1 3 4s
24365 1 2 3
32465 1 2 3
234655879 1 3 4
42365 1 2 3
34265 1 2 3
But let’s take a step back initially. The simplest possible touch is 72 changes (4 leads), with a bob every lead, which would be written as "1 2 3 4". In that touch, the coursing order is 23468975 throughout, and so it's a bit like a plain course of Plain Bob. For comparison, the plain course is 126 changes (7 leads) and the coursing order is 3468975, but you have to remember that 2 is following 1 all the time as the hunt bell. For this reason, the bob course is generally considered to be easier to ring than the plain course, not least because the act of calling the bobs tells everyone when to dodge. We find this useful in our tower when ringing G11 with inexperienced people in it.
The above will get your band used to ringing on 10, and make them comfortable with the dodging positions.
If you take the bob course, and omit the bob at 4, then it takes an extra lead to get to the course end. In addition, the 4th will stay in the hunt, and the 5th lead end (and course end) will be 142356789. What happens to the coursing order is that it remains 23468975 until the 4th lead end, when the 4th overtakes the 3rd as it makes 3rds, so that during the 5th lead the coursing order is 24368975. At the 5th lead end the 4th overtakes the 2nd and the coursing order becomes 42368075. This is the coursing order with which you start the second course. At this point, please note that the coursing order starts with the same three bells, and in the same order as the course end.
If the above is repeated twice more, you get the three course touch of 270 half way down the left hand edge of the page. The first one of the three, that is. Throughout this touch, the back bells stay in the order ...68975... which can stay fixed in the mind as the plain course coursing order. You can label it as "backstroke home" position if you wish, and retain it on the back burner of your mind. The little bells are more interesting, starting 234 for almost 4 leads, the becoming 243 for a lead, and then 423 at the start of the second course. In other words, at the two plain leads the 4th moves down past 3 first and then 2. At the plain leads of the second course, the 3rd moves down past 2 and then 4 to give 342, and in the third course, 2 is in the hunt, passing first 4 and then 3 at the final lead end. Try it and see!!
The other two touches of 270 are really the same thing starting in different places, and there are actually another two possible touches like this. In every case, 5 bells stay fixed and three bells move cyclically. The most interesting one, and useful, is "1 4 5" as this gives 123456978 as the course end (coursing order 23467895), which has neatly put the back bells into the tittums position. The big bells course in the order 789, which gives some nice music, especially in rows like ***7*8*9*0, hence the name. Personally, I prefer the "56 tittums", course ends like 1***569780, to the "65 tittums", course ends like 1***659780. In the second and third courses 7, 8 and 9 are moved cyclically to get back to rounds.
I think that's enough about those touches. In most lengths of G9 (quarters and peals) you get significant durations of ringing with the big bells fixed (the back burner coursing order) and move around just 3 or 4 bells on a regular basis. Thus the coursing order stays fixed for quite a while, with no need to change it frequently. One useful feature of G9 or G11 is that by having one plain lead in a series of calls, two bells get transposed. This is illustrated by a series of touches of 180 changes, not shown in the diary. These are touches of two courses, each having 5 leads, such as (and my favourite) "1 3 4". What happens here is that the initial coursing order is 23468975, and at the first bob, 5 makes 3rds and 7 goes into the hunt. The second lead is plain, so 7 overtakes 9 giving 79523468. At the third (bobbed) lead end 6 and 8 are on the front, and at the fourth (bobbed) lead end 3 goes into the hunt whilst 4 makes 3rds. At this point the coursing order is 34687952. At the 5th lead end, which is plain, 3 overtakes 2 to give 32468795 coursing order and the lead end is 132456987. Repetition of the whole thing brings up rounds. This illustrates what happens in turning courses.
One last thing, it may help you if you ring the treble. That way you get to see the whole coursing order clearly, and without having to worry about where you dodge yourself, you can be sure of getting the bobs in the right place!!