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Basics

The coursing order is 2-4-3:

The three pieces of work in Plain Bob Minimus are:

As in a plain course, the work your bell does corresponds to the place your bell was in at the previous lead end backstroke:

• if you were in 2nds, you do the 2nds work;
• if you were in 4ths, you do the 4ths work; and
• if you were in 3rds, you do the 3rds work.

Except when there is a call, the sequence in which you move from one piece of work to the next is the coursing order 2-4-3.

You may wish to memorize the sequence of places. If so, when you recite them to yourself, look to the right at each place in which you are over the treble, so you will habitually look to the right (toward the treble) at the right points in the sequence when you are ringing too.

In a touch, the roles of the bells change, so which bells are your course and after bells can change. It is helpful to consider what can't change.

1. The treble. The treble is unaffected by calls.
2. The order of the landmarks. A call may change where you are in the sequence of landmarks, but after the change the sequence (beginning from your new starting point) remains constant.
3. What passing the treble signifies. The relation between where you pass the treble and which landmark you reach next remains constant, except of course when a change affecting you is called between passing the treble and the landmark.

   From place:	Pass the treble (going down) in:	Then pass the treble (going up) in:	Then do:	To place:
   2nds	2-1	3-4 = At the back	Dodge 3‑4 Down	4ths
   4ths	3-2	2-3	Dodge 3‑4 Up	3rds
   3rds	4-3 = At the back	1-2	Make 2nds	2nds
   Underscored places are those in which you ring over the treble.

4. You always Make 2nds over the treble.
5. You always Dodge 3‑4 Down with the bell you pass in 1-2 on the way out to the dodge (your course bell).
6. You always Dodge 3‑4 Up with the only bell you didn't pass on the way out to the dodge (your after bell).

   (That was the bell you passed in 2-1 on the way in to leads before the dodge.)

7. What you do with your course and after bells does not change (even when which bells they are changes):
   • You always turn your course bell (= take your course bell off lead) (= ring in 2nds over your course bell before ringing your first lead) except before you Make 2nds.
   • You are always turned by your after bell (= your after bell takes you off lead) (= ring in 2nds over your after bell after ringing your second lead) except after you Make 2nds.

Bob

As in all ringing, calls are made two strokes before any bell will ring in a different place due to the call, to give ringers enough warning that they can pull the stroke before appropriately to make their bell ring in the requested place.

Calls in Plain Bob are made at the backstroke before a a lead end. This is the stroke at which the treble is in 3rds, hunting in. The call takes effect two strokes later, at the lead end backstroke.

(In common usage, the lead end is the pull during which the treble is in leads, or more specifically the backstroke that is the treble's second blow in leads. Sometimes it is called the lead end backstroke for emphasis. Technically speaking, that backstroke is the lead head, and the handstroke preceding it is the lead end, but one rarely hears it spoken of this way.)

Figure 1. No bob called

Figure 1 shows a lead end at which no bob was called.

1. Green is Making 2nds, which puts it in 2nds place at the lead end, so it will next do the 2nds work (Dodge 3‑4 Down).
2. Blue is Dodging 3‑4 Down, which puts it in 4ths place at the lead end, so it will next do the 4ths work (Dodge 3‑4 Up).
3. Orange is Dodging 3‑4 Up, which puts it in 3rds place at the lead end, so it will next do the 3rds work (Make 2nds).

Figure 2. Bob called;
⟸ marks the stroke
at which something
different happens

Figure 2 shows the same lead end with a bob called. The bob is called at the backstroke before the treble comes into lead; the lead end backstroke is the subsequent backstroke.

• Blue was going to Dodge 3‑4 Down (the 2nds work).

  Instead, it Runs In which puts it in 2nds place at the lead end, so next it does the 2nds work: it continues in to lead, hunts out to the back (passing the treble at the back in 3‑4), and does Dodge 3‑4 Down.

  It dodges with Orange, whom it passed in 1‑2.

• Orange was going to Dodge 3‑4 Up (the 4ths work).

  Instead, Orange rings a second blow in 4ths (Make the Bob) which puts it in 4ths at the lead end, so next it does the 4ths work: it Runs In to lead, then hunts out to do Dodge 3‑4 Down.

  It dodges with Blue, the only bell it didn't pass on the way out.

• Green was going to Make 2nds (the 3rds work).

  Instead, Green Runs Out (what hunting out is termed at a call) which puts it in 3rds at the lead end, so next it does the 3rds work: it hunts out to the back, in to the lead, passes the treble in 1‑2 and Makes 2nds (as though it had just done Dodge 3‑4 Up).

The least information to memorize:

An additional conceptual step, but more useful in the long run:

And where you pass the treble after a bob is always the same, no matter which other bells are doing what work:

• thomas · alspaugh @ acm · org
• 
• 2019May11Sa10:37
• Attribution