The 2003 Dinner
The 36th Annual Dinner was held in the smart new venue of the Southgate Hotel. The weekend of festivities got off to a good start on Friday night, with a large gathering in the Imperial. It was an excellent chance to catch up and relax before the dinner day itself. Having finished the last of the Kaleidoscope bitter, it was time to go home!
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Saturday morning was graced by unusually clement weather, and the minibus group was in high spirits as we set off for Plymouth. We found the first tower, St Mary's, Plympton without trouble, and after meeting the other contingents enjoyed some good ringing on the heavy eight. The next tower, after engaging the problems of traffic and parking in Plymouth city centre, was St Andrew's, where we managed Grandsire Caters and Little Bob Royal on the fine ring of ten. Some people had their first experience of ten bell ringing, and seemed to enjoy it. After a quick lunch in a local Wetherspoon pub, we headed off for Laira. We were met by more people here, who had driven down for the afternoon. This was just as well as some people had to leave at lunchtime, one for an exam back in Exeter! Ringing included 8-spliced and some very good Stedman on the superb eight at St Mary's, with welcome refreshments kindly provided by the local ringers. Our final tower was St. Edward's, Eggbuckland, where the day's ringing was brought to a good conclusion.
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