The following Report of the Guild Festival is taken from that which was submitted by the Guild Press Officer, Nick Thomson, to The Ringing World and subsequently published in issue number 5030 dated 21 September (p952).

"This year it was the turn of the Chester Guild’s largest branch, East Branch, to host the Annual Festival, and following ringing on the heavy six at Rostherne, and the heavier ten at Dunham Massey, members gathered in Dunham church, where the Guild’s own form of service was led by the vicar of Dunham, the Reverend Jerry Sutton. Having taken services for all sorts of different occasions and organisations, he said in his address that he had been particularly pleased to have been asked to take a service to do with something close to his heart – Bells. He had even brought his own bells with him - and he went on to produce a bottle of Bell’s whisky! The analogy was made that in the production of both Bell’s and bells, man was using the natural resources provided by God to give us something special, and he always looked forward to the Monday practice night at Dunham when he could listen to the bells whilst enjoying the Bell’s in his study!

After the service, we all adjourned to Altrincham C of E Primary School for The AGM. Ken Lewis, the renowned ringer from Dunham, had been the first Head Teacher of the present school, and Guild members had been particularly pleased to see Ken’s widow, Mary, join us for the Guild service. The meeting followed the usual pattern, and the Guild Master, Peter Robson, gave his final opening remarks, since having completed his three year term of office, he was now standing down from the position. Apart from the Mastership and minor changes to The Guild’s CC reps, all other officers were re-elected for another term. There had been one proposal for the Master’s position, and Pam Thomson of Weaverham was duly elected as the Guild’s first Lady Master. Readers of this newspaper will already have seen Pam and Peter – Little and Large - pictured in the report of the Guild’s six bell striking competition in the August 10th issue, so with a slight variation on a theme, the Past Guild Masters present were photographed together with the new holder of the top job.

One way of keeping meetings short is to hold them before tea. You cannot keep ringers away from their food, and the meeting was concluded in less than three quarters of an hour. The Dunham ringers provided an excellent spread of Hotpot and Apple Pie and were duly thanked by Peter Humphreys, Guild Web Master.

After tea, Bowdon was the next port of call for the annual Guild 8 Bell Striking Competition. This year’s Test Piece, chosen by the out-going Master (he has a sense of humour) was a Bob course of Cambridge Surprise Major, which was to be judged by Frank Anderton and Jean Barnes, from our neighbouring Lancashire Association. Four of the Guild’s branches fielded a team and Frank and Jean commented on the high standard of the ringing. Both judges had (fortunately!) placed the teams in the same order, and peal speeds varied between 2h58 and 3h13 on this 18 cwt eight."

NICK THOMSON
Guild Press Officer

RESULTS
Position	Rang	Branch	Marks
1st	4	Mid Cheshire	91.3%
2nd	1	East	90.3%
3rd	3	Wirral	86.4%
4th	2	Chester	84.2%