Judging the 12 Bell Competition

The Chief Judge for the 2019 competition is Jennie Earis who will be very ably supported by Ben Carey and Tom Hinks. They will be located in the Pearson Room, so will not know which team is ringing, and will listen to the ringing via a digital sound feed taken from a microphone hung immediately above the bells in the south tower. The reason for this is it enables the judges to hear the bells much more clearly - they are listening for ringing which sounds even with consistent gaps and no hesitations. The standard is so high that being able to hear the bells with greater clarity is necessary in order to rank the teams. The judges will be aided by a computer (yes, a computer!) which will analyse each piece of ringing and provide data to the judges about the accuracy. However, the final decision is made by the human judges.

Jennie Earis

Jennie was taught to handle a bell aged 9 by her father David in Gloucestershire and gained most of her early ringing experience on tours with her parents and friends from Leeds.

She arrived at Clare College, Cambridge to read maths in 2004 and hoped to pursue classical music interests when not studying, but accidentally enrolled in a local handbell fast-track programme which diverted her attention to peal ringing and lots of excellent socialising for the following 9 years. In this period, Jennie rang almost 400 peals in tower and hand, over 100 of which were spliced maximus or 23-spliced major, primarily with the College Youths, Cambridge University Guild and Society of Cambridge Youths.