Twin-Hunt Methods - some different paths

In the first part, we looked at twin-hunt methods in which both hunt bells ring plain hunt in the plain course. However, there are plenty of methods where this is not the case.

The first point to note is that, in any method, a hunt bell doesn't have to ring plain hunt. A hunt bell is just any bell that gets back to the same place at the end of every lead. And, for that matter, it doesn't have to be the treble either.

Little Dunham Little Alliance Minor St Hilda's College Minor Very Little Bob Minor

We shall first look at methods where the treble plain hunts, but the other hunt bell doesn't. Some of these can be very useful for a practice night, where the ringer of the second hunt bell can practise some work repeatedly, or if one of the ringers doesn't want to learn the whole of a new method. For instance:

Derbyshire Bob Doubles Woodton Bob Minor Jobus Bob Minor Poyle Bob Triples

Note that, until the advent of the Framework for Method Ringing in 2019, Woodton and Poyle were known as Slow Course methods. These were methods where the treble plain hunted, while the 2 was the other hunt bell, making seconds at the lead end. This class has now been dropped, but some methods keep the "Slow" as part of the method name. The above methods were chosen to show a variety of hunt bell lines, but here are the blue lines for the working bells, just for interest.

Derbyshire Bob Doubles Woodton Bob Minor Jobus Bob Minor Poyle Bob Triples

Picking up on that pattern of the former Slow Course methods, there are several methods that can be easily derived from familiar Minor methods. These come from the group of methods, like St Clements and Double Oxford, which have triple-dodging on the front. The dodges are then replaced with places. In St Simon's and St Martin's Doubles, this process still gives a single-hunt method, but in Minor, the result is that the 2 stays on the front for the whole lead, then makes seconds, and becomes a hunt bell. Meanwhile 4ths place bell goes onto the front, but then comes back out again to dodge 3-4 up.

St Clement's Maplin Double Oxford Cottesmore

And this is the effect that change has on the blue lines:

St Clement's Maplin Double Oxford Cottesmore

You can do a similar trick with the Doubles methods, like St Simon's, with a pair of bells working together on the front. The simplest way is to make the frontwork symmetrical, using a 125 place notation at the half-lead. So, the 2 ends up being taken off the lead by the treble and making seconds. Here is what happens to St Simon's, St Martin's, St Osmund and Eynesbury, respectively. You can also do the same with the St Nicholas group of methods.

Rugby Bob Slapton Slow Bob Merton Bob Caunton Bob

That's 8 blows in lead and 6 blows in 2nds place in Caunton! You can also use leads of these methods in place of calls in St Simon's (etc), swapping a pair of bells over. Using 4 leads of Rugby (etc), you can get a true 120, without any Bobs or Singles.

You can also have Doubles methods with three hunt bells, leaving only two working bells. This means they have a short plain course and need lots of calls to get a 120. For instance, in St Dunstan's Bob Doubles, the 3 and 4 are both hunt bells.

St Dunstan's Bob

Here are some final examples of twin-hunt methods, showing more different paths for the second hunt bell:

Aussie Heroes Surprise Minor Big Cold Wet One Surprise Minor Gorhambury Alliance Major London Little Surprise Major