This year saw 51 peals rung for the Association, the last time the Association had such a low number rung was in 1962 with 45 peals.
2014 saw two first pealers, congratulations to Bernard Taylor from Hartshorne and Francis Gilbert of St Peter, Derby. They should be very proud of their achievements, especially as Bernard returned to ringing late in 2013 after a 40+ year gap and Francis is one of our up and coming ringers.

Members pushed themselves by achieving the following firsts: Gail Lilley rang her first Spliced, Sue Rainsbury rung her first on 10 and also her first in more than one method. Paul Jopp completed the Standard 8 S Major in hand with a peal of Rutland. John Heaton rang 23 Spliced S Major and John Fisher conducted 41 Spliced S Minor for the first time

On the numbers front; Simon Humphrey rang his 250th in hand, John Fisher rang his 750th peal, James Croft rang his 1001st peal, at his house and David Sansum completed peals at 700 towers.

Helen and Richard Taylor rang to celebrate Peter’s (their father) 75th birthday and friends of Neil Westman celebrated his 60th birthday.

The first peal of Maximus was rung at Little Eaton and the Whiteley's house became a new handbell location.

A peal was rung in memory of Gordon Faulkes, who rang 854 peals for the Association. Gordon was a member of the Belper peal band and rung over 500 peals in this tower. His second leading tower was Heanor, with 71 peals. Gordon mostly rang Major, including 23 Spliced four times and 27 Spliced twice. He rang two of his three peals of Maximus for the Association and these were at Manchester Town Hall and Redcliffe Bristol. His peal total included 28 first pealers.

Other members who died in 2014 include Maurice Bates from Repton, Stuart Laurence from Old Whittington and Richard Turner from Tideswell. Maurice Bates rang 6 peals for the Association: Doubles, Triples, Major, Caters and two of Royal, all in the Southern District (Derby District at the time). Stuart Laurence rang 11 peals for the Association, 7 were at his home tower of Old Whittington. All but one peal was of Minor and Stuart conducted one peal, his last. Richard Turner rang 47 peals for the Association, all but 2 were in the Peak District. The peals were on 6 and 8, extending to 6 Spliced S Major.

Peals were rung in memory of Christian Peckham's father and Elizabeth Cotton's mother. Bell founder Richard Bowditch was also commemorated.

2015 sees the 300th anniversary of the first documented peal, rung at St Peter Mancroft, Norwich. It would be great to see each district ring a peal to commemorate this event. The Central Council are encouraging ringers to ring their first peal in 2015 and would like to see 300 first pealers in the Country during the year. Given our membership numbers, we should aim for 5 first pealers within the Association. If anyone would like to ring their first peal and need help in this please email me.