The Bristol Wheelers C.C. Gazette, Vol 1903, No 7
Articles in this issue
- The editor's column on the Club's seventh Annual Sports, which drew a gate of 6,362 and again needed no call on the guarantors. E. Fawcett White defends his drawing of the tandem heats — settled at half-past three in the morning and printed before Ingram and Janson's Crystal Palace smash — and describes Appleton and Stokes beating Reed and Buck in the final on a roadster machine; under the side-heading 'Sympathy' he writes of Janson's and Ingram's injuries and of assistant Hon. Sec. Ernest Gay's illness.
- Two teasing one-line questions: whether 'Goodie' objects to baking powder, and whether 'Arfer' rode from Thornbury with one eye.
- Star-separated miscellany: a Western Graphic photograph of 'Little Denny', The Scorcher's tribute of 17 June to the ailing assistant secretary Ernest Gay, a presentation to the editor of a framed painting by Mrs. A. E. Cole, Harry Appleton's severe smash at the N.C.U. Sports on 20 June, a comic fortune-teller anecdote, and Western Daily Press and Evening News notices of A. J. Denny and Appleton.
- A brief notice that a little-ridden second-hand gentleman's bicycle in good condition may be had for £6, offered for sale owing to a death.
- The editor recounts having his bicycle stolen from outside Mr. Kemp's in Stokes Croft while choosing sports prizes, and its recovery after the drunken thief crashed and was arrested — the lamp in his pocket being traced back by Sergeant Adey — whereupon White declined to prosecute.
- Remarks overheard by a non-member and reported to 'Arfer', praising the Wheelers for avoiding delays and giving good prizes, and a spectators' exchange about Janson's absence ending 'there's no flies on White'.
- A compliment recorded from 17 June: riding home from Thornbury, one of two racing cyclists who passed the party said 'There goes the Club.'
- A squib about a slow heat of the mile scratch at the N.C.U. sports on 20 June, when an exasperated spectator shouted at the riders to free wheel.
- Reprinted from The Octopus of 27 May: a discussion of whether club life is decaying, contrasting the Wakefield C.C., formed in 1872 and still strong, with Dublin's collapse from a stronghold of club life to barely a dozen clubs, and arguing the remedy is to leaven the ranks with young members gradually.
- Reprinted from The Bristol Times and Mirror of 4 June: a report on the Wheelers' annual sports, the crowd of 6,500, the disappointment of Janson and Ingram's non-appearance, and the fine final in which Appleton and Stokes beat the London pair Reed and Buck — Appleton having never been beaten on a tandem apart from a defeat at Birmingham.
- Records the £8 5s 6d collected on 20 June by nine lady members for the sufferers of the motor accident at the County Ground, Miss E. C. Shepherd raising the most at £4, and the dinner afterwards at the County Ground Hotel given by Mr. H. J. Parkes.
- Under the sub-headings 'Motorist and Constable' and 'A Great Race', reprints an Evening News report of 18 June on Birmingham constable Glover chasing motorist Griffiths for over 20 miles in an hour before being knocked over, and jokes that a re-run between them would be a fine attraction now motor racing has been stopped at the County Ground.
- Comic account of the Club's wet river trip to Conham and Hanham aboard the s.s. 'Emily' on Saturday 13 June — casting off while still tied astern, the lady members producing bottles of scent against the smell of the banks, an encounter with the hulk 'Marion' at the locks, and tea at Conham before returning to Bristol Bridge at 9 p.m.
- The Treasurer's list of 1902 and 1903 subscriptions received and of donations to the Gazette Fund.
- Editor's note that 'A Day-trip to Blagdon', 'Time Limits' and the conclusion of 'A Short Tour' have been held over for want of space.