Vol 1, No 31
Articles in this issue
- Captain M. D. Rucker, Jun. presses members who have not yet applied to take their 7s. tickets for the dinner at the Grosvenor Gallery, New Bond Street, on Wednesday the 20th at 6.30, confirms that members' fathers and elderly relatives are welcome, and reports that Mr. Smith has arranged a capital programme of instrumental and vocal music.
- J. W. Alison announces a social meeting at "Jack Straw's Castle," Hampstead, on Saturday the 16th, tea at six, to which any member of the Club or their friends will be cordially welcomed.
- Only four men met at Croydon Central for the run to Sevenoaks on 9th November, pushing through two miles of mud to reach fair country roads by West Wickham, Hayes Common and Farnborough, where the Blackheath Division's District Captain declined to ride on; the freshly stoned run down from "The Polhill Arms" to Dunton Green was spoilt. The report breaks off, the rest of the number is missing from this copy.
- The closing part of the dinner report: Mr. Rucker senior answers Mr. Paget's strictures on bicyclists, the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer replies to the toast of "The Chairman," "The Three Crows in a Cornfield" is enthusiastically encored, and the Captain's topical parody of "H.M.S. Pinafore" ("I am the Captain of the L.B.C.... Well! Hardly ever!") is quoted at length.
- The L.A.C. winter meeting at Stamford Bridge, held in wretched weather on a very heavy path; heat-by-heat details of the two-mile bicycle handicap in which H. L. Cortis, from scratch, had caught his field by the end of the first mile, and G. R. Oxx beat Hassall and Butcher by a yard in the best race of the day.
- A sceptical review of the first bicycle exhibition: of twenty or thirty makes examined not half a dozen showed real finish, with suspiciously coarse soft metal in the lesser-known ones; the prizes to Humber and Co., John Keen, James Carver and D. Rudge gave such dissatisfaction that the exhibitors resolved unanimously against them. Notes Grout's portable bicycle, the newly ventilated "suspension" saddle and the Centaur saddle-clip. Also records the retirement of M. D. Rucker, Jun. from handicapping.
- Saturday evening social meetings move to the "Warrington," Maida Vale, a good room with a piano and a cheap meat tea, ten minutes from Bishop's Road Station and on the Kilburn 'bus route, and the meetings at "Jack Straw's Castle" are discontinued for the present.
- J. W. Alison reports fourteen members and a visitor at the first social evening, with music from Smith and Thorn and Newman's bass voice of astonishing profundity; Arthur E. Buckler adds a short run to Bell Bar on 23rd November with a good cheap tea at the second inn on the right at Potter's Bar.
- The District keeps its reputation as "all weather" riders: five men to Reigate on 16th November, eight of the Croydon and Blackheath divisions to Westerham for a 2s. tea at the "King's Arms" on the 23rd, and fifteen at a 2s. 6d. tea and sing-song at "The Bell," Bromley, on the 30th; next Saturday's run is to Riverhead via Polhill, putting up at the "Amherst Arms."
- W. A. Smith's 89-mile circuit taking in Petersfield, Nurstead, Harting, Rogate, Midhurst, Cowdry Park, Petworth, North Chapel, Chiddingfold and Witley to Godalming, begun from Acton at 3.30 p.m. in the rain by way of Ripley (where he met Cortis and Sopper on foot) and the Hog's Back; Cripple Crouch Hill and Wormly Hill beat him, and the last 37 miles home were ridden through thick mud, 134 miles in all.
- A reprint from The Lancet welcoming the tricycle's progress as less likely to injure pedestrians or its rider and free of the perpetual vibration the bicycle communicates directly to the spinal column, arguing nothing but the love of danger can now prevent it displacing "the modernised hobby-horse."
- Norman B. More misses his Southampton train at Waterloo and takes the midnight mail-boat Diana to the Channel Islands with A. H. Koch, warning riders off "Radley's Hotel" and recommending "Kelway's"; from the "York Hotel" at St. Heliers they ride 24 miles by St. Aubin, La Corbiere Point, L'Etac and Trinity Church, repeatedly losing themselves among unsignposted lanes not shown on their map.
- A six-light acrostic whose clues run from a miser and the word "farewell" to the Arabian roc, Indian teak and the General who won a great victory in Scinde, the whole naming a racing member to whom the Club's best thanks are due.
- Captain M. D. Rucker, Jun. asks members to send him concise outlines of the year's tours, the date and particulars of every ride of over 100 miles in a day, and the date, place, sports and prize of every race in which they gained a place, so the Committee's annual report need not be compiled in haste; District Captains are to send their meet reports early.
- Frank Jolly reports that his call for an L.B.C. Orchestral Society has produced only two violins, a cornet, a piano and two flutes, and appeals for violas and cellos; "A Social One" backs him, proposing district entertainments through the winter and a February concert to which ladies could be invited, since the Club has nothing but its annual dinner.
- Short replies to "M." (a post-office order received a little in excess of the amount required), "R. H. S." (the omitted word "alone" after "to members" makes all the difference) and "C. W. N." (letter held over for the next Committee).
- Contributions must be addressed to the Editors at 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name though not necessarily for insertion, be written on one side of the paper only, and reach the office by Tuesday morning for immediate insertion.