Vol 3, No 1
Articles in this issue
- A general meeting of the subscribers to the testimonial fund for M. D. Rucker will be held at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10th at 108, Fenchurch Street, to decide the nature of the testimonial and the time and place of its presentation.
- The standing department carrying the Club's official business, which this month consists of the Committee minutes for the meetings of 19th January and 9th February 1880.
- On 19 January Harry G. A. Brown, Cecil H. E. Holder (Receiver-General's Office, Trinidad), Evelyn H. Pollock and C. Newman were elected and R. J. Scott's resignation accepted; on 9 February Ernest Alfred Weeks, F. W. Nicholson and A. L. Gruggen were elected, M. D. Rucker jun. invited onto the Committee, and the Club Meet attendance prizes awarded - £2 10s. and a silver medal each to A. H. Cook (N.W.) and W. A. Smith (W.), who tied on 23 meets and 46 points, with silver medals to Godlee, Ryan and E. H. Carr. The Annual Race Meeting was fixed for Saturday 26th June and an evening meeting for 22nd May at Stamford Bridge, Cambridge University B.C. was to be met at Welwyn on 24th April and the Dark Blue B.C. at Maidenhead on 22nd May, and the Pickwick Bicycle Club's invitation to send delegates to consider a "Monster Meet" at Hampton Court was declined.
- At the annual general meeting at the "King's Head Tavern", Fenchurch Street on 21st January 1880, with 72 members present and M. D. Rucker jun. in the chair, Mr. Henry's amendment to omit Rule 19 altogether was carried over W. A. Smith's proposed rewording; the Absentee List was abolished in favour of "Country" membership at half fees for those living more than 70 miles from Charing Cross; the Gazette was unanimously continued in its present form with J. Scott Stokes re-elected Editor; and the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, Theo. Godlee, Francis Godlee and H. R. Boyce were elected President, Captain, Treasurer and Secretary, the evening closing with three cheers for Rucker on his last appearance as captain.
- The Society's second private concert is at St. George's Hall, Langham Place on Saturday 28th at 7.30 p.m., with four orchestral pieces for thirty-five to forty players, four glees, a pianoforte solo by a lady of the Royal Academy of Music, a duet on two pianos and songs by Miss E. T. Rucker, H. W. Bridges, R. H. Curtis, C. F. Lyne, R. Newman and W. A. Smith. Tickets are 2s., any loss falls on the pockets of the Society's members rather than Club funds, and the Committee note that although "morning dress" is printed on the tickets evening dress is quite optional.
- The concluding instalment: the party pay a dear bill at the Hotel Victoria in Cologne (not recommended to brother members), scrape together enough money at Brussels to dine at the Gare restaurant, reach Calais just before 1 a.m. and break up at Dover, one man stranded there until funds arrived. Eight days' riding covered 365 miles by G. P. Coleman's indicator.
- A. and A. Herbert leave Norwood on 16th August, one of them on a 50-in. Singer "Extraordinary" that proves a first-class roadster and a fine hill-climber. Rain and flood-ruined gravel roads dog them from Chalfont St. Peters - where the "Extraordinary" rider is dumped waist-deep in the Misbourn - through Wendover, Winslow, Banbury (where there was no meat to be had in the town), Kenilworth, Warwick, Stratford, Droitwich and Ludlow, then over Offa's Dyke and down the Wye by Tintern and the Wyndcliff to Chepstow, the trip ending with a broken crank entering Bristol.
- R. M. Gruggen's instalment for 27th-28th August: too tired for the 72 miles to Limoges, the pair leave Châteauroux by the afternoon train for Toulouse, their machines charged only a few sous after the officials weighed them repeatedly to check they were under the 60 or 80 lb. limit. Starting from market-day Toulouse at four in the morning they ride the Garonne bank towards St. Gaudens by Portet - where Wellington failed to ford the river - and Muret, and get their first sight of the Pyrenean chain.
- Eavesdropper's notes: twenty-nine were in the band at Thursday's rehearsal for Saturday's concert; the Bicycle Touring Club's well-attended meeting at Anderton's Hotel, whose consuls, handbook and hotel tariff are worth far more than the 2s. 6d. subscription; the Gazette twice held up at that meeting as "a complete failure", which Rucker indignantly denied; a member fined five shillings and eleven shillings costs by the Bucks magistrates for riding a tricycle on the footpath of the Oxford road; and A. E. Derkinderen turning professional and entering the Agricultural Hall six days' tournament.
- G. P. Coleman sends his yearly mileages since he began riding in September 1874 - 384, 2,960, 2,742, 5,002½, 3,090 and 2,882½, a total of 17,061 miles - and asks other members who keep accounts to do the same; and Theo. Godlee gives notice from Whip's Cross, Walthamstow that during his brother's absence all subscriptions and communications for the Treasurer should be addressed to him.
- Norman B. Morris continues: the scramble to the 7,930-foot col between the Pic de Sauvegarde and the Pic de la Mine, emerging from cloud into sunshine facing the glaciers of the Maladetta, then a descent into Spain for a bottle of heady wine before returning to Luchon and buying Pyrenean "boinas". On 23rd September the party leave the poorly-fed Hotel Richelieu in single file with the captain playing the Turco March, running down the Luchon valley to Montréjeau and on by Castelnau-Magnoac to Masseube (56 miles); on the 24th they ride by Auch, with its carved cathedral stalls, and the wretched hill-town of Lectoure to Agen (61¼ miles).