Vol 3, No 6
Articles in this issue
- Editorial urging that the Club's first four years, before the Gazette existed, be written up while the men who made them can still be questioned, since at present that "pre-historic era" is known only through outside and often unfriendly publications. Warns the historian faces both defective information and the delicacy of reopening old Club quarrels.
- Theo. Godlee alters the S.E. District's arrangements for the Hitchin meet: members are to catch the 2.55 train from Broad Street to Finchley Road rather than the 4.7, the N.W. Captain having promised an envoy to that train, and District Captains leaving Potter's Bar early must again leave a note of the numbers gone on.
- The Treasurer's Deputy reports that barely half the Club have paid the subscriptions due on 1st January, and hopes this is the last reminder the defaulting many will need.
- Herbert R. Boyce, Hon. Sec., reminds members of the meeting at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday 5th May at six p.m.; members are admitted on their Club badge, and shilling tickets are to be had from the Captain, Hon. Sec., Committee or the principal bicycle agents rather than posted round.
- Announces an open Two Mile Amateur Bicycle Handicap with three prizes at the University College sports at Stamford Bridge on 15th May, entries to W. Hamilton Hall, Hon. Sec., Gower Street, by 8th May.
- Ernest C. Koch presses members to settle for Concert Tickets sold, warning that unless the remaining ninety or so are paid for at once he will send the Gazette a list of those who have not paid.
- A humorous piece, signed "Tota," on the weeks before Whit Monday and the affliction of "Bathomania", the moderate rider who abandons pipe and home to train for the Bath road trial, taunts his friends for being pumped, and is answered with a monosyllabic "Yah!" and a waved cigar.
- Letter from "The Bishop of Pork Fart" of Exeter College reporting the opening of the summer term: good roads and four days' riding despite the downpours of the 14th and 15th, the opening run of 13th April to Shillingford Bridge (22 miles) and a 29-mile run to Thame and Tetsworth, with the Inter-'Varsity not till 26th May and the Oxfordshire carter growing markedly more civil.
- Reprinted from the Bournemouth Observer: the club's Grand Bicycle Meet and Third Annual Sports on Whit Monday, 17th May 1880, with some 200 clubs invited, a procession headed by the Royal Italian Band to the Dean Park Cricket Ground, one, three and ten mile bicycle races, foot races, a Man v. Tricycle match, and the annual dinner at the Pembroke Hotel; entries to F. A. Hounsell, Hon. Sec.
- Calendar from 24th April to 6th November 1880, including the Surrey B.C. at Kennington Oval, the London B.C. Evening Meeting on 5th May, the 100-mile Road Trial on 17th May, C.U.Bi.C. v. L.B.C. at Cambridge on 29th May, and the L.A.C. spring, summer, autumn and winter meetings.
- H. Howard Crawley of University College offers to exchange a 56-inch "Humber" racer, never ridden on the road, for a 54-inch racer; and a 54-inch "William Keen" and 56-inch "Stassen" are to be lent, through the S.E. District Captain, to members wishing to attend that district's runs.
- Tabulated meets for the N.E., N.W., W., S.W., Croydon and Blackheath divisions: the 24th April converging runs on Hitchin to meet the C.U.Bi.C., then runs to Hoddesdon, Eastcott, Ousley, Epsom and Bletchingley, and later to Chigwell, Ripley and Guildford.
- District reports: seven N.E. men to the "White Hart," Abridge, via Loughton and the "Wake Arms," with two heavy members racing a horseman down Theydon hill; sixteen N.W. men to Uncle Beveridge's at Harefield for tea, eggs and real cream, Alison now on a 58-inch Excelsior; the W.'s solitary rider; eleven S.W. men over the ridge by Merrow Downs to the Silent Pool and the "Drummond Arms," Albury, where the larder held five eggs among eleven men; and the S.E. paper chase from West Wickham Hill to the "Amhurst Arms," Riverhead, confused throughout by other hares' trails. Norman B. Morris also notes the Middlesex bye-laws now make a bell or whistle and a lamp after sunset compulsory.
- Paragraphs by "L'homme qui rit": the Editor's empty tub now that Maclean can no longer produce "a couple of pages of Morris"; the Lacrosse Athletic Meeting mile handicap on 22nd May; the head trainer of the Surbiton colony smoking a cheroot at Maidenhead after six months' abstinence; Wyndham's brakeless descent of River Hill; the cake at Penshurst at threepence the cubic inch; and the Treasurer's plea from Japan for a "Carpet-Bag Bicycle."
- A long letter signed "The Assistant Treasurer" describing the first C.U.Bi.C. meet of term, advertised "PACE MODERATE" and turning into a succession of spurts along the Trumpington Road, and previewing the Cambridge races, a One Mile Amateur-Professional race with Keen, Cooper and the Hon. I. Keith-Falconer, a Ten Mile race, and an Invitation three miles, before proposing in jest that the C.U.Bi.C. simply win all three heats of the L.B.C. match.
- "W. H." suggests a general Club run on Bank Holiday, 2nd August, all districts starting from their own headquarters and converging en route for a ride of some 60 miles there and back in Surrey or North Hants, or alternatively a short Saturday-to-Monday tour led by Mr. McCullum Hill.
- W. A. Smith revives Mr. Kinder's scheme for Club-owned machines, proposing a second-hand 54-inch and 52-inch bicycle per district in the District Captains' charge so two members a week could ride roads new to them, at an outlay of about £40 for one machine per district this season. A second, unsigned letter from "Achilles" asks for volunteers to be stationed at Marlborough, Reading and Maidenhead to time the men in the Bath Road trial, Arthur Herbert having already offered to take Marlborough.
- Thanks A. E. B. for a clever paraphrase which "L'homme qui rit" dare not print, the topic requiring very tender handling, and thanks C. Y. Line for aids to Stray Notes to be used next issue.