Vol 5, No 1
Articles in this issue
- The Treasurer expects a deficit of about £60 for 1881, blamed on the Bath Race, the Oxford…London match, falling subscriptions and a loss on the Annual Race Meeting. The Committee's savings scheme (fortnightly summer Gazette, an advertisement sheet, no Evening Race Meeting, no attendance prizes, cheaper club rooms) is set against an alternative that keeps the Gazette weekly and raises the entrance fee to a guinea and a half.
- Minutes of the meetings of 12th and 19th December: resignations of John Jahn, R. M. Straight, R. D. Baxter, F. G. Penrose, J. H. Greenfield and L. P. Mumby; H. C. Webster's name kept on the books under Rule 18; racing caps ordered for L. B. Reynolds and Harrold Smith; and the attendance scores of all seventeen committee-men over fifteen meetings.
- Hon. Sec. E. S. Price gives notice that the Annual General Meeting will be held at the “London” (late “King's Head”) Tavern, Fenchurch Street, on Monday 30th January 1882, with the Committee's nominations (Hon. I. K. Falconer president, T. E. Scrutton captain, H. B. Hough treasurer) and its four recommendations on advertising, a fortnightly Gazette, the Evening Race Meeting and Rule 42.
- A short notice from E. S. Price asking members to send in at once lists of prizes won and notes of touring and long-distance riding for insertion in the annual Report.
- Two members ride from the Swiss Cottage to St. Albans, dine at “The George” for 2s. 9d., inspect the Abbey and complain of its “restorations,” then beat a bearded man on a hairy cob near the Silver Shield and walk the last three miles home…about forty heavy winter miles.
- A Boxing Day paperchase from Wallington Station: two hares on foot pursued by thirteen hounds through Coulsdon, Caterham Barracks, Merstham, Chipstead, Woodmanstone, The Oaks and Banstead to Sutton, D.C. finishing first from J. F. Potter over some twenty-three to twenty-five miles.
- L'Homme Qui Rit reports the second Smoking Concert's 150 guests from the Pickwick, Surrey, Lombard, Belsize, West Kent and other clubs, Sharman's five-inn hunt for the rendezvous and Rucker's impromptu drum accompaniment, and notes the Otter Swimming Club's concert at the “Eyre Arms.”
- Account of the second Smoking Concert at the London Tavern on 19th December 1881, with the full programme…W. J. Williams at the piano, songs by R. Newman, Ashley Barrett and Oliver Thorn, C. E. Sharman's “Ye Songe of Macbethe,” a trio “Nocturne,” and the L.B.C. Dramatic Society's farce “Taming a Tiger.”
- Galley Bell reviews riding kit: folding tooth-brushes from William Hall of Lancaster, a five-shilling patent-leather pouch by Challis Brothers of Homerton, strapped worsted winter gloves from Sampson & Co. of Oxford Street, and one of Sovera's hill-climbing belts whose hooks he judges far too long.
- Dodo argues that too few club tours reach the Gazette's pages and that those which do are padded with guide-book scenery, drink counts and boasts of hills ridden; he pleads for brevity, natural originality and plain English free of “bicyclistic vulgarisms” such as springing lightly into the pigskin.
- Solid Squares rides out from Harlesden Green with the two Naylors on a double tricycle and W. T. Hill, N.W., through Sudbury, Pinner and Rickmansworth to a night at the B.T.C. “Unicorn” at Amersham, returning via Wendover, Aylesbury, Tring, Berkhampstead…where Hill broke his saddle on the flints…and Watford, about 82 miles in a day and a half.
- The concluding instalment: T. H. loses his way over the moors to Malham, meets McCullum Hill and Sewell at the “Buck Inn” and walks to Gordale Scar, Malham Tarn and Malham Cove, then rides by Skipton, Keighley and Kirkstall Abbey to Leeds and home through Leek, Lichfield, Dudley, Worcester, Broadway and Chipping Norton, advising Yorkshire tourists to be content with twenty miles a day.
- Two machines for sale: a 55-in. “Timberlake” with roller bearings and rack-and-pinion brake at £8 10s. from Stephen Smith of Blackheath, and a 54-in. “Humber” with ball bearings to both wheels at £10 from District Captain Ernest Naylor.
- Covers for binding Vol. IV., with Index and Preface, are announced as ready, and old bound numbers may be lettered in gold on the back at the office for ninepence a volume.
- S.P.S. quotes the B.T.C. Circular's new reduced railway rates for carrying bicycles…1s. for up to 50 miles, rising by sixpence a step to 2s. 6d. for 100 to 150 miles.
- A single line thanking A. Koch for kindly preparing the Index to Vol. IV.
- Standing notice that contributions must reach the Editor at 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name and be written on one side of the paper only, with copy in by Tuesday evening; also Messrs. Darling's 2s. portfolios and the availability of covers for Vol. III.