Vol 5, No 14
Articles in this issue
- A standing note that the latest hour for reception of copy for the "Gazette" is 5.30 p.m. on Tuesdays.
- The contract with the Advertising Agents terminates on or about the 13th inst. and will not be renewed; the Committee would be glad to hear from members who know of agents willing to negotiate for the privilege of advertising on the cover, communications to the Hon. Sec.
- Captain T. E. Scrutton presses members to sell tickets and enter for the meeting of the 24th after last year's heavy loss, and lists the five events, five miles amateur scratch for gold, silver and bronze club medals, two miles scratch for the Ladies' Challenge Prizes, two miles amateur handicap, one mile handicap and the ten miles District Challenge Race. Entrance is 2s. 6d. for each of the first four; members are admitted free on their badge with two ladies' tickets each, and tickets bought in advance are reduced to 1s.
- The Committee want as many members as possible at Surbiton on Thursday the 22nd, and the Captain asks intending riders to send in their names, Surbiton being an easy track and the fifteen miles requiring little path training, he wonders whether some of the Bath flyers will volunteer.
- Treasurer R. B. Hough reminds forgetful members that five shillings is payable to him besides their subscriptions, and suggests that calculating the postage on the two whips and two receipts deducted from it will refresh their memories.
- At the meeting of Monday 5th June, Gilbert Stapleton of 8, Queensgate Terrace was elected a member on the proposal of M. H. Jephson and C. B. Wheeler; H. G. A. Brown, Theo. Godlee, N. B. Morris, S. P. Smith and W. A. Smith were elected the Club's delegates on the Bicycle Union, and the Treasurer is to issue a rough balance sheet soon after 30th June.
- Report of the Executive meeting at 17, Ironmonger Lane on 30th May, which fixed the 1882 championship time standards, one mile 2min. 51sec., five miles 15min. 10sec., twenty-five miles 1hr. 20min. and fifty miles 2hr. 53min., with silver medals for all competitors inside them. Signed Wm. Pyke-English, Reporting Hon. Sec.
- Despite rain, Saturday's meet drew the largest total yet, 115 present against Welwyn 1879, Hitchin 1880 and Dunstable 1881, made up of 75 London men, 27 Cambridge, 18 Oxford and seven visitors, all named in a full return collected by H. G. A. Brown, R. B. Hough and D. T. Nops. District accounts follow: the N.E. and N.W. riding nearly thirty strong by Barnet, Buckler's header near Twyford from a parted pedal nut, the S.W. straying to Edgware by way of some lovely lanes, and two attempts at the club photograph, the first washed out just as the group was arranged at the "Peahen."
- Captain T. E. Scrutton announces that copies of the group of the three clubs will be ready next week, with proofs on view at 35, Eastcheap; the photographer is Benjamin Horn of Shaftesbury Road, Richmond, Surrey, and the mounted price will probably be 4s. 6d. for an 8 by 10 plate.
- A 55-inch D.H.F. "Premier" in perfect condition with plated cranks, head and spring and parallel bearings to the front wheel, a first-rate touring machine at £14 from F. L. Adam, 3, Queensborough Terrace, Hyde Park.
- The district run table for the coming Saturdays, the N.E. from Lea Bridge Road to Ongar ("King's Head") and Upminster ("Bell"), the N.W. from "Jack Straw's Castle" to Rickmansworth ("The Swan") and Essendon ("Salisbury Crest"), the W. and S.W. joining at Wisley Hut, and the two S.E. divisions to Chelsfield ("Five Bells") and Thames Ditton, with the Annual Races on 24th June.
- District Captain Theo. Godlee announces that next week's run is to Ongar, where Christie has kindly offered to entertain the district at his house, and hopes for an even better muster than the creditable turnout at St. Albans.
- District Captain Arthur E. Buckler details the picnic with the West District at Wisley Hut: leave Kingston at the usual time to arrive about 5.30, with members from other districts and several driving parties of sisters and relations expected. Visitors are warned the spot adjoins the main Ripley road and is nowhere near Wisley village, and that bad weather means running on to Ripley.
- A correspondent's report of the meeting in the Crystal Palace grounds, where still air brought H. L. Cortis a mile heat from scratch in an unprecedented 2min. 43¼sec., beating F. Cooper's 2min. 46¼sec.; Cortis nevertheless retired in the second round and C. D. Vesey won the final off a too-liberal 110 yards. Cortis took the three miles scratch from Crute in 9min. 9¾sec., and Palmer caught Griffith fifty yards from the tape to win the re-run ten miles dead heat by four yards in 31min. 17¾sec.; full heat-by-heat particulars of the one mile handicap follow.
- Alfred Henry recalls a ride with A. E. Buckler, R. M. Gruggen and E. H. Hindley from Weston Green by Cobham, Ockham and the "Hautboy" to East Horsley, where the road for Gomshall narrowed into a cart track and then a forest glade, proof that there is no rideable road over the ridge between Newland's Corner and Leatherhead. After cold beef at the "Black Horse," Gomshall, they climbed by Abinger Hammer and Abinger Hatch to Cockshott Farm, where the machine can be stabled, and found Gruggen already laughing from the top of the Tower; thirteen counties, the Isle of Wight and Windsor Castle were visible before the steep descent through Coldharbour to Dorking.
- Reprinted from the "Times" of the 2nd inst.: Mr. Chamberlain, Local Government Board auditor for Leicestershire, disallowed sums spent on painting and lettering milestones left by turnpike trustees on disturnpiked roads, on the ground that highway boards have no statutory authority to maintain them. The Local Government Board upheld the auditor as lawful but remitted the disallowance under its equitable jurisdiction.
- "Lieut." begins a September journey from Louth by Market Rasen to Gainsborough ("White Hart"), then East Retford, Worksop, Whitwell, Barlborough and Staveley to Chesterfield, where the "Angel" recommended against the Bicycling Annual's Stoney Middleton route, and over Watch Hill and Taddington to Buxton's "Lee Wood Hotel." With W. he crosses Axe Edge and the "Cat and Fiddle" to Macclesfield, Knutsford and Chester ("Blossom's Hotel"), then Wrexham, Ruabon, Llangollen, Corwen, Cerrig-y-Druidion and Pentre Voelas to Bettws-y-Coed, and over the slate-strewn pass from Dolwyddelan to Blaenau Festiniog, riding the "toy" narrow-gauge railway down to Port Madoc before a rough return to the "Grapes Hotel" at Maentwrog.
- "Rambler" on the St. Albans meet: the variety of caps that will make the photograph a study, the "funny men" who spoiled the group and may be taken by themselves next time, forty men bolting under a hedge at the foot of Ridge Hill, the "Peahen's" landlady laying in a stock of pies for next year, and Price riding up Barnet Hill at the head of the column with one hand in a sling. Also Buckler and Nops's picnic on the margin of the Hut Pond, W. E. Naylor carrying plates and knives rather than the kettle on his "double tri," "Punch's" "Diplotribicyclical Quartet," and Wadham Wyndham's knee, cut diving into shallow water in the Thames on Whit-Monday, which will probably keep him out of the District Race.
- Under Rule 40 the Captain sanctions members racing at the Temple B.C. meeting at Stamford Bridge, the Southport Athletic Sports and the Stanley B.C. races at the Alexandra Palace on 10th June, and at the Widnes Athletic Sports, the L.A.C. First Summer Meeting and the Sutton B.C. on the 17th.
- H. R. Reynolds, jun., corrects the Bath Trial report on two points, W. K. Adam broke his handle-bar only twenty-two miles from the start just out of Devizes, so rode seventy-two miles with a wooden substitute or none, and the winner's machine was a pure "D.H.F." by Hillman and Co., made in 1879 and brought up to date with a long handle-bar, ball treadles and hollow back fork and rim rather than repaired with other makers' parts. "Cassiopeia" challenges the Racing Sub-Committee to justify its free tickets, citing its own inconsistency between the O.U.Bi.C. match and the annual meeting, and "An Old Medallist" thanks the Captain for the systematic conduct of the Whitsun Trial.
- W. J. Muller's address is now Long Cottage, Mickleham, Surrey.
- "Epsom" is told that no member of the L.B.C. could have rushed through the town at seventeen miles an hour on a Sunday evening without bell or whistle, frightening ladies going to church, the man in a uniform remarkably like the Club's can have been no one connected with it.
- Contributions must be addressed to the Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name, be written on one side of the paper only, and reach the office by 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday for immediate insertion.