Vol 5, No 16
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.
- A copy of the photograph taken at St. Albans is now on view at 35, Eastcheap; the size is 8 by 10 inches and the price 4s. 6d. mounted, orders to Mr. Horn, photographer, of Shaftesbury Road, Richmond, Surrey.
- At the meeting of Monday the 19th, Thomas Daniel Belfield, junr., of Palace Road, Streatham Hill was elected on the proposal of E. A. Weeks and H. G. A. Brown, together with Frederick William Bath Spencer and Harry Bath Spencer of 12, Hampstead Hill Gardens.
- The Annual Race Meeting is at the Stamford Bridge Grounds on Saturday next, and the Captain appeals to the amour propre of the Club for a large attendance, the meetings have always given splendid racing however unfortunate they have been financially. Full entry lists follow for the One Mile Handicap (Club), the Two Miles Amateur Handicap (Open), the Five Miles Amateur Scratch Race (Open) and the Ladies' Challenge Prize, with members admitted free on their badge, two ladies' tickets each, and advance tickets at 1s.
- The General Meet at Ewell on the 1st proximo, with the districts joining in succession from Lea Bridge Road at 3.0 through "Jack Straw's," Kew and Kingston, and the S.E. divisions meeting at Central Croydon Station at 4.30; tea at the "Glyn Arms," ten minutes' grace only, and a full moon for the ride home. The District Captains add that they tried to find somewhere nearer for the northern members, but the innkeepers at Teddington and Hampton Court decline to entertain the Club.
- Report of the Executive meeting at 17, Ironmonger Lane on 13th June: Messrs. Locket and Pusey were appointed Local Centre Divisional Secretaries for the Northern and Southern districts, several cases of amateurism and of assault on the road were considered, and the Executive continues work on the Championships and the revision of the Local Centre rules.
- The club's third annual meeting at the Crystal Palace, run in fine weather but enough wind to slow the times. J. S. Studley, a young West Country novice riding with the impetuosity of youth, took the One Mile Handicap final off 95 yards by a foot from L. G. Lawton, whose protest against him for wide riding was disallowed by the referees; in the Five Miles Invitation, after four funeral miles, J. S. Whatton came round Crute at a flying pace to win by six yards in 15min. 43¾sec., with C. A. E. Pollock a good third.
- Quoted from the "Volunteer Service Review" of the 1st inst.: fast metropolitan cyclists willing to join a proposed volunteer battalion, armed with small-bore carbines and provided with uniform and accoutrements, the bicycle and tricycle being brought into the defence of the country and members' tours made useful in reporting on roads at home and abroad, are asked to write to Mr. Henry Smith, River Cottage, Hornsey, stating whether they already serve and whether they ride two wheels or three. Signed R. G. Molyneux, late Lieutenant, Royal Dragoons; the Gazette adds "Now then, Major!!"
- A long sanctioned list under Rule 40, from 24th June, the Huddersfield Athletic Sports, the Club's own races at Stamford Bridge, the Edinburgh University A.C., the Speedwell B.C. at Aston Lower Grounds and the Anfield B.C. at Liverpool, through the Starley Memorial Fund Sports at Coventry, the One and Twenty-five Miles Amateur Championships at Birmingham, the Five Miles and Fifty Miles Championships at the Crystal Palace and the Bury St. Edmunds and Eastbourne meetings, to the L.A.C. fixtures at Stamford Bridge in October and November.
- Two dates only: the Annual Races on 24th June and the Ewell General Meet on 1st July, each referred to its notice earlier in the number.
- The Blackheath Division's return from Thames Ditton by Purfleet was held up for an hour at dead low water, with the ferry aground, two boats and three men of a steam dredge chartered for five shillings, Middleton jumping into the ooze and machines sunk to the hind wheel, before two miles of marsh footpath brought them into Dartford at eleven in pitch dark.
- "Lieut." continues down the coast to Harlech, where the Edwardian castle gives a view of the Carnarvonshire headlands and a cloud-capped Snowdon, then over an excessively rough stone-studded road to Barmouth, the "Barmouth Hotel" rated "style rough; flavour, Margate", and by the Penmaenpool bridge to Dolgelly, 29½ miles, at the "Royal Ship." A day there is spent on the Precipice Walk round Moel Cynwch and Moel Orthrwm above Llyn Cynwch, with its ancient British camp, and on the Torrent Walk off the Machynlleth road; the pair then climb past the "Cross Foxes" to a pass on the south side of the Cader range and drop into the valley of Tal-y-Llyn.
- "Galley-Bell" reviews touring kit and gadgets: Showler's patent leather collars from Doncaster and the celluloid "ever-clean" cuffs, the new beef and coca lozenges tried after thirty miles against a strong wind, Brand's extract of beef carried in a small silver snuff-box that holds four cups of soup, Howes of Cambridge's pocket case of button hook, corkscrew, gimlet and screwdriver, and cyclists' trouser fasteners with their sharp noses nipped off. He confesses to a map desk built from a broken artist's palette which shook too much to read, dismisses an advertised bicycle book-rest as a schoolboy's satchel, prefers Challis's Registered Tool Pouch to Lamplugh and Brown's Don bag, and argues at length for the No. 1 "Facile" stop-bell fixed to the left of the handle-bar rather than the No. 2 under the lock nut.
- Alfred Henry's address is now Laburnum Cottage, Richmond Road, Staines.
- "Rambler" reads the St. Albans group photograph figure by figure, good likenesses of The O'Reilly, H. R. Reynolds, Gruggen, Jephson and Nops, Rucker and Godlee beaming modestly from the background, the Captain and Treasurer gloomy with the cares of office, Darrell nothing but a misty smile like Alice's Cheshire cat, Schmettau's pipe in solitary grandeur and Mary the housemaid at a first-floor window. He prints "Zulu's" Croydon-to-Glasgow route of just under 450 miles by St. Albans, Dunstable, Leicester, Derby, Sheffield, Settle, Kendal, Keswick, Carlisle and Gretna Green, always B.T.C. hotels; notes Raleigh Hill still unclimbed but by the member for Orpington; and records the Essex wag whose farmyard short cut had no exit but a dry torrent bed, Rucker's first-rate header, and two men who lost their lamps and their way on Dartford Heath and reached Birchwood Corner at 12.30 a.m.
- "Eucalyptus" answers "W. X. W." on free tickets, calling him an optimist whose theories survive the logic of hard facts and past deficits if he still expects members holding free passes to buy tickets for their friends. He sides with "Cassiopeia" in urging that no free tickets be issued at all, arguing that attendance would rise rather than fall since human nature sets slight value on what costs it nothing.
- 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.