Vol 5, No 24
Articles in this issue
- The standing note that the latest hour for reception of copy for the Gazette is 5.30 p.m. on Tuesdays.
- Theo. Godlee, pro Hon. Sec., reports the meeting of Monday the 14th: T. W. Young of 1, Cavendish Square was elected a member on the proposal of Hume Young and Alfred Herbert, R. M. Gruggen was elected to the Committee vacancy caused by H. Jennings's resignation, and it was decided to print 300 copies of the Gazette in future instead of 350.
- An abridged account from the Field of the Wanderers B.C.'s second evening meeting at Surbiton on 2nd August, prefaced by an editorial note correcting the Field's record list and explaining the odd- and even-mile discrepancy. A. Thompson of the Granville B.C. won the One Mile Invitation Handicap; in the match itself H. L. Cortis, paced in turn by Woolnough, W. K. Adam, Tacagni, Reece and M'Kinlay, broke away in the sixth mile and left the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer to dismount early in the seventh, finishing 325 yards past twenty miles inside the hour and taking record from seven to twenty miles. A table gives every mile time against the previous record.
- "H. N. S." publishes the first and second rounds of the club tournament, Gruggen beat L. Potter, Barnett beat Naylor, Alfred Herbert beat J. H. Scrutton, Sharp beat Wyndham and then G. E. Schmettau, with seven walkovers in the first round and another for Child in the second, and draws the third round, T. E. Scrutton v. J. F. Potter, Reynolds v. Beck, Child v. Sharp. Members who have gone away have had their names scratched.
- The Captain's sanctioned list under Rule 40: the Ipswich B.C. races, the Beckenham B.C. meeting and the Ravensbourne A.C. Sports at Ladywell on 19th August, the Bath Ariel Rowing and Bicycle Club Sports on the 21st, and athletic sports at Newbury, Penzance, Taunton and Wells in Somerset.
- Norman B. Morris announces that he and W. J. Williams hope to start about 15th September for Switzerland, riding across France one way by Dijon, Pontarlier and the Val de Travers to Neuchâtel, the route he followed in 1877 and found the best, and would be glad to hear from any member willing to join them and make a party of four. The Editor's substitute adds that after Mr. Cobb's letters Switzerland should no longer sound impracticable.
- The tabulated district rendezvous: Chigwell for the N.E. and the two S.E. divisions and West Drayton for the N.W., W. and S.W.; then Havering, Shenley, Bletchingley, and a picnic at Shepperton Lock for the W. and S.W.; and on 2nd September all districts run to Halliford, the time and place of starting to be published in the Gazette.
- The W. and S.W. districts, meeting at Oatlands Park, were shown over the grotto built for the Duke of Newcastle by three Italian workmen over twenty years at a cost of £40,000, with its Derbyshire spar, coral and pavement of horses' teeth, and the Duchess of York's dog graveyard.
- A satire reprinted from The Australasian, cast as a natural-history lecture for children: the editor is perfectly harmless, but the sight of a poet makes him wild and manuscript written on both sides of the paper is dangerous; he dines and travels free, is clothed by his tailor gratis, writes his editorials in bed after giving the day to book canvassers and itinerant lecturers, and spends his princely salary building churches abroad. The Editor's Devil appends "When the cat's away, the mice will play."
- "Rambler" on the annual August government by deputy, with the Secretary and Editor away and the Captain forswearing holidays; the President hard at work on the Palace track for the Twenty-five Miles record; emigration as the fate of bicycling celebrities, Cortis to Australia, Moore to America, Oeschger back to France; Gaskell and Leith as the season's new men and L. Adam and C. A. Brown as the most promising youngsters; the North-East's encyclopaedic runs of polo, hare hunts and burning haystacks; Lowndes's record two-mile tricycle handicap at Coventry in 6 min. 41 sec.; and the Brighton coach assault case coming on at Cuckfield on the 21st.
- The letters column: Gerard F. Cobb's Swiss series continues, and Horace G. Morgan writes from Kirkella, Sevenoaks that his fifteen-year-old brother has ridden up River Hill on a 48-inch "Club," adding that the only thing to be said for the roads about there is that they make all other roads seem beautifully flat.
- Gerard F. Cobb continues from the Thunerhof, Thun with two more route tables. Bâle to Laufen and back, 28 1/2 miles up the narrowing Birs valley: level crossings at the foot of hills, an unrideable pitch up to Arlesheim, and a marked track at Grellingen that proved a farm lane and cost three miles of wheeling; free bathing in the Birs against Bâle's exorbitant franc, and a recommendation of the gravel-fronted "Hotel Euler" and Gustav the cellarman. Then the four routes from Bâle into central Switzerland and his own to Thun by Olten and Burgdorf, sleeping at Langenthal, with heights and distances tabulated for both days and a warning about the tempting short cut across the Hauenstein zigzag, which turns into a scramble among rocks and pine roots.
- E. H. Carr of Guildford offers a 56-inch close-built "Norwood," all-bright except the spokes, with wide handles, brake and head and hub lamps, in good order, for £11.
- The standing note: contributions to "The Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 35, Eastcheap, E.C.," bearing the author's name, written on one side of the paper only, and received by 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday for immediate insertion.