Vol 5, No 32
Articles in this issue
- The unheaded leader opens with an italic note that the November Gazette appears a little before the advertised time so that members may learn the Annual Dinner arrangements, copy for the December number closing at 5 p.m. on the 28th November. It then reviews the Committee's programme of Winter Entertainments, a Dinner this month, a Ball at Croydon in December for which the S.E. District Captain has had permission, and a Dramatic Society performance in January, leaves the question of smoking concerts to the 1883 Committee, and argues about tickets that no rule compels a member to dispose of them, that unused numbered tickets need not be returned since only those given up at the doors are counted, and that presence matters more than payment: it is discouraging when valses are played to few dancers and histrionic talent exhibited to empty benches.
- The Annual Dinner is fixed for Friday, the 24th November, at 6.30 p.m. at the St. James's Hall Restaurant, Piccadilly; tickets, including the waiter's fee, are 7s. each. After so successful a season of district runs it is hoped members will make a special effort to be present.
- At the meeting of Monday, 9th October, Harry J. Baldwin of 266, Burdett Road and Sidney George Hough of 151, Amherst Road, Hackney were elected on the proposal of R. B. Hough and E. D. Sewell; the resignations of G. A. Bell, B. W. Ginsburg, A. P. Trotter and Spencer Whitehead were accepted; the Annual Dinner was fixed for the St. James's Hall Restaurant; it was resolved that all important official fixtures should have Committee (or in urgency the Captain's) sanction; and the Gazette volumes for 1878 to 1881 were voted, bound, to the Bicycle Union Library. On 23rd October the resignations of A. W. Disney and J. J. Anderson were accepted.
- H. G. A. Brown announces that the third annual South-East District Ball will be held at the Public Hall, Croydon, on Wednesday, 6th December, and prints the stewards so far, among them A. Barker, Ashley Barrett, A. E. Buckler, R. G. Francis, R. M. Gruggen, A. H. Koch, F. W. Morris, W. E. Naylor, D. T. Nops, T. E. Scrutton and W. Wyndham. He lists the trains from London Bridge, Charing Cross and Victoria to East Croydon and the late returns from West and East Croydon and Addiscombe Road, prices tickets at 5s. for ladies and 10s. 6d. for gentlemen, and reports that the large hall has been taken for dancing and the small one for refreshments, giving room for 180 or 200 dancers.
- At a committee meeting on the 16th ultimo, with Theo. Godlee in the chair, F. W. Morris and F. M. Williams resigned as Hon. Sec. and Acting Manager and A. Barker and R. M. Gruggen were appointed pro tem.; a performance at the end of January was agreed, subject to the consent of the L.B.C. Committee, and a General Meeting called at the "Occidental" in the Strand for Monday, 6th November at 7 p.m. Barker's circular calling that meeting to elect officers and form a committee is reprinted in full.
- R. B. Hough, Treasurer, reports that the Committee have received notice to quit their present Committee-room at Christmas; a Sub-Committee has been appointed to find new quarters and he will be glad to receive suggestions of any suitable room.
- Maynard H. Jephson concludes his tour, riding from Carlisle to Edinburgh, on by Callander and Stirling to Glasgow, and home via Belfast, Greenore and Holyhead, 511 miles in ten days, cut short by lack of funds. He closes urging riders to tour their own country rather than be fleeced abroad.
- The address of Hume Young, J. W. Young and J. B. Young is now Woodlea, Fairfield Road, Croydon.
- "T. E. S." reviews The Tourist's Handbook by "Observer," L.B.C., B.T.C. (Harry Etherington, 152, Fleet Street, one shilling), a portable guide to England meant to be more than a road book of distances. He finds the county lists of places of interest fairly full, though Greenstead is left looking as if it were near Colchester and the Druidical stones at Stanton Drew are missing, but the descriptions over-luxuriant (the Ouse at Ely is hardly a "noble river") and the history in need of revision, since page 64 has the battle of Sedgemoor fought between James II. and the Duke of Monmouth with James defeated. Taking Cambridgeshire, the county he knows best, he prints the book's ten routes, corrects Cambridge to Royston from fourteen miles to thirteen, disputes calling the Newmarket road "level and tame," and lists four omitted roads including two of the three routes to London.
- "Rambler's" miscellany: the Annual Dinner (24th November) and S.E. Ball (6th December); a long letter from "A. W. Chippindale" in Sydney on New Zealand cycling and its rough coaching roads; and Vesey's win of the Fifty Miles Challenge Cup at Lillie Bridge on 21st October in 3 hr. 10 min. Also notes Gus Wilkinson's return to Australia and a rumour that a high Club officer may resign.
- W. E. Naylor of 3, Manor Place, Paddington, offers the sociable "Meteor" tricycle, the celebrated West 'bus, in perfect condition at £16 with luggage carrier, basket and lamp, to be tried by appointment; and A. Trotter of 1, Shady Villas, Erith, Kent, offers a 56-inch "Humber" on loan to anyone who will leave it in good condition at the Cambridge University Club Rooms by the end of the year.
- A report of two meetings of the Executive held on the 3rd and 10th October: satisfactory explanations from the riders let the Rhyl Sports matter drop; the Liverpool Local Centre found the evidence over Blackledge and Barton did not warrant further steps; the status of the Long Buckby Sports riders was considered; Mr. A. Fox resigned his seat; and it was resolved that a silver medal be given in the Tricycle Championship to the competitor other than the winner completing the five miles in the best time, in either a heat or the final.
- The letters column, carrying the Bicycle Union's two official announcements and Gerard F. Cobb's continued Swiss series, and closing on page 8 with "J. W. L." asking the Treasurer to state publicly what the extra contribution voted in January produced and whether it cleared the deficit, answered by an editorial note that the rough balance sheet was presented in July and considered satisfactory, and with Alfred Henry's change of address.
- R. P. Hampton Roberts announces for the Executive that the Reference Library will open on Monday evening, 6th November, and be available every Friday and Monday thereafter from 6.30 to 8.30 to all wheelmen whether members of the Union or not. The six rules are printed: readers must sign a book, may not deface anything, may take nothing away, may not consult weekly or monthly numbers until bound in volumes, must return everything to the Librarian, and have every item entered in a register.
- Wm. Pye-English, Hon. Sec., warns English amateurs that the Congress of French Bicyclists lately held at Grenoble has entirely abolished the distinction between amateurs and professionals in France, so that any Englishman competing there, except against the Dieppe, Calais and Rouen Clubs, which took no part in the Congress and still abide by the English Union Rules, renders himself liable to be declared a professional.
- Gerard F. Cobb's continued letter gives § 9, Thun to Kandersteg and back, with heights and distances by Spiezmoos, Spiezwyler, Mülinen and Frutigen, turn-by-turn directions and the two dismounts required, at the "Blaue Seeli" turning and at the Buhl Stutz, whose old mule path has now been barricaded off. He warns of Herr Egger's prize St. Bernard "Barry," who once chased him more than a mile with his muzzle on the writer's calf, reproduces the Blue Lake's admission ticket verbatim with all its grammar and spelling, urges nobody to miss the boat over seventy feet of astonishingly transparent water and offers his own unscientific theory of its blueness, and describes the walks from Kandersteg up the Gasteren Thal and to the Oeschinen See, with its bathing, strawberries and holly fern.
- All contributions must be addressed to "The Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 85, Eastcheap, E.C.," bear the author's name though not necessarily for insertion, be written on one side of the paper only, and be received not later than Tuesday, the 28th inst., at 5 p.m.