Vol 6, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Standing editorial notice that the latest hour for reception of copy for the Gazette is 6.0 p.m. on Tuesdays.
- A leader dividing the unofficial membership into three classes: the small band of ex-officers who attend every general meeting, know men from other districts and sell tickets and entries by the dozen; the majority who ride with their district only when the tennis court or the river offers nothing better; and those who boast of never having attended a general meeting at all. It warns against the soothing adulation of members and the bicycling press, proposing that any new Gazette cover carry the fable of the Brahmin and the Sheep as a weekly reminder.
- The Treasurer, of 151, Amhurst Road, Hackney, refers members who have not yet paid their subscriptions to Rule 18 and asks for them as early as possible.
- Reports of the June 30th runs. The N.E. was represented at Stifford only by the Forest Gate contingent and the Treasurer, who rode Stifford Hill to a man, took tea at the "Dog and Partridge" and went on to Rochester by the Tilbury crossing and the Dane's Holes in Hangman's Wood; J. S. Whatton of the West rode alone by Epsom and Leatherhead and reached home after midnight, the West District Captain writing from his holiday at Henley-on-Thames to apologise for leaving no substitute; five N.W. men rode by Carbon Hill and Newgate Street to Little Berkhempstead past hedges of dog-roses; and the S.E. ran fourteen strong to the "Beehive" between Mickleham and Dorking and up the Box Hill zigzag in Indian file, Stephen Smith having collided with a small boy at Sutton and finished on Sharp's borrowed machine.
- Tabulated meets for the next two Saturdays, Ongar, Shenley, Cobham, Ripley and Bletchingley, then Cheshunt, Burnham Beeches and Westerham, with the starting points and times for each district and for the two S.E. divisions.
- McCullum Ho. describes a Whitsun-season excursion from Newbury with J. W. Allison and Dalton, on a Humber bicycle, a Humber tricycle and an "Excelsior," by Shaw House and Donnington Castle over Snelsmore Common and the descents of Bussick and Chain Hills to Wantage, where Count Gleichen's statue of Alfred the Great stands in the market place. They dined at the "Bear," failed to sound the Blowing Stone (a small boy managed it), drank six bottles of ginger beer, visited the White Horse, Uffington Castle and Wayland Smith's Cave, and met the Bath train at Uffington Station with new milk and bread and butter.
- Signed "The Front Wheel Hub": Bown v. Humber ended in a verdict for the defendant with costs after three or four days of a court full of bicycles and bicyclists; the Brixton Ramblers drew 102 entries for their Open Mile at the Palace, where Thompson did 2.44 from scratch with a first quarter of 40 1/2 sec., beating Cortis's record, but Macbeth of Clapham Park won off 115 yards; and Gaskell took the Half-mile Scratch from Thompson, F. L. Adam's 1min. 19 1/4sec. being a record for the distance.
- R. M. Gruggen's account of the 1880 tour he made with A. H. Rolls and St. John Ryan, riding up stream instead of down so as to reach the Falls of the Rhine: from St. Katharine's Wharf to Antwerp and by rail to Cologne for two pounds a head, then Bonn, Andernach (where a hand-driven "boneshaker roundabout" cost one man a gashed knee-cap), Coblentz and the champagne-laden hospitality of the "Hotel Treves," Bingen, Mayence, Oppenheim, Worms and Frankenthal. At Mannheim a carriage upset beside them and the Heidelberg police demanded a five-pound deposit or one of the bicycles; the case was later compromised for a paltry thirty-three shillings, which the writer calls a bad precedent for future bicyclists. To be continued at Freiburg and the Black Forest.
- Porcupine notes that Stephen Smith, having fallen on three consecutive Saturdays, thinks he is near a record; that the South-East mean to score a best attendance at Bletchingley, a meet always successful from a gastronomic point of view; and that the S.E. District Captain will tolerate the new club ribbon but not a black and white cricketing cap.
- The Captain's sanctioned list under Rule 40, from the Crewe Alexandra and Belgrave meetings and the B.U. Five Mile Bicycle and One Mile Tricycle Championships at Birmingham on July 7, through the Fifty Miles Championship and the Crystal Palace Challenge Cup, to the Twenty-five Miles Championship at Taunton and the Surrey B.C. at Kennington Oval on September 15.
- District Captain A. H. Lown gives notice that more members are expected out next Saturday than have appeared for the last five or six, offering "Shenley! strawberries! cream! and good company"; meet at "Jack Straw's Castle" 3.45 and Tally Ho! Corner 4.25.
- W. F. M. Buckley of Christchurch, Oxford again offers his "Humber" racer, new last year and raced only in the L.B.C. v. O.U.Bi.C. match of 1882, done up with a new front wheel tyre and ball pedals, cost 21l., price 14l.
- The editor regrets that no account of the S.W. run had been received at the time of going to press.
- 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 Tuesday evening for immediate insertion.