Vol 6, No 20
Articles in this issue
- Standing note that the latest hour for reception of copy for the Gazette is 6.0 p.m. on Tuesdays.
- Leader on the gulf between amateurs in name and amateurs in spirit, citing riders said to be kept by bicycle makers as nominal mechanics or by bookmakers. It defends the Bicycle Union executive, which answers demands to suspend suspect men with "Give us the evidence", the Union has no inquisitorial power, no reserve fund like the Jockey Club, and no detectives.
- Meeting of Monday 9th July elected Ernest Daniel Church of Lee, Percy Clarke of Belsize Avenue and Joseph Gatey of Barnes; Mr. A. S. Morris's resignation was accepted. Mr. Waddell's offer of the free use of Stamford Bridge Grounds on Saturday 22nd September was adjourned a week; signed E. S. Price, Hon. Sec.
- Second-round results of the club tournament, Reynolds beat T. E. Scrutton, Beck beat Arthur Herbert, R. G. Francis beat J. F. Potter, H. S. Naylor beat G. S. Hewitt, Sharp beat Paull, Elgood a bye. Third-round pairings must be played and returned by Monday, July 30th.
- Captain Ashley W. Barrett reports a telegram from the landlord of the "Glyn Arms," Ewell, saying he cannot provide tea on Saturday next, and suggests the Districts instead meet at their usual places and settle their own routes.
- District reports for 14th July, all wrecked by thunderstorms: the N.E. (Barrett, Lloyd, Lyne, and the D.C. Theo. Godkin) sheltered in a butcher's shop and under a shop awning at Walthamstow, only the D.C. reaching the "Green Dragon" at Cheshunt; the S.W. under R. M. Gilman rode Kingston–Hampton–Staines–Colnbrook–Slough (37 miles) but abandoned Burnham Beeches and Stoke Pogis on the C.T.C. hostess's advice; and thirteen S.E. men under R. G. Francis and J. C. Oswald took tea at the "King's Arms," Westerham, returning by Westerham Hill and Hayes Common.
- Table of district meets: 21 July General Meet at Ewell; 28 July a paperchase, with N.E. from "Jack Straw's Castle" for Ickenham, the W. from Acton for Burford Bridge, S.W. from Kingston Station, Croydon Division for East Grinstead and Blackheath from the "Hare and Billet" for Farningham. No run on 4 August because of Bank Holiday.
- Full heat-by-heat report of the One Mile Bicycle and Ten Miles Tricycle Championships, watched by the largest crowd the writer remembers at the path. H. W. Gaskell (Ranelagh Harriers) took the mile from A. Thompson after Sutton slipped a pedal and fell, F. L. Adam of the L.B.C. snapped the crank of Beck's "Humber" at the start, and C. E. Liles (L.A.C.) won the tricycle event when Lowndes stopped with cramp.
- J. S. Whatton's three-day tour from Eastbourne home by the Kent coast, the Pevensey levels, Battle church, Crispe's Corner, the "Cinque Ports" at Rye, Romney Marsh and Brookland's detached tarred-wood spire, Dungeness, the B.T.C. houses at New Romney and Sandwich, Dymchurch Wall, Saltwood Castle, Hythe, Dover and the twin ship Calais-Douvres, then Richborough Castle, Ramsgate, Margate and the Watling Street from Canterbury.
- "La-Di-Da" gives practical hints on the "ever-clean" collar: enlarge the buttonhole with a shoemaker's punch to stop it splitting, soak the collar in the water-jug for a day or two before wearing, scrub with soap and a nailbrush, and clean discoloration with a little sulphuric ether, never near a candle.
- G. P. Coleman, L.B.C., official timekeeper to the Bicycle Union, tabulates 1882 against 1881 records from a quarter-mile to fifty miles, dominated by Cortis at Surbiton with Keith-Falconer, Jephson, Vesey, Adam and Hillier elsewhere; footnotes give Whatton's flying quarter of 36 2/5 sec. and Cortis's hour record of 20 miles 325 yards.
- Paragraph notes: James Lennox of Dumfries rode John o' Groats to Land's End in 10 days 4 hours 30 minutes against a headwind, two days of it with only one handle-bar; Gaskell's 40 2/5 sec. last lap was a ground record; Lowndes's collapse in the Ten Miles is called a bad case of want of pluck; and H. F. Wilson of the Surrey won the L.A.C.'s postponed Four Miles Handicap.
- Review of the seventh edition (June 1883) compiled by E. R. Shipton, fifty pages longer yet less bulky on thinner paper, with a properly engraved map of the United Kingdom and a new French tariff of doubtful value. The reviewer urges merging the separate chief-consular-district town lists into one alphabetical list, which would kill the twelve-page index and the double reference.
- "Porcupine's" gossip column: the group photograph taken after the Cambridge Invitation Race, with Palmer, Whish, Jephson, F. L. Adam and the brothers Whatton, is a shilling from C. L. Schwind of Derby; D. R. Smith turns to tricycle racing; McCullum Hill has shaved; and the new North-West D.C. is congratulated for claiming a meet of seven, three of whom were strays from another district.
- List of meetings the Captain sanctions members riding at under Rule 40, from the Crichton three-miles invitation and the Fifty Miles Bicycle Championship at Crystal Palace through Eastbourne B.C., the Bristol Meet, the Twenty-five Miles Championship at Taunton and the W. Lancashire autumn sports, to the Surrey B.C. at Kennington Oval on 15 September.
- Contributions must go 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.