Vol 6, No 28
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.
- Leader arguing that the six bodies now defining an amateur, the Amateur Rowing Association, A.A.A., N.C.U., Swimming Association of Great Britain, Amateur Boxing Association and National Skating Association, should adopt one common code, at least the A.A.A., N.C.U. and N.Sw.A. It instances the absurdity of a man who rides and runs at a meeting containing a professional race being suspended by the A.A.A., a suspension the N.C.U. must recognise though he has broken none of its own rules.
- Report of the Committee meeting at the 'City Arms' on Monday 10th instant: the resignations of Messrs. J. T. Johns, William Johns and C. A. Smith were accepted, and the Annual Dinner fixed for the St. James's Hall Restaurant on Wednesday 21st November if that day proved free. Signed E. S. Price, Hon. Sec.
- E. S. Price reminds members of the Club social of Saturday 22nd September, with a One Mile Club Handicap, Half-Mile Scratch, Twelve Miles District Scratch for roadsters and a 220 yards Flat Race for boys, plus a Lacrosse match and the final tie of the Tennis Tournament to vary the bicycle events. Tickets 1s., members free on production of Club Badge; entries close Tuesday 18th, fee 2s. 6d. a bicycle event.
- Theo. Godlee, Captain's Substitute, urges members to enter all their brothers under 16 for the flat race and explains that, though the official notice does not say so, it is a handicap, chiefly by age.
- Competitors may practise on the Stamford Bridge grounds on Thursday 20th instant except between 6.0 and 7.30 p.m.; tickets of admission from E. S. Price, Hon. Sec.
- Members who put their names down for the fund are asked to send their 10s. subscriptions to Stephen P. Smith, 9 Morden Road, Blackheath; further donations are welcome and any surplus over the sum required will be returned pro rata.
- District reports for 8th September. The N.E. put out only four men from Syborn's Corner, riding by Whip's Cross, Snaresbrook, Hog Hill and Romford to tea at the 'Bell,' Upminster, picking up S. P. Smith at Beacontree Heath; the N.W. mustered three at Tally Ho!, turned off the North road at the sixteenth milestone for Northaw, and had a handle-bar break in half at Barnet, with a second dissenting account appended. District Captain Harold C. Pigott rode the whole W. run alone from Savernake Cottage through Kingston, Esher, Byfleet and Woking to Ripley, while the S.E.'s nine reached East Grinstead past the Fifty Miles Tricycle Road Championship, won by T. R. Marriott.
- R. G. Francis announces next Saturday's run: the Croydon Division leaves the Fire Station, St. Katharine Street, at 4.30 to meet the Blackheath men (by the 3.30 train from Ladywell) at the Brighton and East Grinstead junction at 4.50, starting at five and taking tea at the 'George Inn,' Crawley, at 6.30, the last run but one of the season.
- Tabulated meets for the N.E., N.W., W., S.W. and S.E. districts over the coming two Saturdays, Epping, Harrow and Crawley, then Abridge, Leatherhead and Godstone, with starting points from Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner to 'Jack Straw's Castle,' Savernake Cottage, Kingston Station, Croydon Central and Old Lewisham Church, and the Stamford Bridge race meeting of September 22 ruled across the table.
- 'Juggins Junr.' describes a 228-mile run to Paignton on a double tricycle, begun 30 July, by Hounslow, Egham, Virginia Water, Overton, Andover, Ludgershall, Devizes, Melksham, Bath, Wells, Glastonbury, Bridgwater, Taunton and Exeter, with the Mendip springs, Wells cathedral and the 'Star' and 'Bude' C.T.C. hotels particularly praised. He concludes that for quiet small-distance touring nothing beats a double tricycle, which can be ridden safely down hills no bicyclist would attempt.
- First instalment of a six days' English tour begun at South Norwood on Friday 3rd August, written to answer the Gazette's recent flood of foreign tours. The writer, luggage in a bulging M.I.P. bag that fouled his mounting, praises the transformed crossing at Hyde Park Corner, is held up by butchers' carts and 40,000 school children, and ends his 72-mile first day at the 'Bull' at Olney by way of St Albans, Luton and Bedford. (To be continued.)
- 'L. Shedder' on the dead-flat 24 miles from Derby to Lichfield, Burton's disappointingly mild beer and its plague of level crossings, the steep hill at Coleshill, and the glorious avenue of trees from Kenilworth to Coventry. He rates Lichfield dirty and squalid but the 'George' comfortable, notes the B.T.C. house at Coventry is a temperance one, and recommends Howard's Roads of England and Wales (Letts, 5s.).
- Paragraph notes: the N.C.U. has had the main road at Merton raised to the level of its projecting sewer man-holes; Wilson, forced to start into a north-westerly gale at Surbiton, gave up after twelve miles in 35 min. 48 sec.; Thorn beat Cassall by a foot in the One Mile Invitation Handicap; Wood of Leicester beat Howell for the ninth time in the Twenty-Five Miles Professional Championship; and T. R. Marriott won the Fifty Miles Championship Tricycle Road Ride by four miles from G. Smith, only three Humbers being ridden and taking the first three places.
- W. R. Sewell defends the 'Potterer' against 'Dodo's' 'Aut Scorcher, aut nihil,' arguing that potterers are mostly old members who have earned their rest and who treat the machine as a means to the beauties of nature. C. A. E. Pollock writes from the 'Hotel de France,' Eaux Chaudes, Basses Pyrenees, that he and F. B. Westcott have ridden 420 miles from Havre and that no bicycle has been seen there since the 'Pyrenean five' passed four years ago.
- 'Porcupine's' gossip column: Hindley is off to India for eight months; Appleyard came a nasty cropper on a big stone returning from Ripley with G. P. Coleman; a Croydon magistrate fined a lampless bicyclist 10s. and 7s. costs despite his plea that he rode behind two lighted machines; and the Clapton Lacrosse Club, largely made up of L.B.C. men, has fixed its opening game on the day of the Club's last Meet.
- Under Rule 40 the Captain sanctions members racing at the listed meetings from 14 September to 27 October, Exeter Athletic Sports, the Surrey B.C. autumn meeting at Kennington Oval, Colchester B.C., the L.B.C. private meeting of the 22nd, Leominster B.C., Bournemouth, the Chichester Cyclists' Club, the L.A.C. at Stamford Bridge, races at Romford and the Stoke Unity B. and T.C. sports.
- Contributions must be addressed to 'The Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 35, Eastcheap, E.C.,' bear the author's name though not necessarily for insertion, be written on one side of the paper only, and reach the office by Tuesday evening for immediate insertion.