Vol 6, No 6
Articles in this issue
- A standing announcement that the latest hour for reception of copy for the Gazette is 6.0 p.m. on Tuesdays.
- A leader signed "Dodo" on the misery of touring with an indolent companion, "a sluggard, a lotos eater, in fact a species of moral brake", who cannot be got out of bed, mislays his spanner and oilcan, and turns every hill-top view into an occasion for a lounge and a cigarette. The Editor appends a note inviting a defence of the class attacked.
- E. S. Price announces that the Annual Race Meeting will be held at the Crystal Palace on Saturday 16th June, with a One Mile Open Handicap, a One Mile Members' race, Two Miles for the Ladies' Challenge Cup, Five Miles Open and Ten Miles for the District Challenge Cup. The 16th is a half-crown day, but members can get tickets from the Sub-Committee at 1s. 6d.
- Captain Ashley W. Barrett sets out the District Captains' arrangements for the Halliford meet of 21st April: the N.E. leaves Lea Bridge Road at 3.0 to join the N.W. at "Jack Straw's" at 4.0, both going on to Kew to pick up the W. at the "Coach and Horses" at 5.0 and the S.W. at Kingston Station at 5.30, while the Blackheath Division meets at Lewisham Church at 3.15 and joins the Croydon Division for the direct road. No district is to wait more than ten minutes for another.
- Minutes of 9th April: W. R. Boyer, G. S. Hewitt, H. F. Willock Ravenshaw and Harry Scott elected members and H. R. Boyce placed on the honorary list. The Hon. Sec. is to write to the Manager of the Crystal Palace Company urging that a stand be erected for spectators at bicycle races.
- Captain Ashley W. Barrett repeats his call for volunteer timekeepers on Whit-Monday, now listing Hungerford at 44 miles alongside Devizes, Marlboro' Hill, Newbury, Reading, Maidenhead and Slough, and thanks Alfred Herbert for undertaking Marlboro' Hill.
- The meet table for 14th and 28th April across all six divisions, with the Halliford General Meet of 21st April noted between them. Destinations include Mill Hill, Eastcote ("Ship"), Oatlands Park and Weybridge, East Grinstead, Upminster, Havering ("Orange Tree"), Rickmansworth ("Swan"), Victoria Water and Riverhead.
- Five district reports. The N.E.'s eight rode to Epping on 7th April past Buckhurst Hill and Goldings' Hill, where an ex-Captain broke the covenant not to ride up hills; the N.W. describes both the Cheshunt meet of 31st March (35 miles by Potter's Bar and Goff's Oak) and a 27-mile run to the "Black Horse," Eastcott, where tea cost a shilling; the W. covered 43 miles to the "Anchor," Ripley, cursing the Richmond tramways; the S.W. met the West at Cobham and rode on to Ripley for a 1s. 3d. tea; and the S.E. rode by Farningham and Ightham to the "Bull," Wrotham.
- Gerard F. Cobb's guide continues around the Rigi side of the Lake of Lucerne, rideable throughout except the "Upper Nose" between Vitznau and Gersau, with a warning against the stony new hill road two miles out of Lucerne. He praises the Axenstrasse from Brunnen to Fluelen, its cliff tunnels ridden "bump, bump, bump" in the dark, and records beating the steamer over the 8 miles in 42 minutes; on the St. Gothard he advises putting self and machine on the train from Amsteg to Airolo.
- Two letters. "Roadster" proposes a Club twenty-four hours' ride on the Bath Road about three weeks after Whit Monday, with a bronze medal for 160 miles, silver for 200 and gold for beating the record of about 220, noting that even a "Facile" covers some 200 miles in the day. J. S. Whatton then argues for the dismemberment of the West District, taking the Great Western Railway from Paddington as the boundary and dividing its country between the N.W. and S.W. on grounds of symmetry, attendance, racing strength and the Thames being no real frontier.
- The Captain's sanctioned list under Rule 40, from the Surrey B.C. at Surbiton on 14th April to the Surrey B.C. at Kennington Oval on 15th September, taking in the B.U. Championships at Birmingham and the Crystal Palace, the A.A.A. Championships at Lillie Bridge and the Fifty Miles Bicycle Championship.
- District Captain Theo. Godlee hopes the N.E. will remember its traditions and turn up in force at the Halliford General Meet, which "might be nearly a long enough run even for our Skirmishers."
- The Porcupine's gossip, opening with a Punch dialogue in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is told to leave bicycles and tricycles untaxed as the pleasure of the small City clerk and the artisan. Items include the N.E. riding to the meet with three former Captains in the front rank and narrowly escaping an Epping charge of furious riding, the collapse of the treaty between the N.E. District Captain and the Editor, C. R. Hutchings elected a Bournemouth Improvement Commissioner, a 60- and a 58-inch colliding at the N.W. meet, the habits of the old medallist on Whit Monday, and a lamp replenished by the cook with furniture polish instead of sperm oil.
- One machine offered: a 53-in. "Rudge" with ball bearings to front and back wheels and pedals and Rucker's bent handles, £10, from F. J., 37, Downs Road, Clapton.
- 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, for immediate insertion, reach the office by Tuesday evening.