LONDON TO LAND’S END.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 June 1928, Page 17

LONDON TO LAND’S END.

HILL CLIMBING THRILLS. “THE VOLGA BOATMEN.’’ Over a thousand motorists and ni(>toT-cyeli'Sitfi ! arrived in Penzance on Easter Saturday niight, after taking part in the annual road trial from London to Land’s End, organised by the Motor‘Cycling, Club. There were over

500 competitors, and Ihe remainder travelled as passengers. In just under twenty hours each of the survivors had covered the journey ol 326 miles, and the colletoive mileage achieved by the machines and vehicles over the week-end exceeded a quarter of a million miles. It took six hours lor the procession to pass any one point, and it was an all-day gala for many of the villages passed through. Tnere were many women passengers b;. tli in side-cam and .in cars, and in most eases they linislicd .surprisingly spick and span. The competitors had to oliimb four notorious hills, and two o)f these attracted large crowds of holiday makers. There were amazing scenes on Beggar’s Roost, the most difficult of the three ascents, near Lynton..: There were about 5000 spectators on the grassy banks adjacent to the hill, and for miles the roads were . congested, with motor vehicles. The hill was in good condition, but there were no fewer than seventy failures, and some of them wore as spectacular as the rough-riding exploits of the successful competitors. There) wjere d'isplayisi oif mechanical buoncho-blisting, some of the machines getting out o control or jumping from boulder t O . boulder while their desperate riders remained in the saddles.

On the steepest portion of Beggar’s’ Roost seven stalwart fishermen with a strong hawser acted as a tow-rope gang and when a machine stopped they hitched the rope on to the frame and hauled it to the summit. They worked so hard that the spectators dubbed them “The Volga Boatmen.’’ One hundred and twenty miles of difficult going followed, and several,.riders, dozing in their .saddles, fell on the Devon by-roads. There was another large crowd to see* the competitors climb' the Blue Hills Mine, hut this did not prove so difficult. - • Almost a full moon during the night made the trial abnormally easy, but the hill-climbing failures were above the average. Nevertheless, about 300 competitors will gain a premier award.