RECORD RIDE

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11733, 22 January 1924, Page 7

RECORD RIDE

NEW ZEALANDER'S FEAT. lA>WERS~OWN TIME. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reoeived January 21, 7.10 p.m.) LONDON, January 20. •G. N. Beil covered Mb return journey to York in 81 hours, beating his own record by three hours. Hundreds of townspeople met him in York, and marched in procession to the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor, the Sheriff, and other prominent. oitizens weloomed him. Although the last five miles were ridden in a downptmr of rain, the horse and rider were wonderfully fit, and' showed no traces of their heavy ordeal, which included a snowstorm at one stage. The Lord Mayor said that Yorkshiremen were proud to he able to breed such horses and proud of the rider. The Yorkshire bay’s name would go down in history as a serious rival of Black Bess. George-Newton Bell, a New Zealander, visiting England’, to buy English stock, rode from York to London in an attempt to beat the record of 4} days. On t'he first day he covered 55 miles: the next 38, owing to snow; the third 50; and the last,63 miles. He considers that the ride proves that English hunters have more staying powers than Arabs. His horse, Yorkshire Boy, was a typical good specimen of the sturdy, northern breed, but nothing phenomenal. Bell intended to ride back, hut not to try and break th© record. The previous record of 44 days was created in July by Tvrwhett Drake, on an Arab horse, The Sheik. Black Bess was the famous mare upon which Dick Turpin, notorious highwayman rode from London to York in an endeavour to establish an alibi.