SIDE CAR TRIALS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 115, 20 June 1914, Page 12

SIDE CAR TRIALS.

THE DISSENTERS' VIEWPOINT.

NEW CLUB TO BE FORMED. The explanation of the North Canterbury Motor Cycle Club's decision not to recognise the Side Car Eeliability Trial held on June 3, an explanation received from official sources and published in Thursday's SUN, is dissented from by several of the competitors who have resigned from the club in consequence of the decision.

They criticise the explanation generally and want to know why, with only one protest before it, the committee did not consider that protest and leave other threatened protests until they were made. Begarding the statement that an investigation of the observers' reports made on account of the protests, revealed discrepancies, it is questioned why such discrepancies were not discovered when the judge went through the reports to find the results. It is stated that A. B. L. Smith's Clyno was the only machine to make a non-stop run, and since Smith was only one point behind Jones, even if his had been a non-stop run, the protesters cannot see why Smith should not have been awarded first place when Jones's observer put in a signed statement admitting that he had failed to record one stop. The statement that the majority of the competitors had police prosecutions pending against them is disputed. It is stated that the police are making enquiries concerning some, but until charges of breach of by-laws were proved, the committee could not recognise them, and evidently the judge did not consider them in making his awards. According to the ■rules of the club, a member is disqualified for Committing a breach of by-laws, but that does not imply that he is disqualified because there is a possibility of his being prosecuted. It is also held that F. Jones, being a member of the committee, should not have sat on that committee while his case was in dispute.

If the club thought other protests were likely to be laid, it should have dealt with the original protest first and with others in order as they were presented. The committee's decision to declare "no race" and to order a new trial is regarded with disfavour by a majority of the competitors, who think Smith has been unfairly treated, since his Clyno received the maximum points for reliability, made a non-stop run, and should naturally have been declared the winner when the signed admission of Jones's recorder was received, admitting, the unrecorded stop.

The committee's action has aroused such feeling, it is said, that the majority of the competitors refuse to take part in a new trial, and are resigning from the club with the intention of forming a new club in conjunction with the Pioneer Club. Over 75 motor cyclists have given their names- in as intending members, three of whom were members of the North Canterbury Club's committee. The first meeting of the new club will be held in the rooms of the Pioneer Club next Wednesday at 8 p.m., and among the inducements* held out to motor cyclists is the fact that members will participate in all the advantages enjoyed by members of the Pioneer Club, and will have, besides, the benefit of a cycle garage wherein they can store their machines.