CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 346, 11 March 1897, Page 2

CYCLING

[By

Rim.]

Auckland, October 27th, 1896. To the Proprietors, Sporting Review, Auckland. Dear Sirs, —I have pleasure in advising you that the Sporting Review has been appointed the Official Organ of the Auckland Cycle Club. Yours faithfully, J. P. HOWDEN, Sports Secretary.

The Aucklanders, Reynolds and Dexter, who carried off all the N.Z. Championships at the Cyclists’ Alliance, meeting, returned to town last week, with the gory scalps of their victims dangling from their belts, and some of our Southern friends don’t like it, more particularly one Wellington writer, who has scarcely a kind word for the Aucklanders in his report. In fact, if anything went wrong it was sure to be the fault of Reynolds, and failing him, Dexter. Reynolds was to blame in all cases where the “ waiting game” was played ; but my southern confrere overlooks the fact that if Reynolds was the only man who waited while the others went on he would have been very much like the man who fell out of the balloon —not in it. Also, Reynolds did. not deserve the ovation he got at the conclusion of the twenty-five mile race, after winning the others and riding second in the remaining event. I simply ask, “Why?” Reynolds and Dexter were officially received at the Metropolitan Hotel last Saturday evening, Mr Seymour Thorne George, vice-president of the A.A.A. and C.C., presiding. The chairman said lots of nice things about them, while they looked straight down their noses and visibly swelled and waxed important to find what a great pair they were. When their turn came round they could hardly work up a reply, so over-powered were they. They simply said “ Thank you, sir,” and collapsed, but, as all remarked, they were inches taller when they walked out. If the emperor of China had decorated them with the Peacock’s Feather they could not have strutted forth more proudly; in fact some one suggested that they should look into the glass in the hall to see if they knew themselves. Reynolds and Dexter have entered for all events at the Thames Amateur Athletic Club’s Carnival on St. Patrick’s Day, and will endeavour to set records for the denizens of Quartzopolis over the one and half mile courses respectively. The handicapper of the bike events on the programme of the A.A.C. is a proud man. Only two of those who entered dropped out of the cycle events of Saturday next. Our Napier correspondent writes:— Messrs. Pocock, Peterson, and Caughley (who, by the way, has nearly recovered from the severe accident which befel him at the late Wellington meeting) are putting in good work at the training track on the Recreation Ground ©very evening. Fraser, who up to a few days ago was in active training, has not been present on the track lately. Numbers of beginners are also to be seen trying to bring themselves into something like shape. Wall, the Wanganui cyclist, has expressed his intention of being a competitor at the forthcoming sports of the Wanderers’ Club, and it is expected that he will prevail upon some of his club mates to accompany him on the trip. After having been beaten in Victoria by Lewis, and then narrowly escaping disqualification on a charge of not being a trier, Yankee Martin came out in the League ’of Wheelmen’s International Scratch Mile and beat all opponents, with Payne second and M’Kinnon third. The English champion, Edwards, was beaten in his heat. The time was 2min 58sec. In the Twenty Miles Challenge Relay Race, Lesna, the French champion, with tile greatest of ease, cut down O’Brien, M’Combe, Meadham, and Elliott, who took up the running in succession, and won by, over , a mile in 44min 32|sec. The well-known English pedestrian, F. E Bacon, is said to be going to take to cycling.

What’s the odds that Teddy Reynolds doesn’t win the Enfield Cup right out at Saturday’s meeting. A combination of twenty leading Australian cyclists, including Martin, Ken Lewis, Megson, and Porta, is being formed to run race meetings throughout Australia outside the authority of the League of Wheelmen. The executive of the league intend to wait until the syndicate is formed, and then immediately disqualify the lot for life. They trust that the leagues in the other colonies will endore the disqualification.

Wally Kerr, the Sydney champion, who is. now on his way Home, will compete at the International Championship Meeting, at Glasgow, in Angust next. It is probable that C. Jones, of New Zealand, will also take part. The latter has been Home for some time past, but is not well at present. At a trial on the Catford Park, England, of the Pingault electric motor tandem, a flying mile was cut ont in Imin 46 3-ssec, and five miles in Bmin 56sec. ■ A new style of racing for machines between two men that is growing in favor in Europe and America consists of starting the men half a lap apart. This was the plan adopted in Sydney for the Martin —McDonnell match.. A pacing syndicate on a small scale will be in existence in England next season. The “ company” will consist of five well-known racing cyclists, who will own a quintette bicycle, and the concern will be absolutely independent of any cycle or tyre firm. The crew is prepared to arrange for the pacing of racing men during training spins, either on path or road, or in attempts upon record times. A quad race between English and French teams took place at the Velodrome d’ ELiver, Paris, on January 3, and resulted in a very easy win for the Frenchmen. Eight teams competed, and the Englishmen did not succeed in winning a single heat. According to Bearings, “Don’t go to Australia or Martin will biff you one, ” is the expression of many of the American wheelmen when speaking of cycle racing in Australia. The team of English riders who were Taning in America when the mail left, and all of whom used the Simpson lever chain, was known as the “chain gang.”

BICYCLING BY LADIES.

A SEA CAPTAIN’S DESCRIPTION.

“ Do you think the bicycle is a proper thing for a woman to ride ? ” enquired one schooner captain of another.

“ B’gosh, I’ve got to think so, for the old lady rides one.” “ When I went home last she says to me —‘ John, come an’ see my wheel and watch me ride.’ ” “ She’s a trim lookin’ little craft, my old lady is, but she didn’t know how to ride, so she must have me to cast off the lines and give her a tow until she got pretty well under headway. “ Away she started, a reef in her sail on one side a-showin’ too much of her spars, but a-gettin’ along pretty good. She struck a squall, and I shouted to her—

‘‘Hi I there, put your wheel hard aport and shift your ballast to starboard?” That’s what she did, and by the eternal hurricanes the rudder turned clean over the bowsprit, and I shouted—- “ Woman overboard! ”

“John,” says she reproachfully, “you don’t know anything about it. Of course, it’s all right on a ship to shift your ballast over to the opposite way you are careering, but on a wheel it’s different. When your wheel is leaning to port you lean that way too.”

“ And I’ll be darned if she didn’t learn the thing on that unnatural principle, and now she rides the wheel like my old boat rides the billows.”