Sports and Pastimes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 17, 3 September 1897, Page 5

Sports and Pastimes.

SOME CYCLING ABUSES.

Without doubt, the greatest abuser of the cycle is the beginner. Ignorance and an over-weening confidence in his own powers encourage him to over-do it, and he suffers accordingly. It is the novice who lays out a pleasing little tour averaging 120 miles a day when he is unfit and out of training ; and it is the novice who does not recognise the fact that he has had enough, and staggers on in a manful effort to carry out his programme. These are abuses which should be avoided, and in an article dealing with hints for cyclists they should be given a prominent place. lam afraid I must admit it is not the novice who abuses the rights which extend to all users of the highways. It is not the novice who proposes to use the highways as a racing track to the damage and danger of other users ; but, nevertheless, it is a serious abuse to thus misuse the roads. The adoption of abnormally high gears, unless in exceptional cases, is another abuse of the cycle : and, despite contradiction, I have reason to believe that my frequent assertion, that such high gears are particularly trying to the heart, is true. It is unwise, to put it no more strongly, to attempt to use a machine of too light a weight for ordinary riding on the road. The very light machine may be used without injury or danger by the expert, but it is inadvisable for the novice to purchase and to attempt to ride an unusually light cycle. Again, it is an abuse of the cycle, and of the public rights upon the highways, to attempt to perform eccentric feats in public. When a man is an expert, such exhibitions are in bad taste ; when he is a novice, they are a common danger, and should be avoided, and there is no class of rider that should be more careful not to endanger the users of the roads by this sort of pursuit than the cyclist. TO OUR CRICKETERS. Skill in bowling does not come As a grace infused by Heaven ; And it vanishes in some, Once the hope of the Eleven. Bowlers, if you would secure Styles to batsmen less consoling, Practice only will ensure Skill in bowling. At the wicket, bat in hand, Be you pigmy or a giant, Straight and graceful be your stand, Feet set firmly, shoulders pliant. Mark well each ball's length and twist Ere you'd block, cut, drive or snick it ; Else your form would soon be missed At the wicket. Hold the catches, dropping none, Be they skyers, straight or twisting, Though a hot one stings like fun, Butters should be non-existing. With a score extremely small Teams may pull off hopeless matches If the fielders, one and all, Hold the catches. H. G. M., in Stonyhnmt Magazine,