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A Page of Cartoons. -In the West Country Golf Handicaps.
By "The Extractor."
It will be found on the next page that our artist secured some striking sketches down at Bristol last week. Mr. William Poden, of Sandbach, will be seen discussing matters with an agricultural client who was so bulky that he had, for exigencies of space, to be left out of the picture. Mr. Chas. Burrell, of Thetford, a well-known figure at Royal Shows, caused our artist distress when he found that Mr. Burrell had discarded his usual knee breeches, as an artist above all things likes distinctive features of that kind. Mr. Stephen Garrett, of the Leiston firm, is equipped for the hot weather ; he wore glasses in addition, but these looked so unfamiliar that they had to be ruled out. Mr. T. L. Aveling was, as usual, full of duties in connection with the management of the Show. He does not spare himself when at the Royal, and the only place our artist could limn in his features was as he flitted from one of the Club's offices to another. Mr. Robson, the managing director of Clayton and Shuttleworth, Ltd., will be found in a characteristic pose as he was found interviewing numerous clients. Mr. T. Merryweather, always at the Royal Shows, presents a picturesque appearance ; he seems to know everybody. Mr. James Barford, of Barford and Perkins, is seen seated by his stand ; he is another who has recently taken to glasses, but they are omitted because we are not accustomed to them yet.
The Royal Show period is just one of those fixtures when a car comes in quite handy, and thus my new Rover Twelve was filled up with benzoic and a start tirade on the Sunday morning so as to be at the Showyard betimes on the Monday. We took the long route for variety, via Andover, Stonehenge, Wells and the gorgeous Cheddar Cliffs, also incidentally 30.miles of Salisbury Plain, of which one is apt to get very replete --" fed up " is the modern expression ; anyhow, this was better, as I explained to my passenger, than cycling across the Plain against a head wind as I have done many a time and oft. What a dear old town Wens is, and what a charming hotel ; only stern duty made us leave it. We were enabled to get out of crowded Bristol in the evenings and make one night for Weston-super-Mare to sleep and another night for Rath. In all these West Country towns I was greatly impressed by the char-a-bancs traffic. In Bath there must have been 15 of these giants in the streets at one time filling up with passengers as we arrived at seven o'clock. I found by inquiry that two-hour evening trips are an institution thereI noticed mostly Karriers, Bristol Tramways, and Cummers, one of the latter climbing the Lausdown Hill out of Bath crammed with passengers. I do not remember such a long steep hill in any other town, and if I had not seen it for myself. I would hardly believe that even a Cornmer could do it, but I gathered that it is their regular route now. I hear that. an illustrated article dealing with these Bath services is to appear in. the same issue as my present contribution. The Bristol services were fully dealt with ii week or two ago I remember. The Bristol district strikes one as being very advanced in motoring. The Bristol Tramways concern is unique, making complete chassis as they do and running the chars-a-basics and taxis. No wexider that exhibitors at the Show were pleased with the inquiries and results.
More motoring golf handicaps will have to be reduced. Last month it was Mr. J. W. Stocks of De. Dion Bouton who had given Bogey at Bushey Hall a terrible twisting ; now it is Mr. Arthur Spurrier, the London director of Leyland Motors Ltd., who with a long handicap has dared to annex the Automobile Goff Trophy. This has just been competed for at Huntercombo, a magnificent and difficult course near Henley, and at the Show dinner last Thursday Mr. Spurrier came in for sincere congratulations. He told me how he nearly gave up hope at the end of the first half of the game, misfortune dogging him so sorely, but in the second half he played phenomenally for him with the result already stated. There is still another ; Mr. F. 3. Field, of Commercars, did not annex a trophy, but in a club competition he returned such an extremely low score that his handicap has been reduced by five at one fell swoop.
Birmingham and the Midlands are to be still more closely attached by one of the premier commercialvehicle concerns ; in other words a branch office is to be opened in Birmingham by Commercial Cars Ltd., and a good local representative has been secured in the person of Mr. John Houghton, formerly motor sales manager for Alldays and Onions Ltd. He has also been connected with the Wolseley and Austin concerns, so that he has matured experience of the requirements and needs of commercial-motor users, and thus potential clients will be assured of prompt personal attention. As soon as the exact venue is decided upon a notification of same will appear in these columns.