EXCITING RACE-BICYCLE V. HORSE.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1208, 4 September 1874, Page 4

EXCITING RACE-BICYCLE V. HORSE.

About eight hundred people entered Lilly-Bridge grounds recently to witness a race of £25. a side. The competitors were John .Keen, of Surbitoii, the champion bicycle rider, and Polly, a good pony, belonging to Mr Cooper, ol Birmingham. Just before the start, some discussion took place between the persons most interested in the contest as to whether the -quadruped should be allowed to run on any portion of the course its rider might choose, or whether the bicyclist should have an even track left for him. A few horsey men expressed an opinion that the rider.,of Polly ought to be allowed too steer where he pleased, but the backers of bicycle objected that after, ten miles had .been ridden there would be no part of the cinder path fit for a -bicycle to travel over. A compromise was effected by the disputants agreeing that Keen should give an advantage of a lap, or onesixtieth of the twenty miles, on the understanding that Polly's rider kept that estimable quadruped on the near side, of the track all round. In the straight riin. down to the pavilion a cord separated the tracks of man and beast, and 'there Polly was always on the outside ; but over that portion of tha coiirse. nearest to the railway she was kept as near to the railway as possible. The effect, was soon perceptible on the bicyclist, who laboured v i-y much over the rough ground, which, apart from the looseness caused by tho hoofs, was not in the best possible order for bicycling ; in the face of these adverse circumstances the result of the contest, so far as it went, must bo considered very satisfactory to those numerous amateurs who are interested in bicycling. Keen rode a 55-inch " Eclipse," of his own

manufacture!; the rider of tho pony weighed under 9st. The competitors were started, when Keen, in spite of his largo wheel, led past the pavilion, and went steadily away from the pony, He ran the first mile in 3miu. 45sec, and the second mile in 3min. 40sec.; in the seventh lap, where the pony was pulled, Keen had picked up two hundred yards, but by the time he had reached the end of tho third mile Polly seemed to be getting the best of the race, and. the backers of horseflesh against ..humanity grew very noisy. Both biped, and quadruped ran woll through the fourth and fifth mile, which Keen, who gained steadily, travei-scd in 3min. 37sec, and 3min. -l-2scc, completing the first live miles iu lSmin. lGsec. The sixth mile was ridden iu 3min. 32sec. by the bicyclist, who had gained more than 300 yards on the trotter. In the twentieth lap, Keen was at the top of the straight leading to the pavilion before the pony reached the bottom of it. lie rode the seventh mile in 3inin. -Msec, and continued to gain on his fourfooted foe during the eighth mile, which lie covered in 3min. lu'sec. As thev passed the pavilion, amidst great excitement, at the commencement of the.twenty-fifth lap, the bicycle rider .was only five yards behind Polly. As he ran through the two next laps the rough road told upon the man, and the mare ran away from him. He, however; accomplished the ninth mile in 3min. 55soc. and doubling clown to his work over the rough around, tho three succeeding laps in 3inin. Slsec, thus completing the ton miles, or half the distance in 37miu. Usee. During tho eleventh and twelfth miles, which were run in good time respectively, the bicyclist waited on the pony, and the majority of the Birmingham division became less demonstrative. No special effort was made during the thirteenth mile, completed by Keen in 3min. s'3sec., but in the first lap of the fourteenth mile he caught Polly at the top of the course, and led in a quarter of a mile by seventy or eighty yards. At this unexpected exhibition of power a gentleman went in a fit, which rather worried Keen ; he, however, rode ou, completed the fourteenth mile in 3mill. 35sec., and. still running steadily away from the pony, the fifteenth in 3min. dOsec. from the start. When the bicyclist was running the forty.seventh round, Polly was pulled up very much beaten, and her opponent finished the sixteenth mile at his. leisure in 4min. -losec. In the second lap of the seventeenth mile the pony was led oil' the course, and her backers notified to Keen that they did not require him to finish the distance. Polly was well ridden throughout. The amateur and professional bicyclists of the metropolis were well repre- ■ seiited on the grounds, and the attendance, after allowing for tho allurements of horseflesh, may bo taken as a proof of the growing interest which attaches to the practice of bic} r ele riding.