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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0431.PDF
JULY 9, 1925 THE KinG'S CUP RACE THE FOURTH KING'S CUP CIRCUIT OF BRITAIN HANDICAP THANKS to the almost impossible weather conditions prevailingduring the greater part of Friday last, and particularly during the early hours of the day, the Fourth King's Cup Circuit ofGreat Britain Handicap was, taken as a whole, a great disappointment. A fairly strong entry gave promise of agood and interesting race, but instead of this we witnessed, within but a few hours of the start, a hard struggle, notaltogether free from considerable risk to life and limb, between but a very small pro-portion of the total entry. In short, outof the 14 starters, six failed to completethe first stage of 191 miles, and four moredropped out within the next stage — atotal distance of 261 miles out of the full804 miles — leaving but four successfullyto complete the day's circuit. Only oneo. these failures can be attributed to amechanical defect, all the rest had togive up owing, directly or indirectly,to the bad weather conditions, or (in thecase of three com- petitors) to slightdamage to the machine on landing. On the second dayof the race conditions were much b Jtter,but one of the four left in the running—Bert Hinkler — had lost so much timethe day ' before, having returned toCroydon only a few minutes before" closing time," that he decided it wasuseless to proceed, and so only threewere left to finish the second portionof the race. Never- theless, the race, such as it was, was an extraordinary demonstration of skill and endurance on the part of the competitors—successful and unsuccessful. This year the race once again took a different form The course, roughly encircling Great Britain, was about the samedistance—804 miles—but this time the course had to be completed in one day, in an anti-clockwise direction, viaHarrogate, Newcastle, Renfrew, Blackpool, Shotwick and Bristol, starting and finishing at Croydon, on the first day,Friday, July 3, and in the reverse direction on the second day, Saturday, July 4. Compulsory stops were made ofhalf an hour's duration at Harrogate, Newcastle, Shotwick t "* and Bristol, and of one hour at Renfrew,but competitors did not stop at Black-pool, only turning at the Tower at a dis-tance not exceeding 300 yards and at analtitude of 1,000 ft. There were 15 en-tries, o/Uy one of whichti>"«fe A.N.E.C. :entered by Maj. J." C. Savage and pilotedby J. H. James— failed to put in anappearance. The King's Cup was wonthis year by Capt. F. L. Barnard onthe Armstrong-Whit- worth " Siskin V "(3 9 5 S i d d e 1 e y " Jaguar "), enteredby the Right Hon. Sir Eric Geddes.Barnard's average speed for the courseon the second day was a record one—551 '43 m.p.h., or 5 hrs. 18 mins. 58 sees,net flying time for the 804 miles. Hisspeed the first day was, however, barely130 m.p.h. Besides the King's Cup, Bar-nard also won all the other subsidiaryprizes — the only prizes he failed toget being second and third ! These wentrespectively to H. W. G. Jones—who race as Flight-Lieutenant and finished asthe " Siskin IV" entered by Sir and Maj. H. Hemming on A. S.Falcon "). OFFICIALS AT THE KING'S CUP : From left to right, Brig.-Gen Sir Capel Holden, the Judge ; Col. F. Lindsay Lloyd, Timekeeper and Capt. A. R. Dresser, Clerk of the Course started in the Squadron-Leader !—on Glynn Hamilton West, Butler's D.H.37 " Sylvia " (275 Rolls-Royce 431
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