1911 Control Card
by Harold Bridge

You think permanents are relatively new?
Here is one from 1911 that I have just found.
"Tommy" figures in that Doncaster and back tt list you published awhile back.
Strange thing though, the control boxes don't have distances.

A historic card that suddenly came to light is, I think, worth copying.
I find it strange that CYCLING (aka "The Comic") would set up this Century Challenge scheme and not include space for distances.
A control card, or whatever it was known as in 1911, filled in by pencil, is obviously going to be difficult to read, so I have converted to kms and added assessed distances.
The real 293km "control" was at Povey Cross, long since buried under Gatwick. "Tommy" was apparently doing a 200 mile ride by going north from London up the Great North Road and turning round at that cheesy place, Stilton. From there he rode south through London and on to the "seaside" resort, Brighton. I was relying on "bikely" for distances and with all the modern road development, it is hard to confirm accuracy. But, up to his death in 1951, at an age of about 63, he was known to do a regular 200 mile ride every week I think, so the 342 kms would be about right.