At the Grantham Gala, held on July 5th 1869 in Arnold Field, there was great excitement at the appearance of velocipedes in the town who made their way to the Gala for racing. There was a shooting gallery, archery, cricket and bicycle racing. There were five bicycle events, an open race, an amateur's race, a local race, a slow race and a "match for a silver cup, value five guineas." The race distances were not stated. There was a crowd of 5,500.
At the 1876 Grantham Horticultural Society Show, there were two bicycle events, a two miles open race and a one mile local race. The advertisement for the show stated "The competitors in the bicycle races will be required to promenade in Order, once round the course, before the race."
This was probably the last bicycle racing at Arnold Field. William Ostler died in 1879.