It is very good, reading your submissions about the part of the TT missed by us all. It wasn't so bad, I think riders enjoyed the cooler time of the day in slightly more relaxing time. And I believe that many riders who "lived" in the paddock in those days got up to get WARM !

The best bits were, Waking up to an alarm clock that you couldn't switch off, trying to find sox and pants in the dark, creeping downstairs, getting into a cold van, trying not to wake the rest of the hotel (rest of the promenade of hotels !) arriving in the paddock in the dark and while getting ready to send your rider off, you could see the glorious Isle of Man dawn breaking, the air temperature increasing and steam rising off the dew covered fields and roads. There was a cotton-wool silence broken only by a nervous giggle when a weak joke was told or someone shrieking when he got his hand caught when unloading a bike.

Then one noisy bike would fire up and you could feel the tension building. (No, it was a major desire to go to the loo) The birds in the trees on Glencrutchery road would wake up and twitter. More bikes fired up. Suddenly there were people pushing bikes up onto the road. A sleepy paddock was suddenly WIDE awake.

The bikes would set off and you could hear the loud ones for miles after they had started. (Remember the Honda-4s)

While he was putting in the lap, we would grab a coffee and a large hot bacon sandwich with Ketchup from Shielas Kitchen behind the grandstand.

It would be light by now and within a short time the first bikes would flash through, some coming in to check things. The sun would be higher now. Coats and jackets would come off as it got warmer...Our rider went straight through to do two laps.....More coffee.........

A couple of laps completed, our rider would come in, satisfied with a good 75 miles experience, so we would go to the Cadbury tent where soup, hot chocolate or coffee (did they do tea) were free. In the light of hurricane lamps we rubbed shoulders with all and sundry, the famous and the also-rans. Smoking was the in thing in those days and we all lit up with frozen fingers wrapped around the steaming drinks. Even though it was still cool there was the memorable smell of sweaty leathers !! (I can still remember this)

After some discussion about near-misses with hares, seagulls and sheep, good chats and laughs we loaded the bike and tools back into the van and went back to our place of residence. We left the still warm bike in the van and crashed out for an hour or so. One or two of us would go for a lap either to see who had broken down or to have an undisturbed run round since it was still quiet for people were still in bed so the roads were less busy. Back to the residence with all the cobwebs blown out of your brain, totally awake and hyped up.

After a shower we would all go down for a huge breakfast at 9am. It was like a large lunch...well, after all we had been up since 4.30AM.

And this went on for all of practice week ! Then it was a day spent on the bike and then off to the evening session. Add to this our late nights in the Douglas Bay Hotel Texas Bar, then the Stakis/Hilton Round Bar, we didn't get a lot of sleep. We ate well though !!

Wonderful days.....................................................................I miss them very much.

Why don't they make a film about EMP, since so many people of nowadays have never experienced it ?

Why not a BOOK ?? There must be so many stories to relate.