Doesn't sound like my style, but if it was after roads closed, and I knew there was a TM coming, it probably was! I am not keen to scrape up bits, so I try very hard to keep people out of harm's way.
Most marshals will tell you crowd control is our biggest and most difficult job. Let's face it, riders really don't fall off that often..thank goodness.
We are there to ensure the spectators safety, but sometimes they don't appreciate that. We get told we are in the way, cos they want to take photos... well, we try not to be, but if we are, sorry, but that's too bad, spectators may have to move a wee bit if we can't.
We are often ignored, or people pretend they don't understand. This TT there were loads of foreign visitors who truly didn't, and that was sometimes fun!
However, I will share with you a funny one. I always try to get the crowd on our side, by explaining why I am asking them to do something, by keeping them up to date on what is happening, and often with some banter.
At TT time we had a rather large man sitting on the wall on the Tromode Road side of the Bottom of Bray. there are no marshals that side so it's a case of shouting across and hoping they do what they're asked. He acted as if he wasn't hearing, or I was calling to someone else. After a couple of tries I was getting annoyed, when a man behind me said "We'll shift him".. I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he and his 3 big mates all yelled in chorus "HEY... YOU .... YES, YOU, THE FAT BA****D, GET YOUR LEGS OFF THE WALL!". He did! :wink:
Sorry if I yelled at you, hope you will come back and watch there again.. come early and have a chat.