My First TT

After I had passed my motorcycle test in January 1982, a guy I worked with called Phil Little & his crowd from Potters Bar (where he lived) asked if I wanted to go to the TT at the end of May 1983. I agreed and it was all arranged by Phil & Mike Pine. The night before we left, I stayed @ Phil's parents' house in Potters Bar. We left early the next morning & rode to Liverpool to catch the Ferry. Phil, Mike, Dave ?? & his girlfriend, Alison. On arrival, we rode along the prom to find the Grasmere hotel, situated just below the lift going from the prom to the Flacon Cliff Hotel.

Booking in, Dave & Allison had a double room to themselves (although it wasn't ready when we first arrived and they were given a temporary one) & Mike, Phil & I shared a room. This room had three beds but was obviously only a twinroom. There was so little room in there that two people had to stay on their beds while the third got washed & dressed! The shower was down the hall but didn't work very well, there was a night-light right outside our room which stayed lit all night and there was a constant drone from the kitchen extractor fan. The furniture wasn't much better. Mike stood on a set of drawers to open the window & they promptly collapsed! The phrase "M..F..crash..I" was born & still remembered today.

We suffered this for two nights then on the Friday we went to Ramsey and got soaked on the way back. We tried to dry our clothes in the hotel room but it was impossible. We even asked for additional heaters but the hotel staff were less than helpful. This was the final straw so we went to see the Manager & asked for our money back so that we could find a better place. He refused and quoted various laws about how much we had to pay etc. etc. so we went to the Tourist Board & explained the problem. Unfortunately, they said he was within his rights & that all we could really do was write to the tourist board and complain. Despite this, Phil & I went off to try & find another hotel and came up with the Sefton on Harris prom. Even though we had already paid for one hotel, we thought it was better to pay again & have a good holiday rather than suffer the present hotel.
So we moved.
And had a great time.
The Sefton had en-suite bathroom, great restaurant, two bars & private parking. The only thing we didn't have was a nice view as the room faced the cliff behind the hotel but this was a minor price to pay.
It was also the first time I had used my newly-aquired Diner Club card.

My first lap

I only remember one thing about my first-ever lap of the TT course.

For some reason, we came onto the course at Hillberry (although I doubt this information now that I know more about the area!) did a lap & pulled in when we reached Hillberry again.
I wondered why we had pulled in until Phil pointed out that we were back where we had started.

It was during this trip we started to use the "New Strand Inn" which we 'adopted' as a meeting place. This was partly due to remembering it from my first visit in 1978 and becomes significant later on.