Isle of Man TT

I was channel hopping tonight and on my travels came across the Isle of Man TT on ITV4. I'd heard of it before but didn't really know anything about it, except for the fact that they race motorbikes on public roads at high speeds. Although I like watching motor sports I've never really got into watching bikes. This had me hooked though. Turns out the race I saw was for 600cc machines and there are a number of races across the week for different types/size of bike.

These guys raced through towns and villages, past houses and between stone walls at very high speeds. On parts of the circuit where they reach the highest speeds the helicopter filming the action was left behind. The circuit is 37 and three quarter miles long and the racers complete a lap in under 18 minutes. That's pretty damn quick!

At the end of the first lap it started to rain. Coming into a village called Union Mills one rider had a bit of a slide and following on just behind a Scottish chap called Keith Amor fell. He was lucky. The layout of the road meant he slid to a stop safely, his bike however was moving faster and slid along the floor into the crash barrier outside the Spar shop before spinning back into the road. The conditions meant that the race was stopped.

The TV only showed highlights so I don't know how long they waited, but the race re-started and the riders (including Keith Amor) gave it their all once again. The winner, Gary Johnson, covered the four lap (150 mile) race at an average speed of 123.8mph. That's average speed, through towns and round hairpins on normal roads. In fact all of the top six finishers averaged over 120mph for the race distance. With no run off areas and no room for error, that takes some serious bravery and skill.

Rain Stopped Play

Henry had his first trip to Lord's today to see day three of the England v Sri Lanka test match. An early train was the order of the day as we travelled down with Jake, David and Steven. Following tea, coffee and breakfast inside the ground we found our seats and settled down to watch the action.

Sri Lanka resumed on 231-1 with Dilshan on 127 and Sangakarra on 13. After a decent morning session with the bat, by lunchtime they had moved their score on to 344 for the loss only of Sangakarra who had doubled his overnight tally. Thoughts were of seeing Dilshan reach his double century in the afternoon session.

Seven overs into the afternoon session Steve Finn grabbed a wicket. It was Dilshan who had fallen seven runs short of 200. It was the beginning of the end. Only three more overs were possible before rain stopped play. Tea was taken early but only five balls were bowled before rain curtailed things again.

With the weather looking set in we decided to call it a day and make our way home. It turned out to be the right decision as play was abandoned for the day with no further action.