Tonight’s first practice has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Although hopes were high at our 12.30pm technical briefing, the Clerk of Course, Gary Thompson, has just announced that due to incoming heavy rain the sessions will have to be abandoned.

PIC: Footage from the Bungalow webcam this afternoon

Last night the Island copped some heavy rains and wind, damaging parts of the track near Ramsey. It hasn’t stopped drizzling all morning, with the heavens expected to open around 5pm. The Newcomers first sighting lap was scheduled for 5.30pm, which included our second rider Paul, which wouldn’t have been safe at all for first-timers.

PIC: Visibility on the mountain was terrible yesterday afternoon

The team was prepared anyway, so now we just move on to Monday with our fingers crossed. Tomorrow is a non-race day, so some more twiddling of thumbs will be completed as we wait with baited breath. Unfortunately, this feeling is somewhat reminiscent of last year’s first practice week. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of this terrible weather and can get down to business on Monday!

PIC: When in the Isle, do as the Islanders

In the meantime, the team has decided to keep precision training up by working on Royce’s hand-eye coordination. It seems most scousers visit the ‘Cat with No Tail’ when the weather is monkey’s, so while the boozer is full of well lairy lads we might have a bit of nosh before nicking off to Bedfordshire.