It isn't that far back that the only way to get the results of the TT if you were off the Island was via the Telephone. A special number was allotted to a recorded results service which was used by many a frustrated fan who hadn't been able to get to the TT.
Once you had made connection, you were given a full report, constructed by a man with a Wakefield accent who told us the headlines and then listed the top twelve finishers each with machine and average speed. It was a very good system, well before the days of websites and streaming audio.
The man who set up this system was no other than Denis Parkinson who had sorted the idea out with B-Tel and acquired for himself an unused room way up in the old Grandstand. There were a lot of external stairs to climb to this office in the clouds. I had met Denis via my Dad a few years earlier and had on an occasion, when I had had to go home after practice week and then return for the Senior, to use the telephone results service. So I was able to keep in touch with the results by phoning for them.
The following year I met Denis early in the TT period and said how useful I had found his service. He asked me how I felt it came over to the public and I answered truthfully and to some length.
As a consequence he invited me to see him in action and I was pleased to accept. I sat in with him for much of race week and his office was ideal to see the whole of Glencrutchery Road and the Refuelling Stops.
A Boy Scout brought Denis copies of the lap times, leader board and incident reports and Denis juggled them into an order so he could make an on-going report. He soon had me sorting out these pieces of paper and I was impressed at how Denis had found ways to file the slips into categories.
Once the race was over he made a final shuffle and wrote out his report which he read firstly into a tape recorder, checked it and then phoned the B-Tel main system and delivered his report to them.
So within minutes of the race ending, his report was available on the phone.
I spent the whole week helping him and it was only a short time after I arrived home that I received a very nice letter from him thanking me for my help. I had already thanked him for having me in his "office" and I have another TT Experience which I don't think many others have in their memories.