PEOPLE
From the very first TT in 1907, the magazines Motor Cycling and The Motor Cycle reported the races, and, good though their coverage was, being weekly publications they were always a few days behind.
Back in the 1920s there was no telephone link between the Isle of Man and the mainland UK (or the ‘adjacent island’ as Manx folk like to refer to it), and both weekly magazines used to send lap-by-lap summary telegrams to agents who subscribed to the service. These were immediately posted up in the showroom/shop window where, for the duration of the race, a good crowd of enthusiasts gathered (and maybe one or two could later be enticed into the shop!) There was clearly scope for a more ‘news-sheet’ kind of reporting, which could be produced and made available much sooner after the event, at least locally.
So it was that in 1927 the ‘TT Special’ made its first appearance, published in newspaper format in the offices of the Isle of Man Times, and which eventually expanded to give daily practice and race reports, all produced by reporters based in the newspaper’s Douglas offices. The founder and editor of this much-loved publication is
