Monday 30 July 2012

Plaque in Memory of a Sporting Gentleman

Yesterday, Sunday 29th July, a plaque was unveiled at the Sulby Glen Hotel to commemorate the life of Neil Kent who sadly died last August in Practice for the Manx Grand Prix Motorcycle Races.

Neil had been coming to the Island since 1986 and had stayed at the Welbeck for all but his first trip, I think.

Although, pretty much a back runner in his early days, he began to realise that he also needed to respond physically to the demands of the T.T. course, so worked off his puppy fat to become a competitive racer, culminating with the fabulous record breaking 2nd place (to Dan Sayle) in 2009 and his win in the 2010 Lightweight Grand Prix.


But there was so much more to Neil and last year, he also won the 'Spirit of the Manx' award which acknowledged his ever cheerful countenance, the fact that whenever he wasn't racing, he would marshal and his willingness to come to the aid of his rivals in the 'Paddock' giving them both his time and expertise.


Likewise at the Hotel, he would spend many an hour talking to other guests and the staff, never the great 'I am' and whenever he was interviewed on Manx Radio, he always made sure that he credited, Dennis Trollope and family, his long term sponsors but also my Mum and Dad and latterly Irene and me.
It was a pleasure to host his family this weekend and the esteem with which he was held by his friends and the MGP organisers shone through, particularly from his friend, Paul who wrote some lovely words and together with Jacqui Dawson organised the production and mounting of the plaque.

Thursday 19 July 2012

Staffing Situation Fixed with Mike and The Mechanics

It's certainly not quite so busy as we'd like at the moment but the staffing situation is strong with the return of Nina and Alex's brother Rafal coming back to join head chef, Darius and Emil in the kitchen.

We do have vacancies at the moment and it looks like the weather is finally improving, so if you can manage a late break, you'd be very welcome.

On Monday night, Irene and I were lucky enough to be able to see Mike & The Mechanics at the Villa Marina.

Unfortunately, the fact that the event was not well attended wasn't so good for the promoters and the band but added to the intimate atmosphere and it was amazing to be so close to such stars and the legendary, Mike Rutherford without having to jostle for space.

They treated us to most of their back catalogue plus a few new songs and some of the later Genesis tunes. However it was joint lead singer, Andrew Rocheford that proved to be the star of the show and they also played a couple of his hits.

If the band is coming anywhere near you, buy the tickets quickly as they were brilliant!

Monday 16 July 2012

Kaidan & Happy in Laxey

A few weeks ago, we took Happy and our other grandson Kaidan on the Manx Electric Railway to Laxey.
It was in between downpours and although hardly really summer in the conventional sense of the word, it was certainly a brief relief from the soakings. Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture above, it wasn't quite warm enough for them to even consider letting us sit outside.

Excellent example of the photographers great skill with this brilliant picture of a black and white pole. Oh and an MER carriage/train in the background.


The journey to Laxey takes around about 35 minutes and follows the coastline apart from Groudle to Clayhead where it takes a little short cut. Passengers are able to alight at Laxey where if they wish can also change to the Snaefell Summit Railway or even continue for the full hour and a quarter trip up to Ramsey. There are of course many stops in between the main towns and villages where you can explore the glens, take the coastal path or head up to the fells.

A child travels for free when with an adult but the best value can be obtained by using the Freedom or Heritage tickets see: http://www.iombusandrail.info/information.html#railway

There is a great deal to see and do in Laxey, including the world famous wheel, the recently restored Lady Evelyn, the Salmon Trails around the village (The name Laxey is derived from the Norse word for salmon) and there is more information on : www.laxey.org.

On this particular occasion, being a little short of time, we walked past Dumbell Terrace (aka Ham & Egg Terrace) to the recently opened 'Old Corn Mill' cafe and restaurant.
As always in life every cloud has a silver lining and the shocking weather at least offers the compensation of some spectacular river and waterfall views.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Teenage Cancer Trust Concert at St Ninians High School

Today's post doesn't really have much to do with the Hotel or things that you'd do on the Island generally, though some of the young talent that Irene & I saw last night might just be worth following up if you're over here and have the chance.

Our son, Terence and his chum Tom Martin kicked off the proceedings with Marc McCabe, a young Lady called Laura, then our lad himself joining in with the vocals for the last of their three songs.


Every act was preceded by bitter sweet films from the 'Teenage Cancer Trust' I had never heard of before but which strives to give the youngsters as much teenage normality as possible amongst their peers while they are treated for their disease.

Next on stage was a shy young lady, Azariah, with a weak speaking voice which as soon she began to sing, became almost comparable to Adele.


Although mostly performed by scholars from St. Ninians High School Year 10, they also drafted in some other artists, Peter Bridge, a young dance troupe called Represent with guest appearances from Tom Callow and Charlie Yau.

Marc McCabe with backing from Henry Sayle did covers of Ed Sherran, David Gray & Tracy Chapman.

There was a dance band, Full Moon Fallout, who did their own compositions and really had the crowd bouncing, then Chileas Redwood-Sawyer doing his 'Black Eyed Peas bit, followed by Yesterday who managed to silence the boos when they announced they were a 'One Direction' number by transforming it into a rock song as part of their really tight set.


Panic Land brought the evening to a close, nearly an hour over schedule but I certainly didn't notice the time flying past.

On the whole it was a great evening and it counteracted my earlier gloomy countenance when I realised looking around that in the 15 years or so since we first sent a child to that school we'd grown from being young parents to old ones.

For more information on the charity, see:

www.teenagecancertrust.org/

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Welbeck League of Nations Assault The Parish Walk

Somehow, having lived on this Island since 1978, the existence of the Parish Walk totally passed me by until Sara Denver the stalwart of the Welbeck Bar on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday since 1993 (as well as a stint in the late 70s as a housekeeper) collared me to sponsor her to walk to Peel in 2002.


(Photo Mike Lambden) For the uninitiated, although the very first race was in 1852 with revivals in 1913 and 1923, the event as we know it today was resurrected in 1960 and has metamorphosised from 96 starters in 1961 with 4 finishers to the modern monster where this year there was a mammoth 1800+ entries of which a record 203 managed to stagger to the finishing line, having visited all 17 of the Island parish churches over 85 miles of road walking.

These days there's no way that you could live here and not know about it as there are day-glo clad people clutching bottles of water in training 12 months of the year and with at least as many others involved in the marshalling, officiating, timekeeping, feeding and watering the participants both from stations and cars, it is the Island's biggest sporting occasion besides the TT.

Despite this year's atrocious (though nothing like as bad as 2008) weather the support from the entire Isle of Man community was immense.

The Manx Telecom Parish Walk to give it it's full title is also at the forefront of technology with state of the art timing and tracking systems enabling people to follow progress over the internet and through text messaging from Port Soderick to Sydney. In fact demand was so huge for information that 36,000 hits were made on the website, about 3 times as many as the previous year, unfortunately causing it to crash.

Although primarily still a Manx dominated event due to the necessity of having a support car for the last 43 miles or so, this year at the Welbeck, we had visiting athletes from Belgium, U.K. and our old chums Martijn Biesmans, Alex Wijsman and their friend Antoine Huntings all from Holland.


(photo: Karen Kneale) Add into the equation our German coach party, staff from Poland, Thailand and Bulgaria, we certainly had a colourful mixture of nations.

There were certainly plenty of other walkers from places as far away as South Africa and the Czech Republic to lend the race an international flavour.


Irene deserves special mention, making the full circuit on her 10th attempt and only one of The Welbeck entrants failed to complete the lap and Iain Thompson's 52.5 miles to Bride was certainly no shame.


(Photo: Karen Kneale) Personally, I yet again failed to win, though I had the satisfaction of coming home inside the previous course record, making me the 3rd fastest ever. However, having led for 50 miles or so and suffering repeated sickness it felt like scant consolation to have been pipped by the deserved joint winners, Vinny Lynch and Richard Gerrard who beat me by about 4.5 minutes to post a brilliant 14:42:32.
(Photo: Murray Lambden)

Sue Biggart won the ladies' race for an incredible 7th time.
(Photo: Murray Lambden)

For more information about the race or any other athletic events on the Isle of Man, see: www.parishwalk.com or www.manxathletics.com