Well, I’m back. The TT week was mixed with Saturday’s racing delayed by several hours and Wednesday’s put off until the Thursday. We watched on the Friday from Creg ny Baa. I will never repeat that mistake. You cannot get anywhere near a suitable position for the classic shot of bikes coming into the bend with the long sweep of the road from the mountain in the background – elf’n’safety prevails…
The Creg is a typical example in miniature of what happens when folk have a monopoly. The pub owns the immediate viewing area and has a couple of mini grandstands set up. They were charging £15 per head. This, frankly, was outrageous. £5 would have turned a reasonable profit. We paid, because, having already parted with a couple of quid each to park the bikes and trying to get to another vantage point at that stage would have meant chasing about trying to get somewhere suitable – you have to get where you want to watch early if you want a decent vantage point.
I noticed that the prices being charged for food was higher than I would expect for pub grub. For the price, I would expect a sit down waiter service. When the chap next to us told us that he had paid £10 for a pie and chips, I nearly fell off the seat.
What really pigged me off was the toilet facilities. We were not allowed in the pub itself, but had to make use of portable facilities in the car park. Okay, fair enough, you might think, they need to expand on their usual facilities. However, given the horrendous queues, this was clearly not the case. And, should anyone venture towards the pub and its rather more amenable facilities, there was always someone in a HiVi just waiting to boss you away.
I have no problem with people making a decent profit – I do have a problem with blatant profiteering (and I detest bossy people in HiVi vests). What the Creg needs is some decent competition selling grandstand seats for a fiver and fairly priced grub. As it is, I’ll vote with my feet. I can watch at Union Mills and pay the Methodist church a damn sight less for better facilities all round.
Anyway, apart from that little moan, we had a good week and Ian Hutchinson’s record five wins was well worth the watch. Here are some of the pictures I took during the week.
We also visited the Curraghs Wildlife Park during one of the non race days. Here are a couple of images.
Fantastic shots!
“When the chap next to us told us that he had paid £10 for a pie and chips, I nearly fell off the seat.”
I’m not surprised!
.-= My last blog ..21st Century Enlightenment – I Don’t Think We Can Afford It… =-.
Excellent photos.
Have you ever thought about attending the four-wheeled equivalent- the Nurburgring 24 Hours? It’s a superb event, with week-long madness from the fans who build stupendously unsafe temporary grandstands around the circuit then get as drunk as possible for as long as possible. Most of the Brits congregate on the inside of the Karussell. Recommended.
I can’t say I’d thought about going to the Nurburgring. My next trip is to Azincourt for the re-enactments in July – even though the battle took place in October. I’ll be posting pictures of that, too.
I have to agree with you re. The Creg profiteering. We paid £2 to park in their rough bottom car park on the Wednesday and as it rained, there was no racing. ( In their beer tent/food bar, they were charging £7 for a plastic rain mac!) Went back there on the Thursday and had to pay another £2 to park. When I said to the “Bossy hi-viz wearing attendant” that we had paid the day before and saw no racuing, all I got back was, “someone has to pay the wages” . At least in the grandstand they gave you a ticket to return if there was no racing. As you say, vote with your feet, dont go there again. We went to the little church between Glen Vine and Crosby on Friday and were looked after admirably
Great photos!
I’m with you on the profiteering… I went to a friend’s wedding at the weekend and despite the fact that the venue were charging many multiple thousands for use of their facilities the bar prices were a piss-take. Just under £4.00 for a pint and £2.00 for a fruit shoot for my little girl. Being a Northern Monkey that’s a lot of money anyway, but my piss soon reached boiling point when I spotted a bar price list which had not been hidden away sufficiently well – they had basically added a quid onto everything on the list…
A piss-poor excuse, frankly. The wages are paid from the pub’s profits and given the prices being charged, they were more than making up for not opening the pub proper during the races.
As well as voting with my feet, complaining loud and clear might make future visitors think twice about funding the Creg’s greed.
Union Mills is always a good spot and they charge £2 for a seat and provide reasonably priced food.