Cubs and explorers invited for goodbye picture

Scouts are being invited to be photographed one last time in front of the iconic TT scoreboard.

Standing for over 100 years, the board took 70 scouts to operate it, keeping Grandstand fans up to date with the riders progress.

It's being taken down.


When a consultation on its future was held last year ( 2019), Motorsport political member Rob Callister made this promise:



Cubs, scouts and explorers are invited to turn up in full uniform at 10'o clock on Saturday morning (10) at the bottom of pit lane.

Police investigating theft from Glencrutchery Road structure

The TT course map has been stolen from the Island's iconic scoreboard.

The Department for Enterprise has confirmed the part featuring the map of the course has been taken from the structure on Glencrutchery Road.

Police are investigating the matter and say any further thefts from the monument will also be treated as 'criminal activity'.

It follows news last week that parts of the scoreboard are to be preserved by Manx National Heritage as the current structure has been deemed no longer fit for purpose.

Elements of the fixture are to make up part of the new TT Gallery at the Manx Museum earmarked to open in 2022.

The department is looking at new designs for a replacement, working alongside the long-time affiliated Manx Scout Assocation.

Meanwhile, the TT Motorsport team is asking that whoever has taken the course map return it to the team, Manx National Heritage or tell the police where it is.

Sign delivered back to police by 'well-intentioned individual'

The course map, stolen from the TT scoreboard yesterday, has been returned.

Following an appeal, police and the TT Motorsport team said the sign was delivered back to them by a 'well-intentioned individual'.

The man said he believed he was operating with the authority to remove the board before the planned demolition, announced last week.

His explanation was accepted.

Police say, however, the removal of any items from the scoreboard remains a criminal matter and will be treated as such.

It has updated spectators on lap times and leaders for decades but now the TT scoreboard is consigned to history.

No longer fit for purpose, the Department of Enterprise has, after public consultation, decided to replace the historic board with a modern system which its says will be a mix of ’old and new technologies in a permanent fixed solution’.

On Saturday, some of the island’s Scouts, who have helped update the scoreboard during the races, visited it for the last time before it is demolished.

The Scouts are involved in the plans for a replacement scoreboard, with the organisation keen t o rtain its unique place in the home of motorsport.

Not all of the scoreboard will be scrapped, sections of it are to be retained by Manx National Heritage as part of its planned TT exhibition at the Manx Museum.

A MNH spokesman said that ’the sections to be salvaged incorporate some of the earliest parts, possibly from as early as the 1920s’ and that it will join the exhibit which is due to open in 2022.

Matthew Richardson, curator of social history, said:

’We have been aware of plans to refurbish the scoreboard for a number of years, and liaised closely with colleagues at the Department for Enterprise to ensure that when the time eventually came, MNH was on hand to ensure the more historic pieces could be preserved.

’The traditional scoreboard, with its clocks and hand painted numbers has long been an iconic part of the TT, and we are pleased to think that even though the event moves with the times and modernises its presentation, we can ensure that these aspects of its past are not lost or forgotten.’

The proposed replacement for a new board at, present, is a fully integrated design that incorporates the necessary safety features to allow for existing operations to continue without the need for the existing separate safety fence at the front of the structure.

Consideration will be given to all of the existing operations that occur when the structure is in use, the safety of those operating the scoreboards and those persons in the timekeeper’s huts.