Gillian, here is a bit more on Tom Sheard, which may be interesting.
His 1922 win in the Junior on an AJS was memorable not only because he was the first Manxman
to win a TT but it was to the first win on the new Mountain Course as we know it today.
It was also in the same year that the famous Stanley Wood rode his first TT at the age of 18.
Tom Sheard rode his first TT in 1913 on a Rudge and came 6th.
The 1923 Senior victory on the Douglas was the first for a Manxman and it was to be an 80 year
wait for the next Manxman, Gary Carswell to win the next one.
The Douglas he rode was fitted with disc brakes, which had v, shaped shoes that pressed onto the discs.
I think this was the first time discs were used in racing but I will not stick my neck out.
1923 was a special year also because it was the first time that sidecars raced at the TT. Freddy Dixon won on
another Douglas. Another name to have his first ride in 1923 was Jimmy Guthrie.
There is a video of Tom winning the race, which I have never seen, see the website below:
<A HREF="http://www.spectel.demon.co.uk/titles.htm">http://www.spectel.demon.co.uk/titles.htm</A>
Six years after his Senior win Tom was one of two Manxmen to be first to fly across the Irish Sea in a
DH61 Giant Moth flown by Sir Alan Cobham. They left from Maughold.
What wonderful days they must have been.
