..and no doubt some tracks won't be running during the 'high' season as has apparently happened in the recent past judging by comments made on the forum when one would hope/expect that the weather is more settled (!!) due to other factors.
...Colin Ackroyd! Now there's a blast from the past!
Have spoken to Ian Cartwright a number of times when visiting 'The Mouseman' works in Kilburn and he mentioned how he felt confident beating most visiting riders at The Shay as he knew every inch of the track and its various lines and where best to attempt a pass.
...visited Crayford on the one occasion but was difficult to make an accurate assessment of the racing because it was a very wet meeting (I went especially to see one of my heros Hasse Holmqvist) and really should have been cancelled although I'm glad it wasn't at it had required a huge effort to get there from Oxford (pre M25 days).
Never got to The Shay unfortunately but visited a few years back after the track was removed and no evidence that it ever existed.
Having visited Exeter I understand that they rode very similar although I have videos taken from The Shay and it's one track that I wished that I had visited.
Ah! days gone by...the Easter 3TT involving Oxford, Swindon and Reading. Oxford on Good Friday, Swindon on the Saturday and Reading Easter Monday. Those were the days!
...I remember when the tape touching rule was introduced there were those who complained about slipping clutches drawing riders into the tapes until Pete Adams commented (tongue in cheek) that by replacing the tapes with barbed wire one would soon see how often riders would suffer with that particular problem!