Ryan Cringle got off to the best possible start in the defence of his fifth Isle of Man Centre ACU Road Race crown.

He had originally feared that he would not be able to contest day one of the back-to-back Andreas Racing Association meeting at Jurby because of TT launch commitments, but he managed to conclude that business earlier than anticipated.

So he managed to grab a full-set of four wins on his 1,000cc Honda Fireblade in the open capacity class.

The opening Centre race on Saturday was the closest of the four with Cringle under pressure from close friend Mikey Evans and the returning Rory Parker - both Suzuki mounted.

It ended with only seven tenths of a second separating Cringle and Evans, with Parker at another 1.4s and Tomo Burnett the first of the 600s in fourth.

Cringle averaged 90mph for the six laps, with a best speed of 92.546mph.

Later in the day Cringle won the second race by 1.626s from Parker, but Evans backed off after making a wrong tyre choice and settled for a safe third.

Burnett was again the best of the 600s, this time 10s ahead of Kyle Casement.

Starting from pole, Burnett led both of the dedicated 600cc races almost from start to finish, winning the first from Cameron Brown and Paul Cassidy by more than 18s and the other by a slimmer margin of 10s from Casement and Paul Cassidy – but still very comfortable.

Sidecar champions Craig Melvin and Stuart Christian won the first race by a clear margin from Dave Quirk and Karl Schofield, but then sportingly loaned their LCR Suzuki to Darren Hope and Paul Bumfrey in the other so that the latter crew (who had problems with their own similar outfit, could get the signatures they required for the TT.

Hope and Bumfrey won that race from Quirk/Schofield at a near-identical time to Melvin/Christian earlier.

The latter crew repeated the kind gesture on Sunday, so it was no surprise that they received the Gary Carswell Award. This meeting was the annual one in Gary’s memory.

Paul Cassidy, who is set to make his TT debut in a month’s time, won both of the Singles, Twins, Triples race, the first from the 400 Kawasaki of Brian Moffitt and the second from Jason Corcoran on a similar ER650 to Cassidy.

The Post-Classic honours went to Peter Creer in each instance.

Cassidy also won both 700cc twin events on the same 650 Kawasaki, the first by a narrow margin from Marc Colvin and the second from Darran Creer.

Matthew Corkill took the Pre-Injection 600s in both.

Stefano Bonetti made the long trip from Italy worthwhile with a double success in the Singles race from fellow Italian and bike sponsor Francesco Faraldo, with the CB500 race wins going to Cameron Brown and the Lightweight spoils shared between Brian Moffitt and teenager Aron Redmond.

The novice/clubman class went to Taylor Shipton of Onchan in both races from Mark Raine.

Saturday’s racing took place on the anti-clockwise circuit in perfectly dry weather, while Sunday was on the clockwise version initially in damp and somewhat greasy conditions.

Cassidy took up where he left off the previous afternoon with success in the Singles, Twins, Triples over Cobburn. Some indication how tricky the conditions were can be gleaned from the fact that his fastest time was in the 1m 17s, whereas it was in the 1.11s on Saturday.

Later, in improved conditions, Colvin won (with laps in the 1.13s) again from Cobburn, with Peter Creer again mopping up the Post-Classics.

Ryan Cringle edged home 2.4s clear of his younger brother Jamie in the first Centre championship race, with Parker chalking up more solid points in third.

Casement was the first of the 600s in fourth.

Jamie Cringle, already suffering from a back injury from a motocross incident in the UK the previous weekend, took a tumble in the 600cc race when he then took out Cassidy. Luckily neither rider was seriously injured.

The race was won by the Cringle brothers’ first cousin Casement from Cameron Brown and Shipton.

The sidecar championship race proved a walk in the park for the Crowe brothers in their only ride of the weekend as they, like Ryan Cringle, had been tied up with TT launch work.

They finished 28s ahead of Mike Jackson and Jake Roberts, who then promptly won the last three-wheel race of the meeting in runaway style from Quirk/Schofield, who had a race-long duel with brothers Jim and Ben Gale on the 890 KTM.

The final solo Centre championship race completed Ryan Cringle’s full-house of four wins for the two days, crossing the finish line a shade under seven seconds clear of Parker with a battered and bruised Jamie Cringle third.

There was a great contest for fourth between Casement and course newcomer Grant Thomson that went all the way to the final corner when the latter edged it.

Thomson, better known as an off-roader and also skilled at Supermoto, really shone in the two novice races.

Having narrowly missed out on a Pre-National race win at Oulton Park the previous day, won both of the clubbie events at Jurby in his maiden race meeting on the 1.7-mile track.

His pace was impressive to say the very least, in fact it is unlikely that any red-jacketed rider has ever lapped in the 1.09s (as he did in the second Centre race) on their debut appearance.

He also shone in the remaining 600cc race won by Jamie Cringle, once the latter had seen off his cousin Casement on the final lap of a trilling race.

Elsewhere, Bonetti won the first of the combined Singles races, but he was denied a double by a broken drive chain; that victory going to Moffitt (Lightweight) in a very tight contest with Faraldo (Singles) and Brown (CB500).

The 700cc twins saw further victories for Colvin and Cassidy, with Damien Crook grabbing a third and a second. Matthew Corkill scored a brace of wins in the Pre-injection class.

l John Brew of Douglas re-broke the leg he fractured two years ago in the endurance race when he came off his CB500 at the left-hander midway down the main runway. Best wishes go to him.