Ryan Cringle’s incredible pace in last week’s TT made him the fifth quickest newcomer in the event’s long history.

Considering that BSB star Glenn Irwin tops the chart with 129.849mph from last year, followed by Peter Hickman 129.104 in 2014, Davey Todd’s 128.379 in 2018 and Josh Brookes’s 127.762 from 2013, Cringle’s average speed of 126.096mph from the final lap of Friday’s Superstock race is phenomenal to say the least.

He slots in ahead of Steve Plater’s 125.808 in 2007 and Simon Andrews’s 125.174 from 2011.

Guy Martin was the first newcomer to crack 120mph in 2004 at 122.10mph.

What makes the 29-year-old Manxman’s inclusion in such exalted company all the more impressive is the fact that, up until the speed controlled lap on the opening morning of the meeting, he had never ridden on a closed public roads course before.

Irwin, Hickman and Brookes were all top-notch BSB riders who had each ridden the North West 200, while Todd had contested a full season on the Irish roads. He, Plater, Andrews, Irwin and Hickman had all competed at Macau before they came to the TT.

On a local level, he jumps straight into sixth quickest overall behind Conor Cummins 133.116, Dan Kneen 130.347, Nathan Harrison 128.087, Mikey Evans 126.595 and Ryan Kneen 126.332.

As for local newcomers, it looks as though Cringle is way clear of the 121.8mph Gav Hunt managed in his one and only year, 2013, when finishing 25th in the Senior. He had not come via the Manx Grand Prix route either, but had ridden in the North West 200 and Macau before making his Mountain Course debut.

Cummins cracked 120mph in his first year, 2006, having come from a short circuit background (R6 Cup and suchlike), but he did ride the NW200 immediately before his maiden TT.

He finished 17th in his Senior TT debut at an average speed of 118.126mph.

Cringle’s first TT got off to a mixed start three weeks ago this Monday. After the speed controlled lap and a second untimed lap, he said: ‘Everything came to me quite comfortably really. Other than a problem with the bike’s quick-shifter [meaning he had to revert to manual gear changes] I had no issues.

‘The biggest shock to the system is going down Bray Hill. You go from nothing to flat out in a matter of seconds, it’s crackers.

‘After that you settle down and get into a rhythm.’

His first two timed laps were on his 675 Triumph after gaining a late entry (following injuries to Lee Johnston and Gary Johnson), the best of which was 114.568mph.

He then went out on his Honda Fireblade and experienced an issue with the gearbox: ‘It jumped out of gear at Quarter Bridge. I initially thought it was my own fault, but when it jumped out of third gear on Ballahutchin I decided to pull in at Ballagarey.’

When the motor and gearbox were later stripped further issues with the engine shells were discovered. New parts were ordered from Holland, but by the time they would have arrived and the motor was rebuilt it would have been the last day of qualifying.

So they agreed to buy the similar Fireblade that Nathan Harrison had ridden last year in his TT bow.

They simply swapped motors over and ran that from the Wednesday evening onwards. But bad luck struck when a jubilee clip snapped on the first lap of the Superbike race and he wisely stopped at Kirk Michael as water was being pushed out of the engine.

Unfortunately, further damage had been caused to that motor, so tuner Andy Grimshaw managed to put one good engine together from the two 1,000cc Hondas for the first Superstock race on Tuesday when he averaged more than 121mph, with a best of 123.898 on the final lap, to finish 26th and best newcomer.

He had already finished 22nd in the opening Supersport race on the Triumph. Later in the week on Wednesday he was mid-pack again when finishing 18th in the second Supersport race with a best lap of 120.271mph, which is thought to be the second quickest in the class by a newbie to Scotland’s Adam Lyon in 2018

Cringle remained with the mix of engine that was partly from Harrison’s former bike and partly from his own original, in Nathan’s chassis with Ryan’s own suspension.

He finished 19th in the Superstock last Friday, culminating with his quickest lap of the week at 126.096 (17min 57.181s), then rounded off his debut year with a solid 20th in the Senior at an average of 122.794mph.

He was best newcomer in all of the five races he finished, all in bronze replica winning times.

It was no surprise that he also picked up the Star of Tomorrow award sponsored by RST which will provide riding gear for him next year.

He will contest the remaining Andreas Racing Association meetings this year in the hope of retaining his Isle of Man No.1 plate and is hoping to ride in the Superstock class of the BSB meeting at Thruxton in August.

He says that he would prefer to remain with his own team going forward, hopefully with a little more backing to fund it.

‘My brother Jamie will probably jump on the spare Fireblade. He didn’t have a big bike and had hard luck on the Supersport, so we are likely to get new bikes for that class.

‘We will probably get 765 Triumphs for the Supersport class. Peter Hickman’s was kicking out 148bhp from his 765 as opposed to 131bhp from my smaller 675, so its a no-brainer really.’

As to whether he enjoyed his first experience of true road racing on the Mountain Course, he answered: ‘I was so busy last week that I never had chance to think about it.

‘But going back to work and normality on Monday I realised how good it had been.’