topsoil

Fans on this forum do a great job of "promoting" the sport. Don't think I would ever go to a meeting if I was to base my judgement on most of the posts on here.

No fancy offering your services and help right the wrong?

£13 for an adult at Berwick if you bought a season ticket

In an ideal world there would be enough junior riders to go round so that they are exclusive to one club, my reason for saying the above was that I was concerned there would be enough riders to go round and I did not want any bidding wars to take place on young riders.

Anybody used the tram from the city centre out to the stadium before?

The "asset" situation the sport uses is outdated and should be scrapped in my opinion. Once a rider is released he should become a free agent, just like every rider at the end of each season, unless they are signed on longer term contracts.

The difference being football teams tend to have enormous squad sizes to start with and can go out and have the finances to go out and buy replacements at the drop of a hat if they want to.

One point I would agree with wholeheartedly is that every team should have a junior team and every league meeting should be followed by a junior match. I wouldn't insist on a strict make up of teams, as I think the purposes that would be served is that young riders would get extra track time and the crowds get extra races if they want to stay back and see them. You could even name teams after local defunct teams just to keep names alive (e.g. Poole could call their junior team Weymouth, Swindon could call their's Reading) and teams could be made up of 500 / 250 / 125cc riders if needed. Regionalise it to cut down costs if you like, I wouldn't even worry about league tables, just make sure the young riders get as much track time as possible and the fans get more races for their money.

Unbelievable, but given who started the thread, no surprise. There's still half of this season left.

This is pretty much the same over for every sport. I bet if you did the same thing for football especially the comparisons would be frightening. The wages / salaries for professional sports has escalated almost out of control over the past 20 / 30 years, mainly driven I would say by satellite TV contracts for football, rugby and cricket. Speedway has tried to follow suit, but doesn't have the TV contract in place to fund the costs.

Jam?

Not a classic by any means, the heavy rain this afternoon put paid to that. The track actually looked like a throwback to the Peter Waite days for the first few heats. Attitude was the difference between the two teams tonight. The visiting number one obviously didn't fancy it and cost his team the chance of a point IMO. Ben Barker as always was value for money. Nico Covatti unlucky to have a recurrence of an old injury. Cracking win for Berwick though and good to see NBJ, Jye and Dany in the points again. Spud obviously still feeling the effects of last week, but Coty looking more confident. Two good wins in the past two weeks over two much more fancied sides than the Bandits. Just like to say as well how good it is as well to see the riders in the crowd afterwards and the number of kids wanting photos taken, giving riders high fives. Those kids go away with memories, tell their friends, it's all great PR.

must be worth about 84 points in scrabble?

A money saving move. I read in the Speedway Star a couple of weeks ago the Isle of Wight promotion said that the first season they were in charge they had a late call off which cost them over £3,500. They vowed never again to let this happen, so now call meetings off early if there is any doubt.

Always look on the bright side of life 2 programmes included in the £35.

Health and safety would go into meltdown just looking at that photo. What Berwick speedway (and football) would give for a crowd like that these days.

Social media should and can be a useful tool for providing information. Unfortunately it seems to be used mainly as a platform for moaning.

Sadly this is the forum all over Very easy to criticise, but very few actually come up with credible solutions

I would love to follow the team away from home but commitments don't allow at the moment. One day hopefully. You're right, I am positive about Berwick speedway, basically because I enjoy my Saturday nights with friends. I often think that speedway fans must be the most negative people around. The sport is absolutely unique, speed and power up close.

Careful, you're not supposed to say things like that on here, you'll be labelled a sympathiser. If you want to fit in with the locals, stick to phrases like "lack of entertainment", "no value for money" or "rider X must go". At the risk of sounding like Basil Fawlty "don't mention you had a good night, I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it"

The way I saw it, there was at least four bloody good races, all featuring Scott Nicholls, all very close at high speed, it takes a hell of a lot of skill and courage to do that. But that doesn't fit in with your views, so it's not telling it like it is (in my view), it's rose tinted glasses. Opinions, we all have them.

So passes only count if they take place on certain parts of the track now?

Nicholls also passed Garcia in that same race. Then what about Spud passing Ryan Douglas, the Douglas re-passing him in heat 10. Or were these not "decent" passes? I would take five gate and go wins from Dany every week thank you. Not his fault nobody could catch him.

Dany Gappmaier, who would have thunk it? Well that was a bloody good meeting. Never seen anybody work so hard for so little reward as Scott Nicholls did tonight. He had five races, only one of those featuring a pass, but they were five excellent races none the less. Decent atmosphere created by the travelling Leicester fans, always makes for a better meeting when there is a bit of travelling support. Good to see all the riders walk away from that crash in heat 9 it looked a nasty one. All in all a cracking win for Berwick tonight.

Could be, but with the money lost, there was no way they could afford to bring him back again, unless a big sponsor could be found. There again, I would point out again that some of the racing even in the first half of that season with Lewis Bridger coming from the back was good, but fans at that time wren't appeased with good racing, they only wanted a winning team. Sometimes you just can't win.