topsoil

I would like to see every team run a junior team and have fixtures every week. Every team should enter into the NJL, MDL or SJL, even if it means adopting teams like Reading, Weymouth etc. This gives younger riders much more track time and lets them develop quicker. Would probably encourage more youngsters into the sport if they knew they were guaranteed more track time as well and would be a natural stepping stone into the National League.

They may well end up chasing the big money, if they attract the interest from Poland. Good on them if they do, they should come back better riders, with more experience of continental tracks and big match pressures if that is the case.

A Bordernapolis meeting was announced last night

Mel Gibson must have snuck in when nobody was looking. FREEDOM!

Not a bad performance. Add in Robert Lambert and we would have been a lot closer to second. Considering "the sport is dying" and the number of nails in the coffin, there is actually a decent future for the country at national level, if we can continue to give them support, guidance and leadership. Runners-up at senior level, third at U21 level and a possible world individual champion. We've had worse seasons!

Great to see tonight the Supporters Club make a donation to the club. Makes total sense that the two parties pull together. The Supporters Club have a lot of members who are daft for the club. Can only be good for the future.

A great way to finish the season, with big wins over Glasgow, Edinburgh and Peterborough. By the time everybody else catches up, I can't see it being enough to qualify for the playoffs, but even if it isn't, this team has over-achieved this season. No big names, no egos, just a good team ethic. Strength in depth has been the watchword all season and tonight again it was reserves that made the difference. The racing was better tonight than of late. Coincidence that there has been a bit of rain this week? Scott Nicholls was a class above. Outgated a few times, but a nice cutback on NBJ in heat 15, a swoop round Theo in heat 11 and a hard move inside Jye in heat 5. But for me the move of the night was David Howe and his cutback up the inside of Simon Lambert in heat 11. Pure class.

Peterborough will miss Ostergaard, but they are still full of Berwick specialists. Be great to finish the season with a win, but will be a tough one.

Has there ever been any news on the training track that Glasgow were looking to start, on the land next to Ashfield? That would be an ideal start in the search for local riders. I like the fact that both Edinburgh and Glasgow have teams in the NJL this season. Small steps I suppose. Both these teams (along with my own, Berwick) really need to concentrate on producing young, local riders, to engage fans. Regular second half racing, NJL matches and training days will all help.

Tell them to embrace the unpredictability of it all

You're right that the track is a hell of a lot smoother and easier to ride than in days gone by. The sight of opposition riders failing to turn the bikes going into the bends no doubt provided a huge home advantage, but provided little in the way of a spectacle.

Two theories? Maybe you only remember the good parts of the meetings, the rest is forgotten? Or perhaps as bikes develop and get faster, the quality of racing deteriorates, especially around fast, narrow tracks like Berwick? Maybe when the bikes were a bit slower, the racing was better?

Nothing will ever change regarding the racing at Berwick as long as there is a football pitch inside the track. Just something you have to live with.

Look what you could've won

Cracking win against a team who I still think won't be far away at the end of the season. Reserves definitely the difference tonight. I suppose that's the upside of not having a couple of big scoring heat leaders. Decent crowd as well including good travelling numbers.

Must admit this Edinburgh side looks strong. Berwick will have to repeat their Glasgow performance to take anything from the match.

Read his posts on any Berwick thread, a Berwick "fan" who hates Berwick

Surely the result must stand? It's not like Edinburgh were going to pull that deficit back :-)

An attempt a humour, or a Freudian slip?

Never understood why somebody would disregard live action, fresh air, watching a team you support and a night amongst friends for TV, indoors and sitting usually on your own, watching teams you have no feelings for.

You make this Chuckle Brother chuckle

And the money went straight to GP riders, who aren't here any more. So do these cancel each other out?

That's what I mean by every team having junior racing after the main events. You see how popular it is at Berwick, a lot of fans stay behind. Every team should strive to have a team in a Junior League. Regionalise it to save travelling. Even get teams like Reading, Weymouth involved to keep team names alive. Give teams a year or so notice to get things in place. Even let riders mix and match teams if needs be, as sometimes happens in the NJL at the moment, just give young riders as much track time as possible.

I suppose the more you read and hear about continual decline, death knells and final nails in coffins, the more you will believe it. I don't know if it is a social media concept or the way society seems to be going in general, but everything is exaggerated. A genuine question to those who really know the correct position, i.e. promoters and people running clubs. Is the financial situation any worse now than it was, say, ten, twenty or thirty years ago?

The kind of belief I've had for years. There is no way Britain can compete with Poland right now financially and if it did try to, if would be suicide. So start your own production line and get younger, cheaper, local riders, who young fans can relate to. Then if they go off and seek their fortune, you just get the next one off the line. Rugby league has done it for years. Losing their star players to the NRL of rugby union. Does it worry them? Never. They just replace them with the next youngster coming through. Every club should have a youth system after meetings. Give them as much track time as possible. Become self-sufficient and keep costs down that way.