topsoil

This certainly doesn't apply to Berwick where all the home riders go into the crowd after a meeting and have photos taken with and speak to the fans, the kids love it.

Even cricket authorities are looking at shortening Twenty20 matches now to 100 ball innings.

Excellent win against an albeit depleted Ipswich team. Would the score have been different had King and Covatti been here? Who knows, but a win is a win. Probably just echoing the thoughts of everybody above, Schlein was in a class of his own. Outgated once, by Summers, all night, but easily found a way past. Ben Barker is brilliant to watch at Berwick, much the same as Bomber, never gives up. I was impressed with Hartel, he got better as the meeting went on and picked up a heat win. Berwick were strength in depth personified with the two reserves almost top scoring. Good nights for Summers and Doolan. Glad to see Paul Starke getting up from the tangle which shot him into the fence at a funny rate, although his bike looked worse for wear, that would be an expensive crash. Would like to see David Howe getting into the points. Not had the best of starts after a brilliant comeback last season. Maybe he will be the next one to spend a bit of time in the reserves. It seemed to work for John Lindman last night. Good to see him with a good score last night and get his confidence up.

Think it has more to do with Berwick being consistently inconsistent. Berwick are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.

He's got something anyway

Isn't this the first sign of madness, when you argue with yourself?

Two teams, two nights, two draws. Ebbed and flowed this one. Workington ahead early, until two 5-1's and a 4-2 in heats 8 to 10 saw Berwick in the driving seat. Then a questionable decision (to exclude Jakobsen) and a shocking decision (to exclude Etheridge) brought Workington back into it. Not a great night for racing, which on the whole was a bit strung out. Not sure if you could blame the track for this one. Last week you could see riders trying to pass, but there was little drive to help them. Tonight it wasn't as if riders were in a position to try to pass. I'm all for giving somebody time, but unless there is an improvement, John Lindman must be on thin ice. Berwick can't afford any passengers. Ty Proctor probably the best rider on show tonight. Dany Gappmaier made a few great starts. Just need a bit more consistency from Berwick riders.

We've gone from teletubbies to chuckle brothers. I'm honoured.

Decent meeting on a slick track, probably so because of the grey skies overhead. Robert Lambert head and shoulders above everybody else and fantastic to see him going round the boards at Shielfield. Some of the racing a bit strung out, but you will get that with differing standards of riders involved. Could have been a couple of nasty accidents, Wajtknecht tangling with Jack Thomas, then Alfie Bowtell in the semi, thankfully neither was as serious as could have been. As was pointed out in the programme, the fact that there were semi-finals this year for the first time for a while shows that there are a good few riders coming through at this age level. Always a bit of a buzz when your home track gets to host a shared event. Decent crowd there as well, given it was a midweek meeting. On a par with most meetings.

Cracking racing last night.

Predicted 41-49 and happy to be proved wrong. How different it would have been with Ostergaard fit who knows. Great boost for Berwick though. Doolan was superb, looked very fast all night. Really need to do something about the 3-4 pairing, which looks vulnerable. Impressed with Ben Morley for Lakeside, better than I remembered at Shielfield. Always good to see Bomber riding round here, non-stop racer. And good to see Nick Morris back as well. On a totally separate note, there was some absolutely cracking races in the NJL match, a couple of good battles between Keiron Douglas and Josh Embleton, then Sam McGurk, Luke Harrison and Archie Freeman had three really great struggles, riding way beyond their years.

I'll put my head above the parapet and say 41-49 with Ostergaard riding now. Lakeside top end will prove the difference.

Morris, Lawson, Ostergaard and Newman, Berwick up against it tomorrow night. Need everybody to step their game up to get anything from this.

Summed it up in one word there, gating. When the track is as slick as last night, gating is paramount. You could see Summers, NBJ, Howe all searching for drive round the banking, but nothing there. Hopefully next week the track will have a bit more grip on it, like the Glasgow meeting, because, if not, I fear for another defeat with Lakeside here.

What a difference a week makes. Staggered at how we can beat Glasgow one week and get thoroughly beaten by Newcastle the next. Track was ultra slick tonight and when you add getting regularly outgated it spells trouble. Couple of really good races tonight, Doolan and Wilkinson, NBJ and Wethers, passing and re-passing, Summers with a couple of nice passes, other than that it was from the gate. As brilliant as Captain Kev was last week, he was poor tonight. Very impressive comeback from Matty Wethers, given that he didn't get a team place last season. Hope there is more grip next week or they really need to sort the gating out. On the plus side, another big crowd tonight, plenty of visitors, nice weather and meeting run at a decent pace, given a rider replacement.

May still get a wild card, you never know

Nice little touch as well, to introduce the juniors to the crowd during the interval. It gives them exposure to the crowd, a little boost for them and fills the time in as well. Good to see Leon riding last night. There were a few youngsters round where I was going daft because he was racing. It just shows you the potential pulling power of having local riders in the team, who are identifiable and and who the fans can relate to and how important the training track is to all this.

21 if you stayed to watch the juniors

You've basically said everything I was going to say. Great meeting, some superb racing, Harris amazing moves, big travelling support, close meeting, juniors racing afterwards, in other words a great advert for the sport. What I would give to see Chris Harris racing here every week. A pure racer.

Good news and another feather in the cap for the promotion. It was great when the club hosted FIM and Ben Fund meetings. This might not be on the same scale but still a meeting to look forward to.

Fair play, they did everything in their powers to get the meeting on, but the weather beat everybody. It'll be an expensive call off for the promotion.

Covers are down on the bends but it is chucking it down

Only going to be one winner today, which is a shame because this meeting was throwing up some intriguing matchups like Lindman v Andersson, Etheridge v Pickering, how would Ruml take to longtrack?, second home debut for NBJ.

It rained all day at the opening meeting last year, only stopping at tea time. I remember getting soaked watching the football in the afternoon. Covers saved the day last year.

Been waiting for the first time covers fail to save a meeting, because I knew there would be people out there waiting to gloat. Speaks volumes about the mentality of some people.