topsoil

An awful lot of ifs, ands and maybes to this one. Which Bandits will show up? The ones who hammered Ipswich and Workington, or the ones well beaten by Glasgow. Can Kennett and Robson be beaten? Kennett is a fast gater, always handy round here and Robson always goes well at Berwick. Berwick may have the upper hand at second string and reserve, although Leigh Lanham is usually good for 8 or 9 at Berwick and who knows about Stachyra. Berwick by 6 or 8 at Shielfield for me, whether or not that will be enough to take the tie overall is another matter, as Berwick had two good guests when they got a draw earlier.

Has the venue(s) for next year been confirmed? Any ideas where it could be?

Speaking as a neutral, there is no way in the world Wolverhampton is a better track than the NSS, numerous British Finals before this year have shown that. I just wonder how many re-runs for first bend incidents we would have had if the World Cup had been held at Wolverhampton. I'm not ignoring him / her because I want to see what he / she is writing, just don't rise to it, that's what he / she feeds off.

The speedway world cup, and finals in particular, rarely disappoint. Look back over the history of the finals and you will see so much drama, riders pulling off amazing moves, riding above the level seen every week in league racing. Probably my favourite is still the NKI win in the final heat a couple of years ago. Round about heats 13/14 tonight I honestly thought GB were a Tai Woffinden away from repeating the performance of the Czech Republic three years ago. Then Danny King replicated his Grand Prix performance and Craig Cook joined in. To finish second was probably punching above their weight, even given home advantage. Then came the part which made my heart sink, when Tai was interviewed and said that no progress has been made, none of the plans he wanted put in place three years ago have been implemented. Suddenly the five year plan has become a two year plan. What makes it all the more galling is that there is a British promoter who has found the money to back the Australian team. But there you go, progress of sorts I suppose. As long as we have Tai, we have hope.

For the last two seasons Doolan and Jorgensen have been acting as out and out heat leaders when they would actually be support heat leaders or top second strings in teams like Edinburgh, Somerset or Glasgow. Berwick find it hard to attract the top riders in the league, maybe it is a money thing, maybe it's the track, the geography, i don't know. Even when they signed a marquee name last season (Ben Barker) he went through a heap of injury / bike / personal problems. What makes it all the more frustrating is when you see a Berwick asset David Bellego performing at a high level for Redcar. What we would give for him to be back in the team. A lot rests on the cup tie against Rye House next week. A win keeps the season alive, sadly a defeat means the season will peter out in only the first week in August.

Matty Weathers clearing the fence in the Sky TV meeting Berwick v Edinburgh a couple of seasons ago

Have to agree with a couple of points above. Firstly, the club is on the up this season, especially when you compare it to this time last year. Most of the developments have taken place off the track. Secondly the updates, there are a few meetings I've gone home from this year and seen nothing but "from the gate" and wondered if I've been to the same meeting.

Big crowd there last night, but how many of them were Glasgow fans? Certainly a lot of them around me on the back straight were. Really need to the up the game for Friday, or else it could be very embarrassing down at a strong Somerset team. No point crying about the past now though, look to the future now, turn things around.

Well that was a bit of a hammering. Bad night at the office, two heat winners out of 15 tells you everything. Glasgow far superior in every department. Only Thomas Jorgensen and Liam Carr riding to potential tonight. Far too many Bandits well off the pace. Time and time again you would see Glasgow riders forcing their way underneath home riders on the second bend. The new Pole Stachyra seems miles off the pace. I can only hope he gets better, quickly. Berwick cannot afford to carry any passengers at all. The Glasgow top end looked almost unbeatable tonight. Glad Danny Ayres seems to be okay after his crash. Looked a really bad one and nothing Matty could do about it, tried his best to lay the bike down, but nowhere to go. As D-Ream once said......

Good to see this turning into an Edinburgh v Glasgow thread :-) first time in my life I've heard of an Edinburgh fan supporting Berwick, but the more the merrier. The rain overnight may have done the track a big favour as it settles in today.Looking forward to what could be a cracker tonight. I would have Glasgow slight favourites, based on their top end strength, but plenty of intriguing matchups, how will the newbie Dawid do? How will Coty ride back on his old track (very impressive in the League Cup)? Liam and Danny Ayres had some good tussles in the Stars of Tomorrow, who comes out on top tonight?

Looking forward to this one for a few reasons. I've got a soft spot for Glasgow, especially their fans who still came in numbers a few years ago, when the club was on the brink and looking down and out. Always had a good crack with them in the local pubs beforehand. I'm also impressed what the promotion has done with the stadium and marketing the sport up there. Also looking forward to the new signing to see what he can do. Obviously will take a few races to get used to Shielfield. If this meeting is anything like the League Cup match we are in for a cracker. Pity it's not a Saturday night, because no doubt there would have been a bigger turn out, but that's the way it goes.

Makes me wonder if the season starts too early. A lot of meetings in March and early April are run in cold, damp conditions. And now schools are on holiday, teams have fewer fixtures.

Edinburgh and Sheffield have organised meetings against National league sides this season, where they put out their second strings / reserves and a couple of local youngsters as trialists / guests to even up the standard of the two teams. Would this work? A couple of challenge matches against Somerset or some other Premier League team? Would this attract fans?

Needs the opposition to turn up

Did the Buccaneers ride in the same week as Poole? I can see why fans wouldn't go to watch two meetings in the same week, due to time and money constraints, but a meeting on the weeks where Poole don't have a home meeting? For the fans who want to go to a meeting every week? You mentioned the riders that the Buccaneers produced, I just wonder how many more would have come through given another couple of seasons. I just wish promoters would take a longer term view with these projects. That being said, if you are losing money it must be difficult to keep going. Other alternatives, a K O Cup, a League Cup, Four Team tournaments? The drawback being that you would still be facing the same teams.

A lot of "speedway clothing" is poor anyway. I would far rather wear "neutral clothing". Still make a bit of noise, though. But there's a market there for somebody if you can actually come up with "speedway clothing" which can match that of high street brands for quality.

It would be a great experience for any British riders to enter these competitions, but the BSPA don't see it that way, too much of a disruption to the domestic fixtures.

A couple more points from the Captain would have seen us get a bonus point. Hopefully just a one off, he's been the perfect skipper this season and has led by example.

I would agree with Gresham with a point that was made above. I have been a regular at Berwick for a few years now and similar to his thoughts on the Swindon v Coventry meeting, the Berwick match with Workington was far better live than on TV. It's obvious for all to see that the shape of Berwick's track doesn't lend itself to great racing. The track is too narrow, due to the size of the football pitch. This isn't going to change, so there isn't a lot the club can do about it. The increasing speed of the bikes doesn't help in that regard either. What I have noticed is that this season more than most, the track has been slicker, requested by the riders. This has meant that the track is smoother than in previous seasons and much easier to ride. It reminds me of a lot of the Grand Prix tracks under Ole Olsen. This is providing what looks like a safer surface for the riders. There have been very few mistakes made by riders this season. This perhaps also doesn't lend itself to great racing. How many times do you see on the smaller, more technical tracks, do you passing occur because of riders making mistakes? There is a huge amount that promotions should be doing between races to keep fans involved, informed and entertained, but sadly there is a general lack of this at nearly all clubs. To compete with other forms of entertainment, promotions have to learn that putting on 15 races, with a bit of music (normally out of date and over a poor P A system) doesn't cut the mustard any more. The races should only be part (but still the most important part) of the show, not the be all and end all.

Please share

Tonight was one of those nights. Firstly, brilliant decision to put the covers down and great effort from the volunteers to get it done. The rain that fell between for and six, there was no way the meeting could have gone ahead without them. The accidents tonight had very little to do with the track, which actually rode well. Doolan and Neilsen tangled on the home straight in heat one, Simon Neilsen was injured taking evasive action. Matty Wethers got a bad one in a classic first bend bunching incident and Theo and Sam Simota looked to get tangled at high speed and it was one of those where you thank the invention of the air fence. Some decent racing tonight as well, I was quite impressed with Jack Holder and in parts Stefan Neilsen and Ellis Perks. Ben Barker seemed to be quicker than previously this season and you know Stevie Worrall is fast around Shielfield. But Berwick picked up another three points and down to five men, with Matty and Theo both picking up bad ones and getting up and scoring vital points, it was hard earned.Three points and a vindicated decision.

Just back from playing football on the pitch behind Shielfield and there was a group putting the covers down. Didn't ask their names but it could have been those named above. Anyway, it's currently chucking it down, so the covers were a great and idea and top marks to those volunteers who helped them. Hopefully it will pay dividends later on and the meeting goes ahead.

Ha sounds like TJ the pantomime villain. Nothing wrong with playing to the crowd, it gets the fans involved and it's all good fun. You have people complaining there are no characters in the sport these days, that the riders don't interact with fans. There's good example. Probably got the crowd going and added a bit of humour to proceedings. Just like Danny Ayres on Wednesday night. Nothing wrong with any of that. All good fun.

Round about what I thought Berwick would get from tonight. It was always going to be a tall ask to pull off the victory we had in the League Cup, especially with r/r. Please for TJ and Matty getting in the points after they started the season with injuries.

Expect Plymouth to be far better on Saturday than they were last night. Look back to the fixture last season and they drew the meeting at Shielfield and nearly came away with the win. Steve Worrall is a Berwick specialist, Todd Kurtz, Jack Holder, both go well at Berwick. Pity Kyle Newman is missing, he's also a good rider. Berwick are in great form at the moment, but will be weakened by the fact we cannot get a guest facility any longer for Seb. Hopefully another three points tomorrow night, keep us on the good run of form. Good luck to the newby Danny in the GP qualifier this weekend as well. Been impressed with the way he has fitted in this season.