topsoil

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?

"Proper speedway Nigel" followed by a large dollop of "whooooaaaaa"

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.

Stumbling home from a day at Newcastle races, a little bit worse for wear, check the updates and I see the Bandits, against the odds and everybody's expectation, make the final. Life's all about these little victories :-)

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.

Great turn of phrase, real class

Think you've answered your own question as far as Newcastle are concerned, as this was pointed out by a lot of posters at the start of the season, but I agree that there is a major problem (i.e. lack of available riders) which is causing a problem in this country. To be honest I had the same reaction to Steve Worrall and Robert Lambert choosing to be meeting reserves for the Grand Prix over riding in the Pairs. I would have thought they would gain far more riding at the Pairs than hanging about, with the chance of an odd ride at Cardiff. Unless they had no choice and were forced by rules to take the reserve berths I'm not sure of the exact rules.

I bet you could look at almost every week of the season and there will be alternative fixtures in, be it Elite League fixtures, Poland league fixtures, various National Championships, Longtrack, SEC meetings, Grand Prix, World Cup, you name it, there will always be somebody missing. That's before you take into consideration the availability of the venue. Riders doubling up and competing in more than one country.

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.

And Mitchell Davey. Although I can see your point, in an ideal world these kind of meetings would be filled with local youngsters. Hopefully in years to come, with the new training track coming into use, one day the entire line up will be young local riders. But I did feel that the introduction of the likes of Etheridge, Davey and Thomsen added to the quality of the meeting.

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.

Well entertained

Really enjoyed the meeting, the standard of racing tonight is streets ahead of these type of meetings in previous years. The semi and final Tight racing between the likes of Liam Carr, Danny Ayres, Dan Bewley, Jy Etheridge and Tobias Thomsen, who doesn't half attack the first bend with his style of riding. Also impressed with Connor Coles and Rob Shuttleworth. The latter's third to first ride in his last race was fantastic. Hopefully this will become an annual event now.

Chuffed to see this meeting back in the calendar, the more track time given to the young riders, the better they will become. Hopefully this will be well supported to back the decision to run the meeting. Quite important as well to keep the regular Saturday night meetings, with breaks for the GP, Fours and World Cup this month. I really enjoyed the Under 19 Championship last season, the standard of riders was higher than I thought. Hopefully this will match it. Once again the promotion trying to be proactive, which can only be a good thing.