topsoil

I had similar thoughts about clubs owning all types of equipment, not just bikes, but engines, spares, kevlars, helmets and so on, rather than riders. Riders could then be paid basic salaries, having no costs to cover, other than travelling. Would that be cheaper for clubs? I don't know, I'm not privy to any information like this. But in a business sense, clubs would then have real "assets" i.e equipment. But I think the key to any kind of saving would be standardising engines, whatever form that comes in. Also a saving would come from the number of mechanics needed. I look at the Grand Prix and each riders has a handful of mechanics in with him. How many would it take to look after a team's bikes? Track covers, again whatever form they come in, are an absolute necessity for me, for the sport going forward. They wouldn't save all the meetings, but certainly a few and probably pay for themselves through time. More fans might travel if they are confident more meetings might be saved. And there's advertising space to be taken advantage of there! Ideals probably and it would be good to hear the thoughts of those who have real inside knowledge on costs etc.

Not unexpected to be honest, none of our top riders have big averages. Still looking forward to the meeting though, cracking line up if all the riders are there on the night (could be a couple missing because of GP rules?). Just part of a brilliant weekend. Normally good racing down there

Found it interesting (probably more of a one Monarchs fans, but I think it also says a lot for the sport in general at the moment) that the Edinburgh team picture in 1999 included six Scots and Peter Carr. Imagine a team these days made up of seven relatively local riders?

And it was great to see all the riders going into the grandstand afterwards, where they were all instantly surrounded (even guest Simon Lambert) with fans wanting to meet them, talk and take photos. Good PR work and things like that live long in the memories of young ones.

Given that it rained for a large part of Thursday night into Friday, then Friday night to Saturday lunchtime, then was overcast all Saturday afternoon, it would have taken a brave man to water the track at all. Plus drizzle was forecast for around start time. Given that, the track rode well. Especially when you see TJ's time for heat 13. You don't normally see a time that quick so late in the meeting.

The week just keeps getting better for Berwick. I'll be honest, I was't expecting a win tonight, but either Berwick have sharpened up their gating skills, or Edinburgh have gone a bit backwards since the premier Trophy meeting. Probably a bit of both. Once again it was the Captain and TJ who set the standard with some great second bends, TJ's ride around the boards in heat 13 as good as anything I've seen at Shielfield in a while. Guest Simon Lambert was just as good as he was with Peterborough last season and was the perfect guest. Sam Masters was as good as ever and it took a hell of a ride from TJ to lower his colours. The fact that Fisher was off his game could have been the difference between the teams. Dan Bewley gets better every time you see him and I'd like to see him in a couple of years time and see the progress he's made. On to Glasgow. Dare to dream?

Glasgow are living proof that if you promote and publicise your team and put on a show, people will come. I know people will say Glasgow are fortunate to have financial backing enabling them to have such a publicity drive, but sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate and the alternative is to just wither away.

Yes you're right there are collections at every track and I am always pleased that my team Berwick has set the record for collections for a few years in a row now. Just given the importance of the charity, I would like to see more riders support it, then you could have more than one meeting a year and increase the funds.

Got a feeling you'll get considerably more than that if you ride like you did in the Premier Trophy

I don't blame Tai for a minute. As a professional sportsman you want to compete at the highest level, which is currently the Polish and Swedish leagues. You want to maximise your earnings. I would imagine again the highest paying leagues are the Polish and Swedish leagues. You also want to give yourself the best chance possible to win the biggest competitions, which in the case of speedway is the Grand Prix. You only need to see the documentary about Tai after he won his first world title to see the effect of riding every day of the week had on him, he uner-performed on a number of levels. By reducing his commitments he gets the chance to remain fresh and also do a lot of practising and testing equipment. And you only need to read the comments made by Chris Harris after he competed in the British semi-final on the Friday night then had to rush to compete in the Grand Prix on the Saturday. As for Tai "owing" British speedway for giving him the chance to nurture his talent, I would have thought that Scunthorpe, Rye House and Wolves would have been thankful to him for riding for them. What I would like to see, and this is not just on him, but I would like to see every rider offer their services to the Ben Fund meetings. I would also like to see more than one of those meetings every year.

After a great week of results for Berwick you just know Edinburgh are going to come down and ruin things. If Masters, Fisher and Wolbert ride like they did in the Premier Trophy then Berwick will find it tough. A lot could depend on the Riss bros. Wonder how the crowd for this meeting could be affected by the football? Horrible forecast for Saturday mind.

Back then though we had riders who liked the track the way Peter Waite prepared it. Very few of the current team would like it prepared that way. You also got some horrendous meetings during that time, like the Cup final (can't remember the exact name, could have been the Premier League Trophy?) against Workington when none of the riders could turn the bikes in the corners.

That's true. What I was meaning was averages in relation to guests and rider replacement and swapping from Elite League to Premier League averages etc. Averages for team building is straight forward for beginners.

It's pretty simple to explain rules to non-speedway fans, rider replacement "team mates can take the place of an injured rider", guests "a rider is injured / missing so they can use a rider from another team", tactical ride "rider gets double the points if he beats an opponent". Don't bore potential fans with exact details, averages, if you take someone along to a match let them enjoy the noise, the speed, the power of the bikes. If they want to come back and become regulars, they will soon find out the rules (and become cynics like the rest of us).

Who are these slick starting Bandits? Are these the same Bandits who can't gate to save themselves at Shielfield? It's been a brilliant tour for the team and it sounds like a cracking meeting tonight. Here's to a lot more of them!

Cracking post

Brilliant win tonight, just what the team needed. Great to see TJ back in form, hopefully this is him back to the sort of form he was showing last season.

I'm chuffed for Adam Roynon to be in the points after some folk on here were calling for him to retire after the start of the season. Like you say it is always fantastic and very moving to see Ricky back at the speedway. I choke up every time I see him back at Berwick.

Not surprising when you consider that the only British riders at Wolves, Swindon and Poole are EDR riders. Mind you, the same applies to Leicester and both of them qualified. Good on Coventry and Belle Vue for basing their teams around British riders. Looking forward to this meeting, mainly because of the videos I've seen so far of racing at the new track. Should make for a good meeting.

Hopefully the Captain will be in the points just like Monday afternoon :-) and I would think that Scunthorpe would be the kind of track which would suit the likes of Berge, Pijper and Jorgensen. Would be a big lift to the season to take something from this meeting.

Quite chuffed for Redcar tonight, being a fan of a team who are having a similar sort of season to them I can understand results like this one tonight can really lift the spirits.

Wind the clock back to the start of last season and I was so excited to see Ben Barker riding for Berwick. He was going to be the big hitter we had been lacking for so long. But sadly it never worked out. We had seen Ben before at Berwick and we thought he was perfect for the big sweeps around the boards. He started the season off on obviously bad equipment, was injured early on and there were numerous rumours about his personal life circulating. He seemed to get things together at Peterborough at the end of last season and I thought the move to Glasgow this season was perfect for him. Whatever the reasons, unfortunately he is a shadow of the rider he was a couple of years ago. It would be great if he could get to where he was, because I thought he had a great style and was indeed as brave as they come. Whatever the reason for his slump, I only hope he can sort it out.

Then make it more efficient. Cut out the unnecessary delays (obviously injuries are unavoidable) but there are a lot of meetings which become drawn out for no reason whatsoever. If there are no injury delays it should be perfectly possible to run 21 heats in time. It would probably attract more fans as well, a slicker run operation.

Could be a number of riders who can make the semi, from there on it's wide open. The semi then final are one off races. All I know is that I am looking forward to this final a lot more than previous ones because of the track, which I think will provide far better racing than at Wolverhampton, which was a nice stadium and seemed to put on a good show, but I was always under the impression that carnage was just a first bend away on such a tight track, especially when riders were not going to give an inch. How many re-runs were there in finals past? Hopefully a much wider track will provide much better racing.

Those who don't want to watch, simple, they don't have to. I still think second half junior racing is an important part of the sport to breed new young riders. If you want to stay on and watch them do so, if not, don't. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but interesting to some.