topsoil

Certainly if he replicates his form when he guested for us at Rye house last year.

If not, just make it up Spot on. Less than a dozen meetings into a career and some want him out. The size of club Berwick are, they are never going to attract top earning riders. And I don't want to see them mortgage the future of the club just to sign a big name. Didn't do us any good last season. Defeats at home are tough to take I know, but good things have happened at the club in the last six months. Good young manager with a lot of drive and enthusiasm, new promotion on board.

Positive thinking

On the subject of making things up, how about getting on with your own knitting

Just wonder about the fitness of Kevin and Liam tonight after both suffered bad crashes last night. Plus the damage to Kevin's machinery. TJ's first meeting for three weeks and Bager is obviously going to be rusty. Theo was a bit unlucky tonight with the puncture and then touching the tapes after Barker obviously moved. But the main problem again, as always, is gating, especially when the track is slick.

Too many weak links I'm afraid. Against a team who are strong at 1, 3 and 5 and when Lindgren came on strong at the end of the meeting you are going to get found out. The strength in depth argument falls down when you concede a 5-1 in heat 2 and your number 4 only scores a point. Only silver lining was Seb seemed very fast in his opening three rides and we need him firing. There's always next week.

I was thinking more along the lines of the amount of sweets and drinks sold to the kids, could be the reason for the increase in takings? But you have a point about internet sales. I've also thought that there is a huge hole in the market for somebody who could go beyond the bog standard t-shirt, polo shirt and jacket on offer at most track shops.

It was mentioned last night in the programme that takings at the track shop were at an all time high. Any connection to the fact that there are a lot of kids going who get in for free? Personally I think it is a great initiative to let kids in for free. You only need to see them interact with the riders in the grandstand after the meeting.

Can't agree with this. Given the amount of rain / sleet / snow we had from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning, the track staff did a hell of a job to get it to the state it was last night. It was a bit slicker than it has been of late, but totally understandable. I've noticed this season that there has been new lines created on the second and fourth bends which have created a lot more passing.

Big pay day for Berwick. Scunthorpe actually looked like we did last season, missing a number one. Josh Auty was surprisingly out of sorts tonight, good to see ex-Bandit Carl Wilkinson hit good form, Ryan Douglas was worth more than he scored and they have a decent pair of reserves. Josh Bailey looked smooth enough. After his crashes lately really chuffed for Matty to be in the big points, would like to have seen Captain Ken get his paid max but not to be. Ostergaard looks class and can see him scoring well when he comes up with the Panthers. After the rain / sleet / snow of the past two days the track looked perfect. There are still a couple of good lines appearing out of the fourth bend. Good three points all in all.

Ryan Douglas, Alex Davies and possibly Zdenek Holub (if fit) are the missing 3-5. Auty and Wilkinson both go well around Berwick, but this is a meeting Berwick should be looking to win. Hopefully a decent night for weather would be nice. The first four meetings have either been wet or damn cold.

For the past two seasons a lot of fans were criticising the EL for keeping reserves at reserve all season. Now fans are criticising the EL for moving reserves up and down. Any second string / heat leader moving to reserve in the next month who dominates scoring from that position will move up again, any reserve moving up to the heat leader slot may struggle and move down. Swings and roundabouts. Just deal with the situation.

Fifteen heat format, six man teams Heats 1-3 1/2 v 1/2, 3/4 v 3/4, 5/6 v 5/6 Heats 4-6 1/2 v 3/4, 3/4 v 5/6, 5/6 v 1/2 Heats 7-9 1/2 v 5/6, 3/4 v 1/2, 5/6 v 3/4 Heats 10-12 managers can choose any pairing, each rider has one ride Heats 13-15 same as 10-12 managers can chose any pairing, again each rider has one ride Much the same way the last 4 heats are chosen in the world Cup Something different

Brilliant!

Can't confirm it 100% but I would say Berwick's crowds are up a bit so far from last season, despite having four cold, windy, damp Saturday nights. The new promoters who came on board in the winter have added a new enthusiasm and the club are reaching out to new fans, especially through social media. Also i have noticed a lot of new businesses have advertised in the programme and the hospitality lounge has been full three of the four weeks so far. And they have announced the training track nearby will be ready for use later this year. A small beacon of hope in the choppy seas of domestic speedway?

Not a Workington fan by any stretch of the imagination but I was glad to see good scores for Roynon and Campton after some of the rubbish written about them on the Edinburgh v Workington thread.

If I took a "newbie" along to a meeting, as I did last season, The last thing I would want to do is fill their head full of FDR, tactical rides, averages, guests, rider replacement, just let them enjoy the racing, the speed, the noise, the danger element. If they enjoy the basic racing element, the company they are with and a nights entertainment they will return. Too many speedway fans get hung up about rules, statistics, loopholes.

Great meeting tonight, close racing in nearly every heat, with passing manoeuvres thrown in, well prepared track (where are they finding the drive on on the inside of the fourth bend from these days?) and a last heat decider. Irrespective of the outcome of heat 15 tonight I would have gone home happy, because I'd been entertained with good racing. The meeting certainly threw up some surprise outcomes, never had Neilsen and Mellgren getting a 4-2 over Barker and Garcia in heat 14. Was interesting to see how Garcia fared tonight, on obviously better machinery than last year. There was never any doubt to his effort, but you always felt his machinery let him down last year. Chuffed or him. Neilsen was a revelation tonight. I'll be honest, I never had him down to score what he did. Almost held on to beat Richard Lawson in heat 11 and then his win in heat 14 was brilliant. Took a walk round into the grandstand after the meeting to sit and watch the junior racing and saw Stuart Robson, Kevin Doolan and Liam Carr all posing for photos and speaking away to the young supporters, brilliant work. And a word for the Glasgow fans, great to see them travelling in big numbers. That club has been totally turned around in the last year and it is great to see crowds swelled by travelling fans, bigger crowds add to the atmosphere at meetings. It's a club with momentum behind it and hopefully it will rub off on other clubs.

One of the mysteries of life for me is why Berwick often out-gate the opposition away from home, but very rarely do at Shielfield. Could it be bike set-ups? Is the gate area at Shielfield prepared any different to other tracks?

I think a lot will depend on the Berwick gating, it has to be better than last week if Berwick are going to get anything out of this match. I also hope Anders Mellgren is fully fit and not returning prematurely. Berwick just cannot afford any passengers. Interesting to see how Barker and Coty perform on their return to Shielfield. Coty was popular at Berwick last season, he never gave up in his races and you could never fault his efforts. So many areas in both teams where this meeting could be decided. I just have a feeling that Glasgow's top end could just be too strong at the business end and will tip the scales in their favour.

Cleveland Park post-fire? Arena-Essex? Had the facilities improved there since it opened? I was there the first season it was open but never visited again and only seen it on TV in the past few years.

Really enjoyed this quiz. I wonder what the 2015 version would say of the same tracks (where still open), where the facilities for most will have changed very little since 1979.

If you go for the hospitality option at Berwick, one of the perks is just that, you get to watch a few races from the centre green. I've done it a few times and the difference from standing on the terracing is night and day. I defy anybody not to be impressed by the sheer noise, power and speed of the machines. Especially at Berwick, which is a particularly big, fast track. Watch the bikes up close, sweeping down the banking is amazing. I would like to see tracks take advantage of this, it at all possible in this day and age of health and safety. Kozza Smith used to jump off his machine and run down the home straight at Berwick, high-fiving the fans. They used to love it. Another good thing they do at Berwick is the riders go amongst the crowd after the meeting and sign autographs and take photos with the fans. You get a lot of kids hanging around them, lapping this sort of thing up.

Why? Don't understand the problem. Jorgensen is injured, he's number 1, so bring in a guest.

Think this is a reference to Jorgensen being out through injury and replaced by Fisher. Can't see why it is a farce. You need a good replacement, he is local and good round Ashfield.