topsoil

Could be the saviour of British speedway

Not a promoter. Where are these unwritten and unpublished rules, they've been the same for years?

Edinburgh managed to compete the two years they were missing Craig Cook, in fact they won it without him two years ago. Everybody knows the set up at the start of the season. Accept it and get on with it and stop whining.

Yes, Monday, great idea! And the BSPA get criticised for daft ideas?

Basically, what you've just said, was their reasons. Berwick have excellent facilities to accommodate the cameras and so on and every time they have been here they have been impressed with the welcome they have received and the attitude of the club towards them "nothings too much trouble" was the phrase they used. They also claimed that some tracks go in the other direction and moan that Sky are nothing but a hindrance to them, so that could be a reason why certain clubs do not feature very regularly. It was also said a few times early in the season Berwick using covers to ensure a meeting went ahead did nothing to harm their chances. I would imagine this would be a pretty important factor as far as Sky are concerned.

Ridiculous statement. Holding the Pairs on the same weekend as the Grand Prix makes the crowd much bigger than it otherwise would be. It adds to the whole weekend. You're bitter because two of your riders are missing out. Holding the Pairs on the same weekend as the Grand Prix is one of the things the sport gets right.

t would be the decent thing for them to do

It's a pity the football is on the same night, because I can see the crowd numbers being affected by this. Certainly the crowd for the meeting against Edinburgh last week looked down on usual because it clashed with an England game. Either way this is going to be a very big test for the in-form Bandits. You know Vissing will be fired up for his return, Wells always goes well at Berwick and Hansen is in a rich vein of form. Workington will be a very tough team and Berwick will need to be on top form to get anything from this.

We save them up for visitors with strange accents

Anybody have any idea how Leon Flint got on in Denmark yesterday?

Don't know who does the updates, but they obviously forgot to mention the great action in heat 11, with Jorgensen chasing Sarjeant, but knowing that the slightest mistake would allow King through. All three were within inches of each other on the 3rd / 4th bend. They also forgot to mention the great ride by Doolan in heat 12 to shepherd Carr home, all the time under pressure from Covatti. good race between Carr and Sarjeant in heat 8, a great second bend ride by Jorgensen in heat 13 and an impressive debut from Daniel Gapmaier in heat 2 going from last to second. It wasn't the best meeting this season, mainly because Berwick were outstanding from the gate for once and after a few races the dirt moved out too far, but ask any Berwick fan and they would be very happy with this win. Disappointed in Ipswich, I really expected more from Sarjeant, Covatti, Risager and Barker. King looked really fast and impressive. Berwick in a rich vein of form at the moment, long may it last. We've had our share of injuries this season, now the riders are back to fitness and clicking.

Don't want to alarm anybody, but this big yellow ball has appeared in the sky. The locals are mystified.

Must be some REALLY sh!te teams sitting below us then eh doylem?

Ipswich were very impressive up here last season, out-gating Berwick consistently. They have a strong heat leader trio in King, Covatti and Barker, who all go well around Shielfield and very good second strings in Sarjeant and Risager. Berwick may hold an advantage at reserve, but who knows how the new signing will perform. I like the booking of Bellego as a guest, he knows Berwick well and has been flying lately, hopefully he will keep that going on Saturday. Berwick will have to be on top of their form to take anything from this, but if they can replicate the performance against Edinburgh they have a chance. Looking forward to this one a lot.

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.