topsoil

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.

Needed to do a lot of track grading last night, due to the downpours just before the start, two lengthy hold-ups due to injuries, another hold-up after the first running of heat 15, not much anybody could do about it.

Could see this result coming, you won't win a meeting without heat winners and Berwick just don't have the top end fire power right now. Outgated in almost every race tonight and in conditions like that gating is all important. For me Wolbert and Riss were the match winners. You kind of knew beforehand that Edinburgh had the advantage with Masters and Fisher and Berwick would be stronger at reserve. That played out as expected. Really hope the gating gloves are on for tomorrow and next Saturday, or it could be a couple of long meetings.

Sounds about right. If this meeting goes the way of most Berwick meetings this season, then we will keep it close until the business end, we have struggled in heats 13 and 15 so far with TJ still not fully fit and Seb still looking for consistency. R/R for Anders actually makes us stronger, he has obviously been riding hurt this season. Hopefully fully fit when he comes back. I think a lot will depend on our result at home to Edinburgh tonight. We win that, we have a chance of challenging for the top spot. Anything other than 3 points and chances are slim.

I'm guessing #5 is Oxford (based on the "historic" reference) and #11 is Edinburgh (based on the facilities at Powderhall, which I always thought was a very nice stadium back in the day). Agree with above, very interesting little quiz this. Without doubt #1 is Middlesbrough, I was fascinated by the track back then, every time you would approach the stadium you would look down onto the track. #10 is obviously Milton Keynes Agree with above I think #6 is Stoke and #7 Peterborough.

I would feel a lot more confident about chances of winning if I thought Mellgren could get into the points.

Interesting Edinburgh have switched Etheridge to number 4. Will this be to match up against Mellgren, who has been Berwick's weak link so far this season? Despite being weaker than in previous years, I'm still expecting a very tough meeting on Saturday, with Masters and Fisher especially being very good around Shielfield and Riss, Wolbert and Clegg all having good meetings last season down here. Looking forward to seeing Dan Bewley as well. Obviously going to be a bit raw at this stage of his career, but there are good reviews about him. This is possibly Berwick's best chance yet to progress in the League Cup.

More encouraging signs for Berwick tonight. The first was when I turned up and the queue to get in was back onto the car park. Not seen that for a while. Following up from the result it was another good performance from Berwick against effectively a two man team. Lambert and Fisher almost untouchable all night. Will ten points be enough? Only time will tell. But it's been an encouraging start. Also liked to see Liam Carr coming out for some extra laps after the meeting. To be honest I don't know why more riders don't do it. Especially new riders to the track. And Leon Flint seems to get better and better every week, he looks fast and smooth on a bike. Really amazes me how many fans stay back and watch second half racing. Could be a message there? Again the hospitality box was full and the meeting went smoothly. Early days but so far, so good.

Speechless. Seen too many hidings at Armadale and even a few defeats off them at Shielfield. Really did not see this coming, even though Edinburgh are obviously weaker this season. Still thought they would have enough with Masters, Riss and Wolbert at home. Bit concerned about the form of Anders Mellgren, four poor meetings so far, but that won't spoil my mood.

Exactly If people would rather sit in the house and watch the sport on an amateur film taken from a mobile phone, rather than watch it live, this says a lot about the state of the sport and what is on offer for the spectators. You see other sports which are live on TV, in bad weather, you get live updates on the internet, facebook, twitter, whatever, but the games still get big crowds because of the atmosphere and experience from being live at the event. Rather than becoming worried about losing a handful of people, who lets face it if they would rather sit in the house this way than follow your team live, are very casual fans anyway, shouldn't the sport be more concerned about improving the product on show, to attract more supporters? If the product on show was that good, you wouldn't think twice about not wanting to be there live. I can remember the exact same reaction to the live updates website, some promoters wanted that banned because they thought it would affect crowd levels. Instead of fearing developments like this, learn to embrace them and find out how you can use them to your advantage to promote your product.

In a nutshell!

Every year I think that Berwick will start to put up a better fight at Armadale and every year they struggle to score mid-30s. The optimist in me says they've never had a better chance of snatching a point than this, the pessimist says it will be the usual let down.