topsoil

And where were you when Edinburgh came? or Scunthorpe? you've already admitted you don't go.

They would accept it if their team was winning. All about the team. You pick up 3 points, who cares how the points are made up. These will be the dinosaurs and nuggets who actually attend the meetings? Like you've admitted yourself, you don't go near the place these days.

Only Berwick forum fans could still be moaning after two home wins, an away draw and a cup aggregate win in just over a week. And i find it hilarious that certain fans on here openly admit that they will not go to meetings but still moan about the team on here. Forget that TJ, Claus and Richard hall are all riding really well at the moment, let's focus on Ben not riding to his average.

Good luck trying to afford Martin Vaculik on Berwick's crowds

Perfect week results-wise for Berwick, two league wins and an aggregate cup win. Desperately hard luck for Claus who was giving it his all to get past Roynon. Just when it seemed Berwick were getting a decent team together as well. Redcar missed Matej Kus tonight, surely would have scored more then the four points that they got from r/r. Richard Hall getting back to full fitness and seems an excellent signing at reserve. Couple of good passing moves tonight, but none to compare with Barker's in heat 15. That one had a few of us shaking our heads.

Steady on :-)

This might even entice you back to watch

They've only gone and done it! I'll be honest, after the first leg I gave Berwick no chance of going through. Ipswich hasn't been a happy hunting ground in the past and this performance came out of the blue. Hopefully, behind the Newcastle win this could turn around the season. Brilliant!

Post 21 to the Somerset v Berwick sums up perfectly some of the Berwick "fans" on here. Lost all credibility through that post.

According to latest e-mail, the meeting against Sheffield (was 6 June) has now been re-arranged to August (from memory I think this was because Claus and TJ are in the Danish championships). So according to the latest programme, after Saturday night there will be three weeks in a row without a home meeting.

Sent in a couple of suggestions and received very long, detailed replies. Told the reasons why both of my suggestions could not be carried out, which was fair enough. But at least they took the time and effort to go reply and the level of detail they went into, obviously shows they had put a lot of thought into it. I would recommend that if anybody does have a valid suggestion, they put it to the club.

Agree with all of the above, added to the fact that in general terms of entertainment, the sport has failed to move on in the past umpteen years (how many track presenters still playing music from the 70s and 80s for a start) doesn't help. Okay for the older generation, but it won't help attract any youngsters.

The problem is far bigger than the Berwick promotion or Berwick club in general, the problem is the sport and the people who run it. It is paying the price for basically treating fans (customers) very poorly over a number of years. There are far too many examples to quote of meetings called off at the last minute or without fans being informed at all. Too many meetings spoiled or even abandoned by poor track preparation. The last but one Grand Prix was a perfect example. To have an event cancelled because of the tapes not working, in the 21st century, is inexplicable. Promoters have not invested in stadia, track equipment, safety equipment or facilities in years. You only need to look at air fences. These should have been brought in years ago, but tracks waited until basically a gun was pointed at their head before they did anything. Basic track covering has still to be addressed. Meetings are held up / abandoned because of lack of medical cover. In this day and age and with the competition the sport faces against other forms of entertainment, is it really surprising that the sport is suffering when it fails to look after it's customers on such a scale?

Hopefully they will learn from this, maybe even try and sign Luke back and ensure that any future young riders coming through are signed before anybody else gets the chance. Running a junior team is a great idea IMO and hopefully this will bear fruit in the future by producing local riders for the team.

Luke Ruddick isn't a Berwick asset, he never signed for Berwick. Major oversight by the promotion IMO and makes a bit of a mockery of running a junior team if you are not going to sign up your riders. I think it's a great idea that Berwick are running a junior team, but to then let riders slip away can make you look a bit silly.

Again I'm not going to turn this into a Dick Barrie debate, but I will echo what I have said previously. The man has an enormous wealth of speedway knowledge and I genuinely think he tries his best to entertain and have banter with the fans. Unfortunately, he, like speedway in general, has not moved on in a long time. I think if you could harness his speedway knowledge with a younger presenter, who could have more interaction with the crowd, it would make for a better presentation. Perhaps one of the young DJs on Radio Borders? But like everything else, this would cost money, which is not exactly in abundance at the moment. think this post says all we need to know about you

The kind of result and meeting that must have emilali boiling :-) Without doubt the best meeting of the season and probably the best team performance from Berwick. A lot of passing, great manoeuvres from Barker, Vissing and Jorgensen and a welcome result after the negativity surrounding the club. If you ever get the chance, watch some races from the centre green. To see the speed and hear the noise of the bikes is brilliant. I guarantee you will appreciate the riders all the more for it. And just a word for the riders. I don't normally see the after meeting goings on, but I was in the box tonight and it was great to see all of them coming amongst the fans, talking and having pictures taken with young ones. Can only be a good thing and I bet the kids all love it.

And the replacements for the sacked riders would be?

Make the annual visit to Somerset for the Pairs on the Cardiff weekend. Really like the set up down there and would love to be there tomorrow night. To be honest I would have thought the OTA would be the ideal type of track for the likes of Barker, Vissing, Jorgensen and Doolan, but something tells me it could be a bit of a thumping.

Sorry for arriving late to the conversation but I've only had the opportunity to watch the meeting tonight. Very impressed with the Glasgow set up this season. Yes it has taken a lot of investment, but that is necessary after such a long time of neglect. I really hope other promotions take a look at the meeting to see what can be achieved. Every meeting looks better in front of a big crowd. I would really like to see other promotions try and fill their stadiums for the televised meetings, even if it means letting fans in for free or very little. See if you can get the meeting sponsored, to meet the costs, then give them a hell of a lot of exposure in front of the cameras. But perhaps the biggest thing I was impressed with was the idea that they are looking into building an academy next to the existing track. That would be brilliant news for Scottish speedway, which has fallen off the radar completely as far as Scottish riders are concerned. Hoping to come up to Glasgow later in the season when Berwick are up. Wish the club all the best, after looking like they could be going out of existence, the fans must now be in heaven.

Maybe crowd levels have gone up / down a little bit, but I think the bigger issue is the costs involved nowadays. Riders' pay, travelling expenses, bike spares, costs like that will have increased considerably. And to meet the rising costs, promotions need to increase income. This seems to be harder and harder to achieve each year.

Excellent, good work

Must admit I never get down to Newcastle, do they have many juniors riding after the meetings? I know they used to have the Gems but not heard much since. Would like to see every local team have a junior set up. Regular meetings between Berwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Redcar, Workington after Premier League games? Get more riders coming through the sport.

Normally gets well supported at Berwick, certainly did last season. Starting to see the fruits of junior racing as well, very early days, but Liam Carr, Luke Ruddick and Stefan Farnaby all into National League (and in Liam's case Premier League last year). A lot of work goes on with the young riders and hopefully this will get continued good support. Would be good to see more and more youngsters coming through, good for the health of the sport as a whole.

I must admit I really like this competition. Maybe it's the variety of countries in each meeting, but I think you can get some cracking matchups. I would like to see it become an official FIM tournanent in years to come (and Britain fully involved). I would also like to see a B division, with the likes of Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, France, Croatia maybe? I think it would be a good way to get these smaller nations involved in an international competition, much the way as the Rugby World Sevens did. Maybe even get a promotion / relegation situation going?