topsoil

On the whole, the sport could help itself by reducing the gaps between races to as little as possible, i.e. putting the two minute warning on soon after the previous race has finished. Then introduce more races to compensate for the meeting speeding up, so fans are still getting a couple of hours of entertainment. There will always be injuries and if a rider is badly hurt, you can appreciate the delay, surely anybody with sense can understand that. As long as there is constant communication to the fans, music, interviews with riders / officials / even fans, this should provide a distraction while the rider is being seen to.

These people are already attending, trying to suggest ways of increasing the attandances.

Or have a sign like the one outside The Oak Tree Arena? Better make sure its padlocked tho!

This could be a huge untapped market in the summer months when Berwick is swelled by holidaymakers. Get around Berwick, Haggerston, Eyemouth holiday camps and even if its free or heavily discounted admission get as many of the tourists through the gates as possible. I don't know if the club promotes at these sites just now, but it could pay dividends to get a couple of riders, a bike, a DVD of some of the races and hand out some flyers.

Genuine question, to a businessman, what sort of promotion work do you think would get more people through the gates? Leaflets throughout the town? Reduced admission? Adverts on local radio? Wonder what the best way to get your message out there with the minimum budget.

That could be levelled at the sport in general, the lack of promotion.

Both dyed in the wool speedway people. Good luck to both.

Cheers, I'll look out for that Excellent, thank very much That's great, thank you

Tried in there, excellent website, but doesn't cover these years unfortunately Brilliant, much appreciated

Can anybody help with the scorers in these matches:- Stoke v Berwick National League 19.8.1976 Peterborough v Berwick National League 30.8.1976 Berwick v Canterbury National League 9.4.1977 Berwick v Coatbridge National League 23.4.1977 Workington v Berwick National League 10.6.1977 Mildenhall v Berwick National League 10.7.1977 Oxford v Berwick National League 28.7.1977 Canterbury v Berwick National League 29.8.1977 Crayford v Berwick National League 30.8.1977 Peterborough v Berwick National League 2.9.1977 Stoke v Berwick National League 29.9.1977 Eastbourne v Berwick K O Cup Final 23.10.1977 Poole v Berwick National League 16.9.1986 Exeter v Berwick National League 13.10.1986 Berwick v Bradford British League 16.7.1991 Berwick v Belle Vue British League 26.10.1991 Peterborough v Berwick Premier League 12.6.1998 Berwick v Newcastle Premier League 8.8.1998 Glasgow v Berwick Premier League 23.8.1998 Stoke v Berwick Premier League 8.9.1998 Workington v Berwick Premier League 3.5.1999 Berwick v Exeter Premier League 2.9.2000 Berwick v Stoke Premier League 1.9.2007 Thanks in advance of any replies

Cheers for the link, just out of interest, who were the riders who failed to finish? Anybody get a maximum? Been reading about this season in old copies of the Advertiser in the library, the row between Kelvin Tatum and Terry Lindon over money. Must have been an amazing season, seeing the top riders in the world each week at Berrington Lough.

This is what annoys me, and I would think a lot of speedway fans. Look at the pages of Speedway Star on any given week and you will read about nearly every promoter complaining about losing money. Fair enough, they are the ones who put their money up, they are the ones who have to make up the deficits. But every year they have a get together to sort out the running of the sport. If things were that bad, you would think they would at least give the impression they were doing things about it. But instead of looking at fundamental changes, increasing the rider pool, TV deals, improving facilities, track covers, safety, training facilities, owning their own stadiums, they concentrate on tactical rides, taking a point of the team strength here or there, nothing of which does the sport any good.

Its a good point raised that sales is a specialised field, speedway in general and each club individually, could gain a lot by hiring dedicated sales contractors. Yes, I realise this will not be cheap, but hire them on a part time basis? This is taking nothing away from the people who currently do this job, on a voluntary basis, they are doing a thankless task. But a very good sales person could maybe be the difference between a sponsorship deal with a nationwide company rather than a local builder for e.g.

Not necessarily, I just think it would be beneficial for clubs to try and produce local riders. I look back to Berwick in 1997, Scott Lamb, Kevin Little, Scott Robson, David Meldrum, Mike Smith, David Blackburn, Michael Lowrie, all local riders. This cuts down on expenses and as I said I think local businesses, who are the lifeblood of sponsorship, have more of an affinity with local riders, who they can relate to more. Like I say, this wont be easy and wont be solved overnight, hence the reason I cant see it happening. Speedway is not a sport with a long-term view.

Every promotion is under pressure, costs rising year on year, but attendances and sponsorship income does not seem to be matching costs. Clubs need to try to get back to basics, employing local riders, reducing costs and local riders more likely to have an affinity with local businesses, to attract sponsors. To do this it takes a long term policy to introduce young local riders, second halves, training sessions etc. Unfortunately most promotions may not have the luxury of a long term view.

d'oh! or dough?

Looking back at an old DVD from the season 1991, the year Berwick were in the then British League, I see Berwick beat Belle Vue 60-0 in a meeting run after Belle Vue refused to ride. But the part I found amusing is that even without opposition Berwick still didn't manage to score the maximum 65 points. Can anybody help me out here? Anybody know why they dropped points? Presumably falls or engine failures?

daveallen81 Brilliant, thanks very much

Apologies for piggy baking onto this topic, but relevant because of the year, can anybody please help with the individual scores from the Barrow v Berwick National League meeting on 22 August 1978? Cheers

Thanks for the reply, going to see if I can find out more about the man.

Hopefully with the developments in the stadium ownership at Ashfield, it would be great to see some training days etc set up. The Dale Devils were a good starting point and a pity they had to give up because of financial reasons. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow could benefit enormously with some home grown talent. On a different point, it says above Ross Gilbertson was born in Ayton. Is this correct? I live a couple of miles away from Ayton but I'd never heard of him before. Mind you he was well before I got interested in the sport.

Clearly there is no easy solution to this, but what frustrates me is that clubs don't seem to be even putting much effort into looking at developing a solution. Lets face it, waterlogged tracks are one of the biggest problems facing promotions these days. You only need to look at the Speedway Star during the season or in the season reviews and you see promoters bemoaning the problems caused by rain affected meetings and the financial effect thereof. The advantages to be gained when an effective solution is found are massive so it would be great to at least see clubs putting some thought into it. But as with most things, promoters and the sport in general seem to be missing the fundamental things, like improving safety, creating training facilities, getting tracks into their own facilities, increasing the number of riders in the country, finding sponsorship for the league and major events and instead give more priority to small things which have no effect on the sport.

And in many cases in speedway, the companies who "own" clubs have only one or two shareholders. According to Swedish club Rospiggarna's website, a "membership fee" is around £100 per year. For this I would imagine you would get voting rights on any decisions taken by the club and also other perks, but does not cover admission to meetings.

Hopefully this meeting attracts some big names and even more importantly a huge crowd. It's very important that fans and the sport in general doesn't forget people like Ricky. I would like to see my team Berwick do something each year in Ricky's name, an annual challenge against Sheffield, name the Stars of Tomorrow meeting after him, the Rider of the Year Award, something like that, just to their bit for him.

Certainly didn't put up much of a fight to get the rider. Sometimes things happen for a reason.