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Good preview on club website: Saturday’s Shielfield Park speedway show promises to keep the good times going for Berwick Bandits. There’s another cut-price deal for spectators, an invitation for all season-ticket holders to partake in the club’s very special hospitality packages – and maybe, just maybe, a return to the track by Bandits’ brilliant Number 1 star of the season, Ricky Ashworth! SEASON TICKET HOLDERS Berwick 'A & J Scott' Bandits have extended a special invitation to all their Season Ticket Holders to enjoy a night of VIP hospitality this Saturday for the home match against Ipswich Witches. This is to acknowledge their loyal support during a testing 2012 season, marred by numerous injuries to key riders. REDUCED ADMISSION – AGAIN! The club’s management have been offering reduced admission prices for the past three meetings and spectators will again enjoy admission to this Saturday's meeting for only £10, with children under 16 accompanied by a supervising adult being admitted FREE. Berwick Speedway's major shareholder John Anderson is continuing with the scheme of reduced admission prices in a bid to help families enjoy a night at the skids without busting their household budget: “We have to be sensible and realise, especially in this area, that money is a commodity to be looked after carefully, and a family of four cannot always afford to come to speedway on a weekly basis. “With our ‘kids free and £10 for everyone else’ deal we are hoping that 'word of mouth' will continue to spread the news and Berwick Speedway on a Saturday night will be seen as a value for money, as well as spectacularly-thrilling evening's entertainment. “We are under no illusions -- attracting support for any form of entertainment is not easy. But we have been delighted with the response so far at our past three meetings, when reduced admission charges were applied. “We are in the entertainment business, and we want to attract people who will make a Saturday night out at Shielfield their summer hobby. “We also have to look after our loyal support, and our Season Ticket holders will receive a night of hospitality in recognition of their tremendous, unswerving loyalty to the Black & Gold brigade in 2012. I am sure they will enjoy their evening.” RICKY ASHWORTH The brilliant riding of marquee signing Ricky Ashworth was a headline feature of Berwick’s matches this season – until August 11th, when a simple-looking first-turn crash during the club’s home match with Somerset saw Ricky rushed to hospital with a badly-broken shoulder. It was expected the injury would keep Ashworth sidelined until 2013, but having made good progress and undergone extensive physiotherapy over the past two months, Ricky – currently in Majorca, getting healing dozes of sunshine and swimming -- has made contact with team manager Ian Rae to say that, if he suffers no adverse reaction to a closed-door practice session near his Salford base, he would be willing to reclaim his No 1 race-jacket on Saturday night! “There’s no firm guarantee just yet.” admitted Rae. “We will race at Plymouth on Friday without him – I’ve set up another Ricky, Sheffield’s American Ricky Wells, to ride as our guest that night – but if he has a skid and the shoulder holds up, I’ll have no hesitation in writing his name into Saturday night’s programme!” HOSPITALITY AVAILABLE: In addition to the offer to season-ticketeers (see above) Commercial Manager Julie Newton has spaces available – on a first-come, first-served basis in her bijou Hospitality Lounge. For just £35 per head, spectators have a full admission package, a photo with one of the Berwick team riders, all-evening drinks and buffet hospitality and an escorted visit to the infield to watch racing from a perspective denied other watchers! To book up, call Julie on 07840-998845 (or e-mail to julie@berwickbandits.co This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) without delay. END OF SEASON DANCE & PRESENTATION EVENING The club’s eagerly-awaited annual celebration has been set for Friday, November 2nd. This is traditionally the event at which Bandits’ supporters can bid goodbye to the 2012 season, as well as learning any indication of the club’s plans for 2013. The venue will be the Function Suite of the Black & Gold hostelry at Shielfield Park, and tickets are already on sale at only £7 – Supporters’ Club members will receive a £1 discount. All seventeen riders who have been Bandits during 2012 have been invited. Live music and one of the by-now legendary buffets provided by Anderson's Quality Butchers of North Berwick are included. Tickets are on sale from our track shop on Saturday evening. This event always sells out, and as the club are anxious for fans not to be disappointed it is suggested purchases are made as soon as possible ON TRACK If Ricky Ashworth is cleared as fit, Berwick will at full strength on Saturday night for the first time since July, and with high-flying Ipswich in town (and absolutely desperate to achieve a third win in succession at Shielfield in order to qualify for the Premier League play-offs) they will need to be! “Ipswich have, to put it simply, thrashed us on their last two visits.” admitted Berwick director George Hepburn last night. “We want revenge! If Ricky Ashworth is back, and new riders like Micky Dyer and Nicki Barrett now in our colours, we’ll give them a run for their money. Ricky, Micky and Nicki – what a trio! “All backed by another bumper crowd, with news spreading throughout the borders of our £10 and kids free deal – it’ll be a cracker!” Saturday’s expected teams: Berwick: 1. Ricky Ashworth (provisional), 2. David Bellego, 3. Nicki Barrett, 4. Robin Aspegren, 5. Seb Alden, 6. Klaus Jakobsen, 7. Micky Dyer Ipswich: 1. Leigh Lanham, 2. Dakota North, 3. Taylor Poole, 4. Morten Risager, 5. Rohan Tungate, 6. Matthew Tresarrieu, 7. Byron Bekker. LIAM CARR 16-year-old Tweedmouth schoolboy Liam Carr – already contracted to the Bandits, but on loan to National League club Stoke this season – will be among a 16-strong field at Sheffield on Thursday night (13th) to contest the 2012 British U-19 Championship. “This is a superb achievement for young Liam so early in his career.” said Bandits’ promoter Dennis McCleary. “I know everyone at Berwick wishes him well.”

Deserved chance for James. He won the Northern Junior League Riders Championship, and thus follows the last two winners into the professional leagues. As for Filip Sitera -- well!

Now tell us your team for this big one on Friday night, please!

Excellent! And you are.......?

Yes, you are right and I was wrong. It is only the home team who can use the same No 1 (or NL reserve) ad infinitum. Which seems a tad unfair.

But with rolling averages, such a performance nowadays wouldn't mean a bag of beans.

Oh yes he did! Try Friday, October 28th.

There's no eight day rule for a guest at No 1. You can use the same rider every week, home and away, if you want. That doesn't mean there isn't a shortage of suitable riders, of course. But both teams can use virtually any available rider (in either league) at No 1 on Friday night, provided their averages are under Cookie or Screenie's.

Yes. Were you?

Oh, it happened all right.

Well, so much for your estimations! John Anderson's notes in programme said Edinburgh match (the first £10 offer) was biggest attendance of the season (this would be outwith the FIM event, obviously) and I was told by a good and reliable source in the Black & Gold after the match that last night's attendance was actually just a little better than the week before. From the back straight, I did comment the stand did look a little less-full. But my palswho sit in the stand told me the back straight crowd (drawn by the sunshine there, maybe?) was much bigger than for Edinburgh. So the two biggest crowds of the year are enticed by the £10 deal, and it is on again next Saturday for Ipswich. But without a large visiting support this time, it will be locals who make or break the promotion's promise to keep prices down if crowds stay up. For us regulars, it make sound commercial sence to try and spread the word around the area during the coming week. So far, it seems to be working!

Disagree on change. While there will always be a case to moan "it ain't fair to us" in any system, rolling averages are the single best thing to arrive in UK speedway for years. At a stroke, they have ensured the abysmal malpractice of June 4th, 2010 will not be repeated.

Plus Nicky Barrett is back too, and they have in Nick Morris a hopefully dependable guest at No 1. Seven riders! As far as I can tell, rider-replacement for Ricky Ashworth didn't score a single point last night!

And might not the Swedish League play-offs not be considered a "National (team) Championship"? However,I am not suggesting I support Premier League riders being pulled away to ride in leagues overseas. Having successfully achieved a ban on Polish licence-holders, it would be good if the PL could extend the premise to others. Remember the great days of having only UK and Commonweath riders in the old National League?

No sir, if it were a question it would have a question mark. Also, to form such a question, the comma after "guest" would have been a full stop.

Just get a more-accurate poster than you had at Redcar last night, Sue.

I wasn't there, but from what I've been texted last night and today, Bandits were collectively awful. Speedway Updates equally bad, I had text from track about Micky Dyer crashing in a black-and-white hat (not mentioned) in Heat 8 and being withdrawn. At the same time, Updates had him in second place, but without extra points! Scores, and maybe results, on Updates most certainly wrong in that instance -- don't know if any other races were affected. Maybe we really won?

Unless Micky Dyer is ruled out after his crash and withdrawal last nite at Redcar, Berwick will only have one guest, who is Nick Morris.

Bring all your friends!

Let's get this clear. You are a Newcastle fan?

The one with the broken wrist?

Joe Haines?

As was evident on Saturday past, Berwick's success or failure might lie in their choice of available guest. Club website says he will be named today - more likely late tonight, when updates are usually posted - and that will allow us to make better forecasts of the end result But with good weather promised, the £10 offer continued for another week, the burgers sizzling and a confident glitter of Diamonds coming up the road, I am hopeful of a bumper crowd rolling in to see the meeting. It is really important we urge our friends (on Tyneside as well as Tweedside) to come out and support the sport on Saturday.

Instead of starting 2011 with sixteen teams - Ipswich, Plymouth (swapping leagues with Stoke) and Leicester arriving - the PL was cut to 14, and decimated further going into 2012 by Newport's suicide. It is plain to anyone that Belle Vue would benefit from "doing an Ipswich" - if only until their much-publicised new stadium comes into being -- as even any hand-out from Sky cannot under any circumstances defray their turnstile losses and EL rider-payments. The most-successful 'lower league' was the old National League of the late 'eighties, run indepedently of Rugby and able to retain the money generated by their own, always-financially-successful shared events. Let us collectively sigh for a return to those simpler, happier days.

Very good summary of the situation. Well set down. PL is in a better place this year than last, as the end-of-term competitions (play-offs, Young Shield) at least have targets set up to aim for over the final fixtures. Weather (mainly) and the compression of fixtures into the four-day schedule to which you refer haven't made it a perfect scenario just yet. Where the PL is still suffering is from losing two clubs when Birmingham and King's Lynn were force-fed into the EL to save the situation caused by Coventry and Peterborough's toys-out-the-pram idiocy in the winter of 2010/11. Ipswich have proved that it is far from suicidal to move leagues -- let's hope, from a PL perspective, at least one EL club follows them during the coming-all-too-soon winter months.