crescent girl

You started this pish. Want to retract it and apologise?

The British Speedway Network will go live for the first time on April 2nd and the FTS Bandits are honoured to welcome the Birmingham Brummies to Shielfield Park for the groundbreaking first ever, live streamed, Championship Speedway meeting on the new network.

Kyle Bickley?

VOLUNTEERS WELCOME THIS WEEKEND! The club will be working at the stadium this weekend, and will welcome any volunteers who can lend a helping hand. Work will involve general repairs, both to the safety fence and in other areas which suffered damage during the recent storms. Volunteers are requested to enter via the pits area.

Well, just a few seasons back, Edinburgh only completed their team when they signed up Claus Vissing at P&P, after he's performed well at the BenFund meeting at Berwick the previous week -- and more recently the same club went into P&P with an open invitation to "any rider who wants to show his worth" to claim their last team spot --- and landed a 16-year-old no-one had heard of, called Dan Bewley.

On a totally-different slant, will speedway be dramatically-changed this year, following Russia's aggression in Ukraine? Already, we are reading that UEFA will be moving their Champions League Final from St Petersburg, and tennis authorities are advising players not to attend competitions in Russia. Two immediate questions arise: Will the Russian GP round take place? And will the World Champion be welcomed to all the GP rounds in other countries?

£10 for NDL Bullets down the road....

No-one else had mentioned concession admission - are you suggesting Berwick's £13 is higher than at other tracks? Indeed, does every circuit in this league actually offer a concession to students and OAPs?

But he was in the boilerhouse of the squad, making them solid enough to win the league! I thing Berwick would accept that level of success.....

Not really. Berwick £17 adult, £13 concessions.

But yes if he performs like he did at Workyville in '18, Leicester in '19!

Results elsewhere have no effect on a rider's elegibility to ride in the NDL. He has to have a full UK passport and an ACU licence.

Star is giving Berwick good coverage of late. All we need now is the seasonal review.

Absolutely not! Naming a rider you're talking to, then having to announce he's not going to be available after all (even if no fault of the club) is quite the wrong way to go. Only announce a name when he is signed, sealed and delivered.

This would have been attended to at AGM time, l expect. But only their standard money, unless any special contracts had been lodged with the authorities pre-season. Riders who are publicising that they have unpaid debts will be seeking the extras promised by the failed promotion. Sadly, others owed dough -- outwith 'speedway debts' -- aren't likely to see anthing ...

Fair enough.

Lewis Bridger was badly let down by sponsored equipment when he re-started his career at Berwick, but made changes and dumped the guy (down south) who was providing the bikes. Lewis then bought new equipment from a GP rider, whereupon, until his season-ending crash a few matches later, he was getting better and better, and looking very much like a #1.

But it has always been so. Peter Collins, Mark Loram and Barry Briggs all retired, were replaced, and the sport moved on. You say the forty-somethings need replacing? As always, they will be. By Jacob Hook, George Congreve, Nathan Ablitt, Lasse Fredriksen, Dan Gilkes, etc, coming in fresh and new at the bottom to replace the retirees. Who in turn are replaced at the top by the brightest and best moving up through the league -- Tom Brennan, Leon Flint and Jordan Palin are going to be stars, Ryan Douglas and Josh Pickering are already well on their way. It's the Circle of Life, my friend. Hakuna matata!

Ty Proctor was a vital cog in Worky's treble-winning team of 2018, and again with Leicester's title-winners in 2019. If he provides the same solidarity for the Bandits, his signing could be productive, not least in away fixtures.

5.42

It is a tragedy the new Comets were prevented from joining this year's NDL by the vandalism. However, if it hadnt happened this way and the stadium opened in time, who would Workington have been able to recruit for a 2022 side? Surrounded by established NDL clubs at Edinburgh to the north, Berwick east and BV south -- who between them appear to have all the promising northern lads signed up -- might the Comets have struggled to get a team together? Indeed, might they have a similar problem in twelve months?

Bullets' fixture list offers three home stand-alone NDL matches, plus four double-header nights featuring both Bandits and Bullets. The stand-alone nights in April and May will fill blank dates in the CL calendar and provide regular speedway this season, hopefully allowing a continuity of Saturdays that hasn't been enjoyed at Berwick for quite a number of years. This alone makes last year's creation of the Bullets a worthwhile decision -- all the refreshing entertainment they provided in the process was a terrific bonus!

Fixture list now offers a nice continuity this season, with three stand-alone NJL meetings fleshing out blank Saturdays where there isn't a CL match scheduled. One blank Saturday in June is presumably insurance against one of the previous ten being rained off -- another in July would cover KO Cup progression or another rain-off. August has two blanks because of Cardiff and the GP Challenge, but all in all a pleasing roster of Saturdays in prospect. Bring it on!

Historically (1950/60s) Glasgow raced Fridays, Edinburgh on Saturdays. When Powderhall opened in 1977, they needed Friday, as Saturday was the big night for greyhounds. Although the BSPA might well have backed any Glasgow protest against the application, new Edinburgh promoter Mike Parker gained agreement from Tigers' owner Jimmy Beaton (for an undisclosed one-of cash payment) to also run on Fridays. The two clubs shared Fridays from 1977 until around 1994 or so, when Shawfield's bosses introduced Friday-night greyhound racing with Tigers switching to run on Sundays. When the Scottish Monarchs raced there in 1996, it was on a Sunday evening at 6.30. In 1997, Monarchs switched to Armadale and reverted to their traditional Friday, but Tigers remained a Sunday operation at Shawfield, and then Ashfield, for the next twenty years or so. Their first move was for a year of Saturdays, before adopting Friday again just two or three years ago (after close on quarter of a century of Sundays). On another slant, in the original British League of the mid-sixties, there were at least six Saturday circuits - meaning twelve clubs were involved every Saturday. The difference between now and then is guests. Having four Friday tracks in 2022 leaves little scope for recruiting guests, and if there was to be fifth circuit running on Friday, this would make finding a suitable guest nearly impossible.

As the play-off schedule comprises ten meetings, that's only twenty regular matches. Eleven CL clubs, means someone might only get one visit per season.