crescent girl

An SCB licence clearly states on the back "This licence does NOT entitle entry to ANY speedway event". Free entry for a former rider, a currently-licensed referee or your tea lady is entirely at the discretion of the staging promoter. Berwick's offer of a lifetime pass to every former Bandit (proving hugely popular with all concerned) requires the ex-rider to contact the club by e-mail to allow his pass to be mailed to him.

Unlikely Todd Kurtz will be there either.

Todd Kurtz has joined his little brother as a no-show. Plymouth will use Ben Barker as another guest. Hmmmmm.

The big crash was when wee Peter was promoting but the radar gun was later, under the new promotion. Definitely Paul Fry at 75mph. Second fastest was Makovsky. Might it have been the same night (against Newport) that Paul Clews produced a wonder-ride in Heat 15 to grab a draw?

Bandits' e-Newsletter has hit the ether, and includes: Our Saturday opposition on July 2nd will be Plymouth Devils, who have proved troublesome opposition at Berwick in recent seasons. This time around, the Plymouth visit will be headlined by the guest appearance of Newcastle's Stevie Worrall, replacing Australia's Brady Kurtz, who will be in Italy, racing at the same GP Challenge semi-final as our own Dany Gappmaier. Both teams will be deploying rider-replacement on Saturday night. Bandits have invited Redcar's Simon Nielsen to ride in Dany's position. Simon was a successful scorer for us back in April, when his nine points from four starts helped us gain a League Cup draw with Glasgow. Bandits: 1 Kevin Doolan (captain), 2 Sebastian Alden (r/r), 3 Theo Pijper, 4 Matthew Wethers, 5 Thomas Jorgensen, 6 Simon Nielsen (guest), 7 Liam Carr. Devils: 1. Steve Worrall (guest), 2. Kyle Newman (r/r), 3. Sam Simota, 4. Todd Kurtz (captain) 5. Jack Holder, 6. Stefan Nielsen, 7. Ellis Perks

I think everyone at the Berwick club agrees, they have already contacted an astonishing number of riders to cover Seb's absence without success and you hit the nail on the head -- he has to be the right rider. The right rider is better than r/r every day of the week -- the wrong rider isn't!

Brilliant positioning of Bandits' banner throughout last night's GP. Appeared before almost every race, often for 20 seconds or more. To buy such worldwide television time and product exposure would cost something like £100,000. Well done the Berwick fans who took it and placed it so well.

Whoosh

Problem only solved if you live north of Watford. Two meetings "oop north"? Forget it. Anyway, the night before the GP is ideal, Somerset's ideal and the rules have been in place for years. Get on with it.

Considerably less than EL!

The Laws of the Game state the length of a soccer pitch can be between 100 and 130 yards, and the width between 50 and 100 yards. However, it must be expected that the SFA will have differing (minimum) measurements within these parameters which member-clubs have to adhere to. In any case, Shielfield is first and foremost a soccer ground, their pitch reigns, speedway has to fit around it. We don't like it -- a shorter, narrower pitch would make the track as good as just about anywhere -- but there it is. Even so, watch Sky on Monday, or come along and watch live, and you'll still see a pretty good show!

Well, according to a recent Newcastle programme, Sky are only at Glasgow and Berwick next week because these two tracks' supporters' clubs paid Nigel and Kelvin to do their roadshow for them during the winter!

In the words of the great Basil, you started it! Actually, I was thinking of pointing out how Sky do seem to like going to tracks where the standards have been dramatically improved, such as Berwick post-Peter, and more recently Glasgow. If the Rye stadium reconstruction matches their track improvements, then they might also get a future reconsideration.

And, as your e-Newsletter will by now have told you, your wish has been granted.

And when were Sky last at Rye? Was that the night the track was so bad even Chris Holder couldn't ride it?

Bandits beat Monarchs in 'Matty's match' -- last Heat 5-1 by Matej Kus and David Bellego over Cook and Sedgy took all the biscuits.

Fourth time in four years for Shielfield on Sky, and this year at a time Bandits' results are going well. Workington have been on Sky four times, and yet to register a victory -- is this the one to break the mould? As always, Sky Sports being in town means a carnival atmosphere at Shielfield, fancy dress, flags a-plenty and fairground attractions. Gates open at 6pm, first race at 7.35. Let's go racing!

Averages!

No guests after July 1st.....

To keep record straight, the parade was due to go out spot on time @ 6.50, but a person in the Ipswich camp raised a query at the last moment about a Berwick rider's equipment, and getting it checked (it was all in order) caused an eight-minute delay. Apologies, but not the home promotion's fault.

Looking forward to a good one -- Ippo are always handy at Shielfield, but Bandits currently on a roll. Danny King's first meeting since becoming Champion -- he'll get a good reception.

Absolutely, Steve. Compare this season's (brilliant) British semi-final at Scunny with a dvd from ten years ago, a video from 25 years ago or cine film from the 'glory days' of the 1940s --- today's racing can be amazing at times. And racing in the past was just as dull, just as spread out, as it can be today if you get the wrong race. But we were all younger and more-impressionable back then. We loved it, and probably laughed at old-timers who told us it was so much better before the war. There weren't cynics on an internet to tell us we're watching a dying sport (which was a whole lot nearer death in 1956 than it is sixty years on) and spread doom and gloom in front of the young fans of today -- who quite probably think speedway's just great today, same as we did in our own salad days........

Less than that, Manu was on the grass before the 30m marker. But that was back then, when wee Peter pulled the strings. And the strokes.

Until the averages change again?

See post #1935