crescent girl

You could find that prediction coming back and biting you in the Baba-bum.

Berwick newsletter this morning reports that one early meeting is already sold out for hospitality, others filling up. Got a nice feeling about the coming season already -- it could be a good 'un!

Hey, Mods --- can't these multiple threads be consolidated?

Absolutely. Your #7 is out, you dip back into the NL pool for a temp (or indeed permanent) replacement. There can be no question of using a "guest #7" from another PL club. The rather-more-ticklish question comes when a #7 is injured in (say) Heat 2. On several fronts.

Absolutely true. Go along to your local track, be entertained, be thrilled and enjoy the terracing camaraderie. If you want, programmes and other club publicity will tell you what you need to know to further enjoy the experience.

Practice will be six weeks tonight. Hopefully that will get minds back on bikes and tracks. Meanwhile, what about former Bandits Jamie Robertson and Adam McKinna planning to drive across India in a motorised rickshaw? From the newsletter: Former Bandits Adam McKinna and Jamie Robertson, together with their good friend Campbell Rodgerson will be embarking on an astounding charity-raising drive in April -- going 1,600 miles across the Indian sub-continent, with no support vehicles or even a planned route! Not just that -- the intrepid trio are driving the entire distance in a tuk-tuk! These vehicles are the motorised rickshaws often seen in Indian films -- not exactly luxury transportation. "We are doing this as a personal challenge, raising money for the Wings For Life foundation -- the people who are desperately trying to research the business of spinal cord research" explained Adam. "So many speedway riders and other sports people are currently in wheelchairs, and we want to make a difference -- the question is not whether effective treatments and cures will be found, but when they will be found.” "So, as you might guess -- we are looking for some corporate sponsors. We estimate the total cost of trip might be around five or six thousand pounds and we are looking for some help to cover around 50% of these costs" "As Jamie and I raced as Bandits in the past, anyone interested in helping raise funds should contact us if you'd like to support us in any way and get some exposure for your business" "There will be massive publicity available to those involved, of course. Reach me at outstanding_wood@yahoo.co.uk to find out more".

Your support noted, and passed to the team producing the newsletter. Many thanks.

Errrrrrrrr, the poster was saying you never finished with the same team you started with. Not over-the-winter changes.

Er, unless you are Edinburgh last year!

FIM certainly took note of dangers imposed on helmet safety, and definately issued a ban. Anyone using one in a m/cycling event under FIM jurisdiction (not just FIM events) is going to lose their insurance rights, etc, if anything happened. As I understand it, the dangers were highlighted by Michael Schumacher's ski-ing accident, when he was apparently wearing a helmet-cam. The helmet manufacturers themselves then approached sporting bodies such as the FIM to emphasise the dangers.

Latest newsletter tells us Liam Carr will be guesting for Coventry at Glasgow's opening meeting, and that Kevin Doolan and Thomas Jorgensen will be representing the club at the BenFund Bonanza. All of which suddenly brings the season much closer.

My original post praised the poster (screm) for putting encouraging pieces of good news on this forum. That's good PR -- the point was that, as we might always try to do, we should identify our sources.

While it is encouraging to have you putting these little items of good news on here, you really should credit your sources, such as club website, club Facebook or newsletters.

I'd choose #3 front and #2 back -- but it is only the votes on the website which will be taken into consideration.

Yes, the original ambulance belongs to the speedway club, and will remain. The ambulance being bought by John Anderson is the one which the club have recently been hiring each week from Rapid Reaction to tandem it, and it is indeed the (new) £10K insurance requirement which has caused the need to purchase. As far as I'm aware, both ambulances fulfil Quality Care requirements.

Learning who Dyson is, it really makes you smile.

Willie Lawson, even if he was by now a 3.00 (probably isn't quite that low) couldn't be the No 7, as he has enjoyed PL and EL averages well above the cut-off point for NL eligibility -- which I believe is the criteria for the bottom-end 3-pointer. While a revitalised, returned-to-full-form Willie could certainly take over the other team spot and blow opponents out of the water, it would be a huge ask after being off the track for so long. The only rider I can think of who came back after a long time out and resumed top form was Lee Complin (who was much younger when he came back) all the others who have tried after five-year-plus gaps failed pretty miserably. Willie will be 29 when the new season starts. A sad loss to Scottish speedway, he was British U-18 Champion, a three-time British Finalist and a World U-21 Finalist (alongside Woffinden, Holder, Sayfutdinov, Batchelor, Zengota and Vaculik -- he was that good) before he gave it away and retired at the age of 23. When will we see his like again.......

But at this time last year, the club had a big hole in their budgeted accounts, through expectations of top-up funding by sponsors and from the supporters club not materialising. As a result the 2014 season had ended with the books badly unbalanced, so there was a real need for a main sponsor to allow 2015. The eventual backing by Kevin Dixon certainly steadied the ship. This past season, the club has been run to a tighter budget. Dixons' sponsorship has been paid in full and there is a consortium in place to spread the impact of any unplanned financial 'hits'. However, a main 'named' sponsorship is of course desirable, and we must hope that such an announcement will be forthcoming between now and the start of racing. As PT has stated previously, last year the club didn't announce Kevin Dixon's backing until February. From my viewpoint, the Bandits are in a much-happier finiancial situation than they were at this time last year. Obviously the club is not rich and will have no spare cash to flout about, but with the promotion, the consortium and -- especially -- the long-serving, hard-working team of volunteers all ready to keep things going forward, we should be aiming to see progress towards an amazing fiftieth anniversary in the not-too-distant future. To echo Big Eddie's sentiments, things have gone so well this winter, the team is set up and if the only point of discussion on here until late March 26th is to be Dyson 24's inane interjections (you do know who it is, don't you?) that'll be just fine.

Berwick were told by BSPA office last season Jake Allen would be a 5, then after he was named in their 1-7, BSPA said no, he's a 7. So, if Somerset name him this season as a 5..........

Now there's a post worthy of Dyson24!

He is 11 years younger than Robbo, 10 years younger than Leigh Lanham. A whole decade for Steve to become acceptable to the Rockets.

Sam Ermolenko and Andy Smith?

....and by whom?

It is not the case. An urban myth grew up when the club publicly announced they had signed up Kieran Douglas, and someone mis-heard the announcement and posted on here, or maybe the updates site, that it was Kevin Doolan,

OK, where did you "hear" that crap?