jrs

Twenty miles south of the track we've had thick low cloud and steady light rain for nearly an hour now and no breeze of note to blow it away. Looking at the rain radar there is a wide band of rain that seems to be slowly edging its way up the coast. Not looking too promising for speedway, but OK for a fish supper in Berwick !

Morris got himself into no-mans land, as he admitted in his interview he tried to get over Fricke but Fricke had gated well and Morris caused the initial problem by leaning into Fricke. Fricke was ahead and was obviously going to go for the dirt line and Morris made the wrong decision to keep going for the same line as Fricke. There was only one decision that could be made and the ref made it, Morris was the cause of the stoppage. It was clear from Nick's interview that he knew he had made the wrong decision as he had no real complaint to make. I think he even upset Tatum because he didn't have an angry reaction !! It's a shame that the meeting ended that way, but rules are rules. If all 4 back had been called and Somerset had won then Edinburgh could have justifiably have felt aggrieved. In the rerun there was always a chance that one of the Edinburgh pair could have suffered an engine failure and then been lapped and a different result could have happened. Congratulations to Edinburgh even without Cooke they still won it, a superb performance !

A belated Happy Birthday Gem, I hope you celebrated it in style !!

Thanks for that Alan

20 miles south of Berwick we've so far only had a very light sporadic drizzle for a few minutes here's the radar link, it looks ominous http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/

Here's the met office radar, looks like it is edging towards Brandon, hopefully it won't make it as there are three points heading the Bees way ! http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/

Seems like TMW has taken a vow of silence now !

Gem, he's a young Aussie doing well at Edinburgh, so with a bit of luck he'll pick up a few points for the Bees. And its Fricke not Ficke, hope you enjoy the meeting, brings back memories of the olden days lol

And presumably the first meeting may well be on April 1 2015

Just heard them mention Cycle Speedway on BBC Radio 2 sports news, and they also said there will be more on the next bulletin at 1850 today, unfortunately I shall be at the Doctors then and will miss it. With luck someone might be around and hear it and give us a full report ! Wakey Wakey Gustix, get the radio on !

That's sad news, I remember Nick well, always immaculately turned out and a handy rider too. Thoughts are with Nick's family and friends, RIP Nick

Sounds like a touch of pot and kettle to me

I think it would be very fitting if the meetings over the two legs were for The Gemini Cup

That certainly seems ridiculous to me, however you often hear the GP guys saying that the track has been prepped differently for the GP compared to practice. Are the FIM having any say in the preparation ? Good luck to all the riders tonight, there is a lot of quality talent at the meeting, and it would certainly be a boost for Berwick if Bellego does something special tonight, and good luck to young Adam, it would be good to see him collect a few scalps, its a big test for him but also great experience and another part of the learning curve and hopefully he and Kyle and Joe can pick up some points. In reality though I think Pawlicki and Dudek are likely to be front runners.

Fingers crossed for Ricky, he's had such an unlucky year. Be strong Ricky, thoughts are with you and get well soon

Looking at the rainfall radar it should become clearer west of Edinburgh, heavy rain seems to be concentrating on the east coast, good luck.

More bad luck for Berwick, Barrett on his way to hospital, Smith withdrawn tonight and Kennett's SGP qualifier postponed until tomorrow. What was promising to be a close encounter is now going to have to rely on being able to get guests at short notice that can still make it interesting.

R.I.P Freddie, I was never lucky enough to see you ride, but in addition to your magnificent achievements on the track at least you have managed to achieve possibly the biggest article concerning speedway in the Torygraph for many years in todays obituary columns. Thoughts are with Freddies family and friends at this sad time

Perhaps their luck will change tonight

Might be an idea to pop over to Holy Island in the morning and say a few prayers for some fine weather, you never know it might work (get back before the tide comes in though) ! Enjoy yourself up here, you could do worse than a visit to Bambugh Castle and the chippies in Seahouses for a snack. Don't worry about the river, it was high tide at lunchtime !

I think in many ways it could wind up supporters of all Elite League clubs for the simple reason it could well make what has already become a boring season even more boring. It is no wonder that Elite attendances are down and it is likely to make many more stay away, as the vast majority of Poole meetings will be a foregone conclusion, and the other teams have got little chance of anything better than second. Speedway and credibility have even less in common now ! Thats assuming that this is true !

Met Office forecast at the moment is for a mainly dry cloudy cool week. Best keep an eye on this link as the week progresses http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/ne/berwick_upon_tweed_forecast_weather.html There have been applications to the council about permission for adhoc rain-off reruns of meetings but I haven't read anything locally about the final outcome, though I believe the Council were recommending the changes.

Thanks speedyguy for the links, brings back good memories of my time with Leicester and Coventry and a few other teams, and some good pics from Leicester in the 60's, it's easy to forget just how many teams there were in local leagues as well as the national leagues.

Heathen, is this what you were looking for ? from Sues' updates site http://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=aus&action=display&thread=9789

I drive past on the A1 three or four times a week so I'll drop in one day when I've got a bit of spare time and see if its accessible. Interesting to see that the shape is still clearly visible, I had assumed that the land would have been put to other uses by now.