bigeddiechek

Goodness only knows, everyone stopped listening to their "the season is over" garbage on the Berwick thread ages ago. It's not right that you guys should have to put up with it either. There's been some funny home results all around the country so far. Looks like you've picked up a gem in Berge. Nice style, looked last week at Shielfield. Just make sure those pesky Bandits don't try and pinch him!

As if the result wasn't enough for you guys today, you've got all the village idiots posting on here!

I think the Bandits' tails will be up for this one. Anyone know if David will be riding?

Nobody mentioning how good a signing Vissing is turning out to be?

I got that wrong, he's not pretty exciting: he's very exciting! Slow first half of the meeting, superb second half. Great gutsy win for The Bandits!

I think folk have got a bit bored with the Robin and Callum double act. Had its day, I think.

Good scores from the two Berwick boys

I'm looking forwards to seeing further improvement from Steen. He's pretty exciting to watch.

Shine a light!

Was intended as a comparison. We do well for a sparsely populated area. Now, I am not saying that we can't do better. I also agree that speedway has big problems attracting sustainable crowds.

OK, fair enough, but it still doesn't make catchment area irrelevant. A retailer would not avoid city centre prime locations because of competition. They will choose it because of footfall. Maybe that will help get my point across? Assuming they can afford it, let's see who uses that to avoid discussing the point sensibly.

Maybe that is speedway's answer, move all the teams to rural locations? Fromafar, you're completely missing the point Certainly a lot less other attractions than in the cities.

Yeah but wasn't the point, when I referred to catchment area. It was conversion rates. Of course it is relevant. Doesn't matter how good your promotion is if you are at capacity. The fact is, the clubs that have smaller catchment areas are likely to have to work harder to get good numbers. It's lunacy to state otherwise, so stop sidestepping the point to avoid admitting you were wrong.

No, I don't, and I agree with you on your points. The catchment area was in response to the success of Edinburgh and Newcastle. You've also got to consider any form of marketing, advertising, promotion has very well established conversion rates. So, if a club with a smaller catchment area (or footfall, if you like), attracts the same crowd as a club with a larger catchment area, then that is good. No one will argue that the sport is having to work hard to attract enough fans to keep it viable. As I've argued many times on here, it is actually the fans' responsibility to support it, if we want it to survive. Fans don't support it, then it is dead. Fans support it, then it will flourish, and they will be in a position to be more reasonably demanding.

How on Earth can you say catchment area is not valid? I don't follow the logic. Crowds are much smaller than in the past, that is just because society has changed a lot, more things to spread about the public's spare time.

That's just crazy talk!

Ermm, it's hugely relevant, unless you are advocating some sort of teleportation system which makes catchment area redundant?

I know I shouldn't keep banging on about it, but we have had success, just not league success. Remember there can only be one winner of a league, you can't judge success by that alone. Taffy's example with Hull is a good one. I think keeping The Bandits alive in a tiny catchment area (compared to the two city teams you mention), is a success alone. Add to that winning the fours, and now three consecutive FIM meetings, then that is also pretty successful to me. Of course, this is not to say I don't set out every season hoping we will challenge for the league. Remember, the best fans in sport are not glory hunters, but the diehards who support their club through thick and thin.

That's what I was thinking Screm. It's clear we both know him well.

No chance someone as thick as you are went to University.

It was Peter's best season, with respect to the league, but his worst gates. He said nobody wanted to come and see us thrashing teams.

We were challenging for the title right up to the end. The crowds were atrocious that year.

Not in 2005 they didn't!

Bloody freezing it was up on the banking! Beer is always the answer, but I don't need to tell you that.