Armadale Devils v Berwick Bullets (Friday 7 May 7.30)

[ScunnyDan]

21 minutes ago, IronScorpion said:

Just a late starter to the sport with his birthday being 14/05 /98. He could have been on an educational programme before getting into the sport.

Regularly does amateur meetings at Scunny, very surprised no one picked him up earlier

[Bagpuss]

25 minutes ago, IronScorpion said:

Just a late starter to the sport with his birthday being 14/05 /98. He could have been on an educational programme before getting into the sport.

Absolutely, am sure there is a perfectly good reason for it but imagine how good he could potentially be if he was a few years younger? Hopefully he can still improve rapidly and have a good career at a higher level. 

[mac101]

think he has a full time job and never ever really had the equipment or finances to do racing great kid 

[Fromafar]

Good result for the Devils,thought Bullets top end would have been too strong.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Fromafar

[Tsunami]

1 hour ago, Bagpuss said:

Absolutely, am sure there is a perfectly good reason for it but imagine how good he could potentially be if he was a few years younger? Hopefully he can still improve rapidly and have a good career at a higher level. 

George has been around for a number of years having started at Northside training track. He has had a history crash, bang, wallop,  but still kept coming up for more. Lately he has started to put it together and now looks an exciting rider when he stays on. Love the hassles and his enthusiasm.

[Bandits4eva]

49 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Good result for the Devils,thought Bullets top end would have been too strong.

The two things which swung this for the Devils were the magnificent performance from George Rothery and our 3&4 pairing getting done over 14-4 in their races together... 

I said beforehand to the hubby that we’d get a point... that we did... okay, disappointing not to get more but there you go... 

Another very good show from Leon. Aye, it’s expected of him in this league but if anyone had seen him in his last meeting there, I didn’t think he’d get 13 points. 
Decent showing from Kyle too... when these two get properly dialled in they will be very very hard to beat anywhere! 
But Kieran Douglas deserves major plaudits too.... paid 10 from him which, if I’m right, would be one of if not his best scores in a competitive league..

All in all, a decent point and a good start for us ☺️

[Fromafar]

3 hours ago, Bandits4eva said:

The two things which swung this for the Devils were the magnificent performance from George Rothery and our 3&4 pairing getting done over 14-4 in their races together... 

I said beforehand to the hubby that we’d get a point... that we did... okay, disappointing not to get more but there you go... 

Another very good show from Leon. Aye, it’s expected of him in this league but if anyone had seen him in his last meeting there, I didn’t think he’d get 13 points. 
Decent showing from Kyle too... when these two get properly dialled in they will be very very hard to beat anywhere! 
But Kieran Douglas deserves major plaudits too.... paid 10 from him which, if I’m right, would be one of if not his best scores in a competitive league..

All in all, a decent point and a good start for us ☺️

For me the results don’t really matter, if the League can produce young talent it will serve its purpose.Personally for me I don’t see any advantage for riders with CL spots apart from more track time.Slick tracks and wear and tear on machinery is all they will benefit from the meetings and there is always a higher risk of injury racing  inexperienced youngsters.They must be earning enough to make it pay or it seems pointless IMO.

[Triple.H.]

There was a Naval exercise of the south east coast of Scotland yesterday, they did put out information that WiFi/Broadband signals may be affected, Possibly that was the cause of buffering etc

[topsoil]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

For me the results don’t really matter, if the League can produce young talent it will serve its purpose.Personally for me I don’t see any advantage for riders with CL spots apart from more track time.Slick tracks and wear and tear on machinery is all they will benefit from the meetings and there is always a higher risk of injury racing  inexperienced youngsters.They must be earning enough to make it pay or it seems pointless IMO.

Could be useful for any rider struggling to pick up points in the Championship, if they are scoring well or winning races in the National League, to keep up their confidence. 

But for me the National League is made for riders like Mason Watson and Keiron Douglas. Really hope these young local lads progress this season.

[*JJ]

20 hours ago, ScunnyDan said:

Regularly does amateur meetings at Scunny, very surprised no one picked him up earlier

Some years ago, I transported a rider to meetings. George Rothery was his main rival in Novice class at Scunthorpe back in 2014! George once smashed Chris' front wheel in an over-enthusiastic overtake, which annoyed Chris' step-brother considerably, but personally I think that it was just racing. I am glad to see that George is progressing so well.

[Bandits4eva]

On 5/8/2021 at 7:39 PM, Fromafar said:

For me the results don’t really matter, if the League can produce young talent it will serve its purpose.Personally for me I don’t see any advantage for riders with CL spots apart from more track time.Slick tracks and wear and tear on machinery is all they will benefit from the meetings and there is always a higher risk of injury racing  inexperienced youngsters.They must be earning enough to make it pay or it seems pointless IMO.

To me, I believe the results do matter for us.... yes, development is important but teams are also in this to win it. We’ve taken the plunge in going into NDL... for it to be viable, particularly the 2 standalone NDL meetings, it’s better that we have a team capable of winning. We’ve seen how fickle fans can be in the championship when we ain’t doing well.. I don’t wanna see a struggle/ empty stadiums for the NDL team! 

[Fromafar]

28 minutes ago, Bandits4eva said:

To me, I believe the results do matter for us.... yes, development is important but teams are also in this to win it. We’ve taken the plunge in going into NDL... for it to be viable, particularly the 2 standalone NDL meetings, it’s better that we have a team capable of winning. We’ve seen how fickle fans can be in the championship when we ain’t doing well.. I don’t wanna see a struggle/ empty stadiums for the NDL team! 

I can see your point if we only had aTeam in the  NDL.The pricing of the double headers might affect the crowd levels for the Championship meetings IMO.Personally don’t think the doubleheader’s will attract a significant amount more fans ,which might not help with the viability for supporting  and running the NDLteam.

Very difficult to predict how the sport will be affected with aftermath (or otherwise)of the pandemic.Hopefully things will work out OK.

[TMW]

On 5/8/2021 at 7:39 PM, Fromafar said:

For me the results don’t really matter, if the League can produce young talent it will serve its purpose.Personally for me I don’t see any advantage for riders with CL spots apart from more track time.Slick tracks and wear and tear on machinery is all they will benefit from the meetings and there is always a higher risk of injury racing  inexperienced youngsters.They must be earning enough to make it pay or it seems pointless IMO.

Of course results have to matter. It’s a sport, winning is the end game. Whether it’s CL PL or 2nd Half. I’ve heard this before you’ve  got to have a will  to win. If the aim is for Championship you won’t get many promoters & Team managers in the CL saying “Just go out and enjoy yourself” and of course they have to be able to challenge weaker CL riders to gauge where they are and where they need to be!! 

Rothery was the stand out rider on Friday 

i felt Edinburgh was let down with the streaming Production team ! I didn’t get any buffeting but I thought the production and presentation was poor,  comparing it to Berwick’s . Hopefully everyone will give this Friday another go  

[Sings4Speedway]

On 5/9/2021 at 11:35 PM, Fromafar said:

I can see your point if we only had aTeam in the  NDL.The pricing of the double headers might affect the crowd levels for the Championship meetings IMO.Personally don’t think the doubleheader’s will attract a significant amount more fans ,which might not help with the viability for supporting  and running the NDLteam.

Very difficult to predict how the sport will be affected with aftermath (or otherwise)of the pandemic.Hopefully things will work out OK.

The balance when running double headers is generating enough interest to keep people staying behind to watch the second meeting. If there are two matches that serve up plenty of entertainment then the night looks value for money, if the NDL team was getting bashed every week it becomes a harder sell for both products at a higher price. 

[Fromafar]

37 minutes ago, Sings4Speedway said:

The balance when running double headers is generating enough interest to keep people staying behind to watch the second meeting. If there are two matches that serve up plenty of entertainment then the night looks value for money, if the NDL team was getting bashed every week it becomes a harder sell for both products at a higher price. 

I personally think it would have been more viable to run NDL meetings as stand alone.Obviously the Promotion have good reasons to plan the fixtures as they have done though.

[Sings4Speedway]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

I personally think it would have been more viable to run NDL meetings as stand alone.Obviously the Promotion have good reasons to plan the fixtures as they have done though.

Ive never been a fan of double headers and have often seen the second meeting get second billing and secondary levels of respect BUT i can fully appreciate that financially it makes a lot of sense, time will tell with the couple of stand alone meetings that teams are planning to run but i fear that the numbers could be way below what is required to run teams individually.

[George Dodds]

2 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

The balance when running double headers is generating enough interest to keep people staying behind to watch the second meeting. If there are two matches that serve up plenty of entertainment then the night looks value for money, if the NDL team was getting bashed every week it becomes a harder sell for both products at a higher price. 

Trouble is some seem to equate winning directly with entertainment.

You can have a cracking race with all four riders going hell for leather and still be on the wrong end of a 5-1. Surely that's entertaining?

Alternatively you can have 12 gate and go 4-2s win by 20-odd points but not see a pass all meeting. Victory but entertained?

Some argue that some of the best speedway at Berwick in recent years was 2017 - others said they wouldn't watch again because they were getting beaten every week.

Opinions - well you know what they say about them.

As for double headers against stand-alone NDL. Again you pays your money and takes your choice but, in addition to the obvious VFM of one rent, one set of medical cover, insurance etc I'm not sure (without actually totting it up) that we would have enough Saturdays to stage standalone NDLs bearing in mind that ours and the opposition reserves may very well have other commitments ... and midweek speedway tends to be pretty disastrous in terms of crowds at Berwick, even when it's been a British Final.

Time will tell.