Berwick V Newcastle - Live On Sky - May 21st

[Chewbacca 653]

Very well said

[screm 8,067]

Thoroughly enjoyed our 1st night infront of the Sky cameras last night and the Berwick promotion can feel proud of their efforts.They promoted the meeting well for the last few weeks and was rewarded with a big crowd,I havent yet watch the whole meeting over again but from what Ive seen the Sky crew were well pleased also with Berwicks efforts,so from that point of view it was all positive.

 

Sadly though in the cool light of a wednesday morn it was another home defeat for Berwick,and Im sure the management must be asking how on earth a 4-man Newcastle team can win a meeting.But you cant take anything away from Newcastle,they deserved their win and in Lewis Kerr they seem to have yet again unearthed a star and if your looking for a reason for their win then look no further than young Kerr.

 

As everyone knows in tight meetings Hts13 and 15 are crucial,in both of these races last night Newcastle got 5-1s,meaning their top guys delivered,sadly for Berwick ours didnt.Sorry but our No1 needs to deliver in these races and he didnt last night.We wont be seeing Kennett for a while now as it appears he will miss our next home meeting with Ipswich.

 

All in all a great advert for PL speedway.

 

 

I was VERY, VERY saddened by Paul Starke's actions tonight. I have championed his cause since he was at Newcastle last Season. I think that he let himself down VERY badly tonight. :sad:

 

Agree with you,its something that nobody likes to see,Starke has been excellent so far for Berwick this season,I hope we wont be seeing that again.

 

:blink: :blink: If i remember rightly he kissed Lee Complins "helmet" when the bandits won the 4s. at peterboro..

 

Errrrrrrrrrrr.

[racers and royals 8,746]

I know its a bit of an anorak question,but is Berwick foam fence a one off?,is it designed locally,seems to work pretty well,fair play to whoever designed it.Also fair play to the Berwick crowd for topping off a great night of speedway.

Kings Lynn have one as well-they are FIM approved and are marketed by Champion products http://www.championproducts.info/

[screm 8,067]

It's called gamesmanship.

 

Your right it is called gamesmanship.but its part of the game thats not nice to see.

 

Nor is it nice to see part of the Berwick promotion congratulating Starke for his "efforts".

[Dave_minall 232]

If you consider how Starke simply slid off and stayed down, compared to Smith's high speed crash into the fence, that should put it into perspective. If one of these riders had less chance of getting up and off the track, it was Smith, and he was straight up to clear his bike. Disgusting thing to do. The replay shows that Starke was miles behind Smith and would have had plenty of time to get out of the way, rather than put it down. This was blatant cheating and he deserved his fine.

 

Aside from that blip, the meeting was fantastic and clearly shows that the Berwick promotion are doing their job properly. If only all tracks were run like them.

[foamfence 2,917]

CONGRATULATIONS to Berwick for staging a FANTASTIC Meeting - great work by the Promoters and the Team.

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Newcastle 'Diamonds' on a TERRIFIC Away performance and a GREAT win.

 

I was VERY, VERY saddened by Paul Starke's actions tonight. I have championed his cause since he was at Newcastle last Season. I think that he let himself down VERY badly tonight. :sad:

Exactly! I have supported him in the past when he has come on here asking for PL chances. There must have been some new people at Berwick or watching on TV, how do you explain that "oh if you're behind you cheat to try and get back"?

[greyhoundp 990]

Iv said before, The PL should negotiate its own broadcasting Tv deal..

[Sherborne Green 320]

Excellent meeting. Sorry to see Paul Stark stay down. He is a good NL rider and I used to see him riding for Plymouth. I don't think he will get too far acting like that.

 

However, back to the good things. A very fast good track that allowed passes to be made by the brave. A lot different tra ck to the one I visited at Barrington Lock.

 

Please Sky let us have more PL racing as I feel this is far more exciting to watch. The EL has the stars but not always the best entertainment.

[TheReturn 1,724]

Refs are allowed to fine riders for not making an attempt to clear the track, so it might have happened but not been allowed to broadcast it.

 

I guess the problem with just a fine is that if it was done to help the team, the team will often pick up the cost I suspect. A lot of people are blaming the rider, I am less inclined to blame the rider, but the rules which allows the team to get away with it.

[dantodan 314]

Well Newcastle take the maximum 4 points despite some early hiccups and having two key riders out. The winners were Sky who screened an excellent match unless you were a Berwick fan. I thought the Berwick folk did an excellent job of promoting the PL derby clash and it has to go down as a bit of inspired TV programming by Sky to choose this match to cover. Berwick didn't have the fire power of the Newcastle side. The Diamonds won by superior gating and their 2nd bend blasts. I am not going to criticise Paul Starke for dropping it and turning a probable Newcastle 5-1 into a rerun 3-3 as we won the match anyway. Richie and Robbo did the business as numbers 1 and 5 should but it was Christian and Lewis who helped make this a Newcastle success story. I wish the Bandits well for the remainder of the season but the Diamonds were awesome and as the match was on Sky the rest of the PL will know what to expect when the Diamonds come calling.

[Tsunami 10,219]

In a meeting then not before the season had started

 

And not an official meeting that counted.

 

Hugely enjoyed watching this one. Sky seemed to relish Berwick's efforts to make their cameras welcome. I'm told from two people who were there (and have not long got back) it was very well-presented in front of a very big crowd (Dick Barrie sensibly enticed back out of retirement!) and everything seemed spotless, new and and fresh. I'm also told Paul Starke was fined £100 for not clearing the track after what I thought was a genuine lay-down behind an out-of-control Kozza Smith.

 

Which it was, his 'crime' was staying down to get the race stopped. Clearly not injured or trapped.

[dantodan 314]

Please let me go off on a tangent. There has been a deafening silence about Andrew Tully's recovery from his injury, does anyone know how he is doing? When can we expect to see him on track?

[Fromafar 10,401]

I Personaly was disappointed with Kennett a rider of his experience should have been able to dial into the track for his later races, unlike Kozza and Matty who bust a gut he just went through the motions IMO although the track did slicken off in the later heats and made passing difficult ,maybe a track grade and a light water would have helped.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Fromafar

[Tsunami 10,219]

Great night last night for everyone and nice to see a biggish crowd in attendance.

The Berwick promotion did everything right last night with good signage, publicity, fans involvement, excellent programme change the best they have produced Dennis Mc, even bringing back Dick was a success and fitted in and fortunately subdued for the cameras, good cover for the sponsors and nice to see NEW HOLLAND splattered around especially on those brand new tractors doing an excellent job on the track. Must congratulate the 2 tractor drivers using two wonderwheels (there's a first) on producing an excellent track with good grip around the outside, which they maintained all night. A lot of curators just rough the surface up for grip but they skimmed it everytime resulting in a very fine layer across 3/4 of the track, and it was remarkably good and consistent for all of the meeting. Top strip, and as others have said, why just for tonight. As soon as I entered the stadium I said this is going to suit us, gaters who can race, and so it proved .

The first heat 1-5 was a surprise, as was the reverse in heat 2, and I then though maybe Lewis was hurting and we were going to miss his surprise scores that we have got used to. No need to worry as he turned in a brilliant score, which could have been even more if his grip wires hadn't snapped and he trained in last. His wrist was very sore at the end of the meeting but, with KL off tonight, he has a rest till Saturday guesting at Worky.

Think SKY got full value, with the quality of the meeting, and also the racing and result, and it is great to hear a lot of positive comments on here about the meeting and the recognition of good PL racing.

The efforts of the promotion were greatly applauded, and I agree with HalifaxTiger, that this promotion has increased it's act, in the few years they have been in business, more than any other track.

 

Pity about the make up of the teams though, which was NO reflection on the 2 clubs involved. George English, and the Newcastle promotion, would NOT have agreed to this fixture unless an arrangement had not been made for us to field a full team. It would have been unfair to the fans, and it also threatened to halt our expectations of a result, on our pursuit to try and go for the PL title. To insinuate on here that George slipped up, and went with a weaken team just for the sake of SKY, is laughable. SVEMO, and the two clubs involved, would not have guaranteed both Swedes to ride, therefore some compromise must have been made to tempt us to stay with the fixture. Thing was we did, but then see Robin take his place in the Berwick lineup, no Luddi for us but balanced up by FIM banning Bellego from riding, but then unbelievably Berwick getting R/R for his absence and us no facility for Luddi. Crazy world with too many cooks, and unqualified expert critics me thinks. Given the result and especially the quality of everything about the meeting, I was very pleased that the 2 non MC members of the Newcastle promotion did not pull the plug on Newcastle's presence in the meeting.

Berwick had a lot to celebrate last night and take a lot of credit in celebration of their efforts to make this meeting such a great success. Yes they lost, but quite frankly with the return of Ricky, and some form from Robin(4 points last night and I said the result depended on him) Berwick will be fine, and I would recommend anybody to visit to their track, and also visit to Robert Smith's chippy after the meeting.

 

A great night out.

 

Please let me go off on a tangent. There has been a deafening silence about Andrew Tully's recovery from his injury, does anyone know how he is doing? When can we expect to see him on track?

 

Hardly that John. Andrew has been seeking and getting Hyperbaric treatment, and has just returned from the warmer climate in Turkey, in an attempt to shorten the healing process time. Incidentally, Andrew was there last night cheering on the lads, and Berwick even imported warm weather for him. First time ever I have had to take my coat off, cos it was too warm at Berwick.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Tsunami

[Wessex Wanderer 148]

Very enjoyable meeting. Good racing, enthusiastic riders and a crowd enjoying themselves. That is what Speedway SHOULD be about. After the shennanigans, arguing and petty sniping about EL rules, team make ups and postponements it did a lot to restore my faith that Speedway in the UK does have a future.

 

The Paul Starke incident apart, everyone concerned can take a lot of credit for this one. As far as that incident was concerned maybe there needs to be a rule whereby if a rider causes a race to be stopped when an opposition rider is in the lead and the race is not awarded then there should be a 4 point deduction from the "offending" team regardless of the outcome of the rerun. Might be a bit unfair to "innocent" fallers every now and again but nowhere near as unfair as the other team losing a well earned 5-1 through an error by an opposition rider.

 

Whatever, one incident should not detract from an excellent evenings entertainment. Please Sky can we have a lot more Premier League matches. Maybe even an occasional dip into the National League too.

 

:)