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Don't fancy Handicap racing at Berwick nowadays your handicapped enough when you miss a normal gate now.

An obsession with wanting a fair and consistent application of the regulations cant be a bad thing IMO How many times do people moan about 'manipulation' 'special dispensation' 'in the interests of the sport' and ask for an independant head Well guess what an independant head would not have agreed a facility Just because the match 'doesnt really matter' is no reason to ignore the set structure

but why did we have the hottest, driest summer on record with barely any fixtures taking place? they should have been rearranged earlier in the year.

What i would say to that is, that any rider worth their salt would get the set up after a heat or so, if they cant well thats not the tracks fault in my opinion. If you want to be a good rider you should be able to learn to ride any type of track. It’s to easy just riding the big open tracks where you hardly need to turn the bike and be a “throttle merchant” , the small technicall tracks sorts the men from the boys.( that is on way just directed at the comets).

Entertaining meeting that was close throughout. It could have been a banana skin for the Comets with Nicolai who is usually very professional falling well short of his usual high mechanical standards and skipper Ty not at his best. The rest of the lads showed great spirit to help blunt the sharp spearhead that is Wells, Worrall and Riss. Rasser showed a fantastic attitude to his racing tonight as indeed he has all season and along with Rene was hugely influential in securing the 3 points. Huge credit must also go to young Kyle Bickley whose 3 well earned points secured the 3 match points . Great to see him on the pace and riding with greater confidence, skill and belief. Nice to see Cookie working with him on his starts after the meeting top man ! Most entertaining rider for the Monarchs was Josh Pickering who easily had his best meeting at Derwent Park. On the night the Monarchs certainly deserved a point but if all the Comets had been firing they would have been denied it. Just hope the lads can keep the racing sharpness and mechanical integrity over the remaining matches as it would be great to do it for Club and Dan. Great to see an appearance from Gary Stead who looked in great shape in spite of scoffing in Wetherspoons !. Enjoyed the music tonight keep up the good work. Thanks to the Monarchs fans who made the journey think you will have felt better than i did at Armadale last night. Up the Comets !!

Never mind about commenting, the SCB should be taking the clubs concerned to task for deliberately flouting the speedway regulations to their own end. 16.5.1 A Team may utilise a "Facility" to cover the absence of a Rider(s) who: k) is on FIM Longtrack Championship duty (for the day of the Meeting only; no facility is permitted for practice day). Its pretty clear a facility only covers for the day of the meeting itself (today Saturday 1st September) so the facility granted by the BSPA MC is totally against the rules. The fact that this decision was made by the MC two of which are the promoters of the two clubs concerned Scunthorpe & Sheffield frankly makes it worse, just how long does this crap have to go on before the SCB actually start doing their job properly. As others have said the sport is currently lurching from one disaster to another.

You can't get a decent man under the age of 30 these days, they need their rest, bless em ....

its grip that sorts the men from the boys on any size track.

Well what a cracking meeting and is what you can get when you get 2 good teams racing on a track which is fair to both teams and not weighted in favour the home team. It could have gone either way all the way through the meeting and looked like ending in a draw until Rene and Rasmus came up with the goods in the last heat. The Monarchs have DP specialists in their ranks through Wells, Worrall and Riss who always give us a run for our money, however I was very impressed with Pickering. Hopefully we can both get through to the play offs, where hopefully we can give a much better account of things than last night.

I enjoyed that a good meeting with some very good racing. Was looking a bit ominous for the Comets early on with Klindt Barker and Proctor not looking on the pace. Rasmus Jensen was superb with his heat 6 win a great ride. Wells Riss and Worrall very good for Monarchs along with Pickering who put in some good efferts. Heat 15 was shaping up to be a cracker until the fall, hope the lads ok. Thought they would have re run it as it was only the second lap. But well done to the Comets for the win and the Monarchs for making it such a good meeting.

Even if they found land with permission , doubt anything can be done in time for next season,,so lets get behind the move to keep speedway in the area even if it is about 25 to 30 miles away from Lakeside...Not ideal but real speedway fans will find a way to support it.....

Scott Nicholls must be getting close to a 4 home and 4 away average for Ipswich now !!!!

Are you often on the look out Blu

I agree aswell if we made the play offs or final then that should have been run at our track.

We think thank God at last.

Sorry, and I have no axe to grind here, but surely a rule is a rule and the fact that Chris Harris has worked his nuts off to be in the fabulous position to have a 'team' behind him shouldn't mean that other riders should have 'allowances' made because they're not as 'fortunate' as him.

Oh aye, and if some folk had ever raced a Speedway bike they'd think a bit harder before posting on here. This forum is full of Team Managers, Promoters and expert riders who stand on the terraces every week filling a programme in, crack on.

Yes , how can any fan call it a trick track when you can't see half of it , just coloured helmets above the air fence. Have been there once never again it's like going to the pictures with the bottom half of the screen blanked off.

Sure.. But i don't really care about the wrongs and rights to be honest.. I go to watch 4 loons going at it on an oval track and to be entertained.. And tonight I did that and was treated to some excellent entertainment Again.. Well done both sets of riders.. A great night's racing

Taken from NL Completing Fixtures thread the problem is that when there's call off's early in the season there's no effort by either side to get a restaging as there's so much of the year to go then when our usual 'summer' weather hits we get what we have now . the fact we are here again after the summer we had this year just hammers home that nothing will ever change . & Report post Posted 3 hours ago I have to agree. Berwick and Sheffield were the same in that they finished in August. Teams make excuses to move the cut off date and all it does is affect the teams that get on with the league meetings. It is mostly the same teams every year that drags the season out.

Actually the rule says that you DON’T get a facility for practice day- which on occasions can be the day before the meeting day- As you have rightly said practice and event are today.

Ritchie said on the Mike on Thursday that apart from Scott and one or two others, it appears the younger riders don't want to race every night of the week, hence getting guests was hard.

Only in Speedway 2018 (UK) could you have fewer fixtures and yet still struggle to run them within the proposed timescale. Looking in from a distance its been a good season for Berwick all things considered. Looking healthy for 2019 as much of the team could pick itself.

Just one, that being the team full of Danish riders who therefore had to have lots of blank Wednesdays as most of our team were riding in their homeland. Chuck in two or three rain offs and you get the need for two double headers. At least they are in the school holidays and in decent weather but certainly very much less than ideal, and it needs sorting for next year.

It doesn't really help with most of the riders having about a 3 week gap between fixtures. Why was the deadline extended as Berwick and Sheffield showed that the league meetings could be done and dusted by the end of August if you run against GP's, World Cup's etc (Berwick even stepped in to host an extra meeting when others were unable to host). It seems to be the same teams every year that seems to drag their heels with the fixtures. We had a great summer when teams decided not to race

How many teams have had to arrange double headers this season and how many have had/are having a second double header - just the one #justsaying

Obviously that depends on the match situation if you have a good Team Manager,he might get 7 rides if the right situation arises.

The majority of the riders have been going there for many seasons and still can't figure it out,that's why they are just journeymen riders trying to earn a living from a sport that can't afford them full time.

Oh dear, you're not supposed to make it obvious! A small win will be fine

No idea at all about the politics, rules or regulations behind Sheffield being granted a facility - and to be honest I couldn’t really care less, I just want to see four riders, good racing and preferably a Sheffield win! But... It cost me about that to take a suitcase to Croatia and back - I doubt Shanes, his mechanic (dad?), bikes, engines, spares etc will be able to fly for that amount!!! And given flight delays etc, would you risk arriving 2 hours before practice when representing your country? I wouldn’t. Harris has a team and no doubt has somebody who can drive a van to France for him - which from Sheffield would take best part of around 13 hours non-stop, so add on waiting for the ferry/tunnel, toilet/food stops etc, you’re looking at 16/17 hours travel at least, so too much to do in one day safely - That person or persons can no doubt set up the bikes and so forth when they get there. Shanes doesn’t have those kind of resources at his disposal. Also, I would guess that Shanes wouldn’t turn down the chance to earn money riding for Sheffield if he could help it - at his stage of career, he will no doubt want and need all the cash he can get his hands on. Finally, if you look at his schedule he isn’t exactly work shy when it comes to riding his bikes! He seems to cram in as many as he can, so again, would think that he would have preferred to ride if he possibly could have done. Anyway, perhaps we can all stop putting a dampener on what was an entertaining night. Scunny got 3 points regardless of the Sheffield team make up and so can be happy. Sheffield salvaged some pride after some woeful home performances. Everybody’s a winner

This is just great, so tell me which gear ratio? Do we change it every race as the track slickens? Back wheel right back or forward? Toe out or in line? We'll leave ignition timing and jetting for the time being and I don't think we'll need to tilt the bars forward a touch to get us up the front on grippy starts - there's not enough races to sort it all out!

Early doors it looked odds on Scunny reserves were gonna cost dearly again... However, how important was that 3rd place for Gino in heat 14! The lads got it in him, just needs luck on his side. Great comeback by The Scorpions.... tonight proved how we much we missed Josh and Jake, they were both awesome match winners tonight. It was a night of truly great entertaining racing....to be fair, it usually is whenever Sheffield visit. A neutral would of loved that... Sheffield may be a little disappointed to lose at the death... but wow... what a heat 15, speedway doesn't get much better. Hats of to both teams for putting on a great show.

He /she is right though....as you said yourself on a different thread when Armadale is prepared grippy it is an extremely difficult track for away riders to score points on. Has as much home advantage as any track in the country, the results over the years refelect that. Not sure why you take such great offence from that being stated.

BB thoughts...…. You can't think Poole had a "disaster" at King's Lynn. You said Poole wasn't bothered and didn't try !!.. I expect Poole to whoop em, same as you Steve

Coming up for this one should be a good meeting, big downside is what happened to Dan hopefully he makes a rapid recovery and comes back stronger than ever next season, the most naturally gifted rider ive seen at BV since the days of PC and Mort.

Surely the main aim should be to merge Rye House and Lakeside into one club? no good using the Rye House name , this could actually be the makings of a really good club if done properly. With Jon Cook involved though, people would be right to have concerns.

At this stage the team name is not important.....The survival of speedway in Essex is......

rasmus really turning out to be a great rider fantastic tonight nice to see kyle looking much more competitive some really really good racing tonight 1 thing for sure is that the dry rock hard tracks weve had recently need to be a thing of the past the little rain before the meeting done the track good still a bit dusty at times but hey the action on track spoke for its self give the riders a good race track and they will entertain like they did tonight wonder if rasmus needs to go to 3 or 4 and move dans r/r or guest to no 2 rasmus and rene at 3 and 4 might work a treat

Proctor is known for it, dunno why he bothers riding sometimes.

Went once around 15 years ago, stood in the 3rd/4th bend covered area where you only got to see half the race at the other end of the track , think we got well beat that night as well. Vowed never to return and never will.

i think my old man had a stint there .

Thought it was 9 days in the UK. Maybe Racers & Royals could tell us if the rule applies to practice. It should IMO cos concussion is concussion whenever it happened.

I have to agree. Berwick and Sheffield were the same in that they finished in August. Teams make excuses to move the cut off date and all it does is affect the teams that get on with the league meetings. It is mostly the same teams every year that drags the season out.

When it was much slicker than normal! If a track is prepared grippy (as is any home teams right) it’s a different kettle of fish, riders aren’t used to it and if the home riders have the set ups spot on then you get score charts like last night where quality, experienced away riders are made to look silly. We had it at Lynn in the noughties.....I remember thrashing Edinburgh in 2003 and riders like Rory Schlein and Frede Schott were being beaten by Darren Mallett and Adam Allott simply because of set ups. Of course it helps when you have a good team like Edinburgh have, I don’t see comments about home advantage as a criticism, it’s just reality. And doesn’t need to be met with defensiveness. As long as the track doesn’t have bumps and holes in it then it’s all good.

What a lot of nonsense. It would take any rider a few weeks to get back up to speed after missing half a season, yet Willie has been out for 8 years - so what on earth do you expect? He's improving heat by heat, week by week at the moment and last night the main issue for him was just being a tad slow to get to the 1st bend. He came from the back to pass Bach in heat 2 and also heat 14, though Rene repassed him later in the heat, and he also took Campton from the back after a couple of laps in heat 7, though again he was caught on the run in to the line. If he keeps improving at the rate he is doing so, (bearing in mind he was well off the pace when he rode his first match back) he'll be what he stated he hoped he might be on the mic last week - able to bang in 4 or 5 each week at home by playoff time and add a couple away. He could well yet turn out to be the secret weapon, not the Achilles heel...

According to William tracks are far more differently set up now than they were back then. So obviously finding a set up is going to take a little bit of time he’s actually getting better each time he goes out.

...you never know I'd probably give it a visit living in York as I do! However I've left the front door wide open to allow the 'Flying Pig' that often frequents my house an easy escape route!

He will win ht 2

The only way Edinburgh won't win the play offs is if the weather prevents them from preparing a grippy track at armadale (or if they suffer injuries and I would nt wish that on any rider or team)

Even more countries could put out one competitive rider, but at what point does it cease to become a team competition? Two riders is not a proper team competition in my book, however well it might have worked, and you also have the issue where 5 countries are sitting out each heat. The SWC was generally the best international competition over the years, and usually produced good racing. Absolutely ridiculous to be changing the format because one country happens to have a run of success. The Poles are far less dominant than Denmark were in the 80s, England/Britain were in the 70s, and Sweden were in the 60s, and they didn't radically change the World Team Cup format then. Did FIFA turn the World Cup into a 5-a-side competition after Brazil won it a few times?