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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......

Infuriating when a rider misses the 2 minutes in their first ride but to then use the same misfiring bike heat after heat is unforgiveable. Well it is in this case!

I may be stating the bleedin' obvious here, but I would suggest that these end-of-season Lakeside fixtures at Rye House are of crucial importance to the future of speedway in this part of the country. Rye House fans are pissed off because they have lost their team, Lakeside fans likewise because they have lost their track. However, if enough people come through the gate for these meetings, it might just mean that the Hammers name (and promotion) lives on, and competitive speedway continues at Hoddesdon in 2019. It's now up to us fans, effectively. If as an old Rockets fan you don't want to support a different team at your track, you have the right to choose not to go. Hammers fans who either are unable to make it to Hoddesdon, or prefer not to, can also make that choice. So, you might say that in this instance the power lies with the fans. We can make this work - if we want it to. We just need to turn up.

Self interest again running clubs and also being apart of the bspa Its like the chelsea owner sitting in the head fa chair? Dosn't really work

And some over 30 are well past their best by date lol

I can remember several of us commenting on how we were in the right place at the right time and had been fortunate to meet you on that night. Also as it was a GP qualifier (which shouldn’t be raced on Mondays anyway as it’s a UK race day) it could easily have been Iversen & Lambert missing that night. Your last sentence rather spoils what was up til them a very good post. Our fixture list is a shambles and I think Lynn favs are entitled to express their displeasure.

Totally correct.. But when a meeting is re-arranged there needs to be some flexibility Would be nice to think that in the future maybe the two promotions can sort it out between themselves.. Rather that rules rules rules EG. Sheffield could quite rightly have said no we ain't coming that day as Shanes isn't available.. So if the home promotion are OK with them using RR rather than a NL wobbler to make the meeting more attractive then maybe that's ok Be nice in the future for both teams to make the call themselves and try and keep speedway as competitive as it can be.. Just like the meeting was last night It really isn't good for our sport when a rule overshadows the reason we all turned up last night.. Good hard competitive racing

think its worked out to ht 12 heat 10 can only be declared a result if loosing team agrees as far as I remember ill be paying full price

Pour one for me, although it's a bit early.

My memory of Czech tourists goes back to their first ever visit, as the Red Star Prague team in 1967. On an August Saturday afternoon when the Czechoslovaks were due to meet Cradley Heath Heathens I was riding a few miles away when i came across a car and an estate both with bike-laden trailers parked on the side of the road. The number plates on the Skodas made it obvious who they were, so I stopped and went over to them. Somehow they'd got all 8 riders (one serving as mechanic) plus the team manager and a face I recognised as BSPA secretary Dave Stevens into the 2 vehicles, along with leathers, helmets and kit, etc, for all the riders, plus 8 bikes ! (Possibly statistician Bryan Seery was also in there too, -? Sorry, it was a long time ago.) Admittedly Dave was only of slight build, (Bryan Seery the opposite,) and obviously only joined them once the visitors had reached London after their 800 mile journey across Europe, but even so, traveling conditions for the 9 would have been far from comfortable: what a difference from today's riders in their luxurious Mercedes Sprinter vans! Dudley Wood Stadium had always been notoriously difficult to find, - the SS&N once did a 'True or False' story entitled 'The Track that Disappeared' : - it was true, and based on Dudley Wood! Sure enough, even with Dave Stevens as UK guide, the party was lost. So after a brief chat I had them follow me the couple of miles to the stadium , in plenty of time for the match. I kept in touch with team manager Pavel Kacer for many years afterwards, - as an organiser of the Pardubice Golden Helmet he'd send me the programme each year plus other memorabilia, and I'd reciprocate with things like spark plugs for a family Hillman Minx that they couldn't get a match for behind the Iron Curtain. Cradley Heath was again on the tour programme the following year, 1968, and meeting with Pavel at the track that evening, he said that they'd got lost getting to Dudley Wood and had to follow a chap on a motorbike that led them to the track. Because of the poor english, I thought he was relating the first visit of the previous year: "That was me, I said, last year. "No, he replied, - Today, - it happened again !"

FRN's hasn't caused the problem but the night (Wednesday) chosen most certainly has!!

44890 for speedway.

Plus BB possibly

As it seems the likely top 2 will be Kings Lynn and Somerset, does it really matter who gets to choose oppnoents as it seems cut and dried who both would pick.