ON YOUR MARKS…..
20 March 2025
The Dirt Xtra
Sarah Charalambous
Well, here we are….. Season 2025….. On your marks….. Welcome to the…

Okay… I’m late again…. but I’ve had a lot going on this week, honest!!
But come on… did last Saturday really happen?
Did we send the mighty Poole packing with only a single point when they expected four?
Did we actually get a home 5-1 in heat 13?
Well… YES to all of them!
An absolute backs against the wall performance it was… missing Dani & Jye following the previous week’s horrible Heat 1 accident and Leon again on international duty, we drafted in Ricky Wells and Tom Brennan.
Now I ain’t one to brag (yea, I smell that whiff in the air too 😂) but upon learning we had Tom Brennan as a guest, I did say to Mr. B that I was thrilled with that! And so it proved.
Ricky W had a mixed night….. taking a hard clatter against the second bend fence in one of his heats but still chipping in with valuable points.
Again, it was the extreme closeness that kept a great deal of interest in the meeting but what about heat 13?
Who expected Kasper and NBJ to do that? The 5-1 of that wonderful heat 13 generated stadium noise that we haven’t heard in a while..… and oh, it was so good! And it does, IMO, also prove why I and many others have been incredibly frustrated this season… because our team really can do it… they ARE capable of winning the big heats……
Anyways… onto this weekend!…. *Oh my childhood heart skips a beat here*….
My idol on a bike, other than Adrian Rymel 😍😂 comes to town. Three-time World Champion Jason Crump returns for what I believe will be the first time since the Bordernapolis in 2002. Actually he was a visitor to our British U-21 Championship last autumn, but as that was behind closed doors – and he wasn’t on a bike – I don’t think that counts!
Now, okay, he hasn’t set the league alight in the way people thought he would but haway, this is Jason Crump and he will always be one of the best speedway riders this world has ever produced!
He won his titles during the times of Tony Rickardsson, Leigh Adams, Greg Hancock, Tomasz Gollob, Nicki Pedersen et al…… No easy feat at all…… He comes alongside former Newcastle Diamond and GP winner Bjarne Pedersen who is doing some big things in this league. It will be nice to think we’ve got the beating of Plymouth but you just never know how their new boys will adapt to our track.
I’ll go on record and say I think an 8-10 point win for us. It’ll do for me.
And also… and this is leaving me somewhat worried yet very pleased to see… we actually will line up as a 7 man team.
Yep, Leon will be there and Dani AND Jye have declared themselves fit to ride.
Seeing as though Jye was only on crutches 6 days ago it does leave me concerned that he may be jumping back in a bit too early but it’s he who has been assessed at the unit at Cramlington and it’s he who knows his body!
Good luck to both of them… and let’s try get through this meeting with 14 safe riders ☺️
Now, on a different tangent… we’ve all read about the struggles that Newcastle and Birmingham in particular have had this season. And on Wednesday, I sat at home watching the updates from Birmingham just shaking my head again. Comment after comment was made about the dust coming from the track. This has apparently been a problem since the Brummies’ first meeting of the season.
I don’t mean to be a Dolly Downer but are they not their own worst enemies at this point? They may have had their troubles with break-ins from earlier in the year but the updates read that a water bowser was out but no water produced! Why?
! I’m no rocket scientist but would it not have made sense to water the track an hour beforehand and let it soak in? You are not likely to get regulars coming back if they can’t see what they are paying to see! There are the odd one or two happy clappers amongst the social media hordes who say we should be happy that Birmingham are surviving… and yes, I’m glad for them!
Perry Barr wasn’t too bad a track when I was last there! But can we not still be critical if they are not producing a product worth watching?
Right… Dolly Downer away… I’ve got big things I’m having to prepare for in the near future… you’ll no doubt hear should it actually go my way 😁
‘Mon the Mightys!!!
#UpTheBandits #UpTheBullets
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Disgree with Sarah? Contact her on: berwicks_b1tch@hotmail.co.uk – if you feel brave enough!