Briefing

Sunday 15 September, 3pm: Championship Riders’ Championship, Redcar Buy livestream

Just one last official outing for the Jewson Bandits this season, or at least our number one.

Lewi Kerr lines up at number 11 in the CLRC on Sunday afternoon and with a couple of successful seasons as a Bear under his belt starts the afternoon as a fancied outsider for the crown won in controversial circumstances by home skipper Charles Wright last year.

Injury and illness means that Craig Cook, Justin Sedgmen and Steve Worrall miss the second tier’s big day with Leon Flint, Ben Barker and Antti Vuolas called up in their place.

Lewis was missing, injured, when the Bandits won 47-43 at the Ecco Arena in April but averaged around eight points in the near two seasons with Redcar after joining them in 2021 following the withdrawal of Eastbourne from the league.

The Bandits have history in the competition with Wayne Brown (1980), Steve McDermott (1983) and Nick Morris (2017) winning it in its various guises.

Admission to Sunday’s event is £22 adults, £5 11-16 years, accompanied under-11s free. If you can’t make it to Cleveland on Sunday then the BSN team will be streaming it live from 2.30pm.

In riding order: 1 Richard Lawson (Poole), 2 Michael Palm Toft (Scunthorpe), 3 Chris Harris (Glasgow), 4 Scott Nicholls (Oxford), 5 Troy Batchelor (Workington), 6 Charles Wright (Redcar), 7 Tom Brennan (Poole), 8 Danny King (Redcar), 9 Leon Flint (Glasgow), 10 Josh Pickering (Edinburgh), 11 Lewis Kerr (Berwick), 12 Dan Thompson (Plymouth), 13 Antti Vuolas (Workington), 14 Sam Masters (Oxford), 15 Kyle Howarth (Scunthorpe), 16 Ben Barker (Plymouth).

It’s a busy time for Lewi who has become a Craig Cook impersonator for the week. The Cumbrian is still suffering the effects of a dislocated shoulder so our number one got the call not only to replace him in Leicester colours for their Premiership play-off semi-finals against Ipswich but also at Poole tomorrow when Workington take on the Pirates in the Championship equivalent.

◊ Quite a turnaround in fortunes for our teenage reserve. Underlining just how well he has bounced back from a difficult debut season in the Championship when points have been hard to come by. Freddy found that winning formula last weekend .

Victory in the Stars of Tomorrow brought the smile back to his face – although in fairness it’s never really gone messing even when points were hard to come by. And he took that form into a guest booking for Glasgow the following afternoon, a 6+2 return his best Championship haul yet and the deciding factor as the Tigers ended their season with a 46-44 victory over second-placed Oxford at Ashfield.

Freddy will be in action at Armadale on Friday night, his Belle Vue Colts side facing Edinburgh’s Academy – featuring Starza rivals Mason Watson,  Connor Coles and Dayle Wood – in the second part of an NDL double header which also includes the combined Scunthorpe/Sheffield team led by Ace and Stene Pijper.

If you were thinking of heading north then note the earlier than usual Armadale start time of 7pm.

Belle Vue still have a home meeting against the Cubs/Stags on October 11 and an away fixture with the middle lands hybrid to be arranged but another date in Freddy’s diary will be the British under-19 final at Oxford on 22 September.

Hot favourite for the title – won by Dan Thompson last year, Leon Flint in 2022, Drew Kemp for the three preceding years and Dan Bewley in 2018 – Ashton Boughen was an interested spectator on Saturday evening, fitting in a night watching his young Oxford team-mates at Shielfield between a five-ride maximum at Redcar on Friday and 13+1 at Glasgow on Sunday.

Jody Scott – meeting sponsor Terry Straughan’s pick as the night’s most exciting rider in the Starza – Ashton Vale and Senna Summers will also be on show along with a fifth Oxford rider, Luke Killeen.

A big threat to the 17-year-olds’ title ambitions is likely to come from 15-year-old William Cairns who has been tearing the track up in his NDL debut season and who was in action for Great Britain on Sunday in Krsko, Slovenia.

He scored 13 points as did Cooper Rushden to keep the Brits in second place in the European 250cc Pairs behind Poland but one point clear of Slovenia and three ahead of Denmark going into the final round in Prague this afternoon (Tuesday).

◊ Dan Bewley’s track record of 62.9 seconds remains unchallenged but the National League version is now a three-way tie. Third-placed Jake Mulford joined Kyle Bickley and Lee Complin in posting a time of 66.8 seconds on Saturday night.

◊ A quiet farewell from one of Berwick Speedway’s stalwarts on Saturday. Although he’s not really gone, more just melting into the background.

In many ways it was fitting that Dick Barrie’s last official front of house performance at Shielfield Park should be the Stars of Tomorrow. Not only has he been a fierce advocate for the historic meeting but also the driving force behind the Scottish and Northern Junior leagues in addition to his microphone duties.

Since arriving in these parts in 1972 he’s been announcer, presenter, team manager, promoter, thought-provoking columnist and PR stalwart in addition to reporting on the Scottish scene – which for London-based publications always includes Berwick – for the Speedway Star and Mail.

At one point it seemed that if it wasn’t Dick’s voice on the radio mike it was that of fellow Glaswegian Mike Bennett.

Away from the Borders he was the voice of Glasgow – and one of the men who revitalised the club by moving it to Shawfield in the mid-1980s – and Edinburgh speedway, always in demand on southern trips and second tier big nights in addition to acting as cheerleader and often team manager of Scotland teams and organising tours to South Africa and Australia and an award-winning country music radio DJ and baseball expert. All this in addition to flying speedway bikes, and much more beside, around the world in his “real” job.

We “loaned” him to Belle Vue in the 1980s, a job which came with a sideline of presenting all the big meetings at Bradford, including the 1985 World Final. He had a spell away from speedway only to return, regenerated.

Now in his 80s, Dick has attempted to step away from the meeting presenter role a few times before. But, as explained in his column in for Saturday’s The Dirt! to no avail. “Having ‘retired’ my Berwick radio mike four times in the past, only to be asked to please come back again by four different Berwick promotions, I am well aware that a fifth disappearance might be due,” he wrote.

“Thus, during 2024 Greg Blair has joined me on the infield as my ‘apprentice’ and is clearly now ready to graduate with honours as a fully-qualified meeting presenter. Allowing this old codger to step quietly back into obscurity.

“I first made the journey (the 200-mile round trip from his Glasgow home) in 1972 – no motorways, by-passes or dual carriageways back then – which means I must have racked up over 150,000 miles in many and various cars to be here and do a bit of talking over the years.”

But Dick is still likely to be a familiar sight around Shielfield next season, but generally on the other side of the fence. And when Greg is unavailable on BSN duties there will be a familiar voice on the microphone again.

“I’m hopeful of watching and writing about a lot more speedway at Shielfield for many more seasons to come. But it will be a real pleasure to sit back and just watch the show. It’ll be in good hands.

“Greg’s your man from now on. I really like the lad. Full of charm. Usually full of Guinness, too!”

◊ To be honest it’s been inevitable for a while but last Friday confirmed the less than welcome news that we’ve “won” the Championship wooden spoon in 2024.

Edinburgh’s win over Glasgow and Workington’s disposal of Plymouth the following day not only ended the Tigers’ play-off hopes but also leap-frogged the Monarchs over ourselves and the Gladiators in the final standings.

It’s happened before of course – 1968, 2007 and 2017 – but still is not where we planned to be back in April.

We’ll review of the season over the coming weeks and be looking ahead to 2025.

Historical pictures: John Somerville Collection