Monday briefing

Friday 7.30pm: Glasgow Tigers v Jewson Bandits, powered by Keenwood Karpets Buy tickets

Saturday, 2pm GMT: Pila, Poland: Freddy Hodder and Great Britain, FIME Under-19 Pairs

Saturday 7pm: Jewson Bandits, powered by Keenwood Karpets v Glasgow Tigers. Buy tickets

Congratulations to Freddy Hodder, our talented 17-year-old earning his first Great Britain cap this weekend.

He travels to Pila in Poland to compete in the European under-19 Pairs Final, Great Britain facing Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and Sweden.

Oxford’s Ashton Boughen and former Berwick Academy junior and current Scunthorpe Scorpion Luke Harrison join him in the red, white and blue.

“I am heading out on Thursday morning and am really excited and honoured to get the call,” the 18-year-old said.

“I have done some training and testing in Poland but Pila is a track I haven’t ridden before. It’s going to be a great experience.”

Of course it means he will miss the weekend Cab Direct Championship fixtures against Glasgow. With Boughen and Harrison out of the equation and two other meetings – Edinburgh v Scunthorpe and Redcar v Oxford – taking place on Friday guest options are severely limited while Saturday sees the Scorpions move on to Workington.

• Just a reminder that Saturday is the night of the annual Speedway Riders’ Benevolent Fund collection at Shielfield Park. Donate

Berwick invariably contributes one of the biggest collections to this unique and worthwhile charity which offers support to injured riders in both the short and long-term.

Riders from both teams will be coming into the crowd during the interval to collect and any donations will be gratefully received. Alternatively you can donate online to the fund. Donate

• This TV commentary lark seems to be catching.

Greg Blair remains front and centre on BSN’s offerings although Rory’s burgeoning career with the same network is on hold while he sorts the little problem of a broken neck out.

And last week another sidelined Bandit was in the commentary box.

Bastian Borke is making steady progress from knee and chest injuries and last week was alongside commentator Thomas Ramskov as the expert summariser on BSN’s Viking equivalent, SpeedwayLigaen.

And he picked a decent match to commentate on Luke Becker’s Esbjerg losing at home to a Sonderjylland Elite Speedway side containing Jesper Knudsen, younger brother of former Bandit and Redcar Bear Jonas.

As for his injured knee? “I’m still waiting to hear from the hospital about an operation to fix the damaged ligaments,” he said.

“Hopefully I will hear something this Thursday and after that hopefully the recovery is very short.”

• There’s a lot to like about Drew Kemp, not least his often brutal scrutiny of his own performances in his weekly social media post called Drewsday Tuesday which goes up, not surprisingly on a Tuesday.

Except the small matter of a trip to Plymouth meant last week’s offering was a little later in the week.

After a string of successful and high-scoring outings it was down to earth with a bang at The Coliseum, managing two points after three scoreless rides.

He didn’t spare himself from criticism: “I struggled last night. To make matters worse I had an unfortunate fall where I didn’t see the red light in time and before I knew it I was riding up the back of Ben Barker and into the fence.

“Sheer adrenaline shot me up straight away but afterwards I was feeling it. I then had to ride my Polish engine on a track which – if you’ve ever been to Plymouth, is about ten times smaller than any track over there.

“Unfortunately after such a positive start to the season for the Bandits, it seems with all the injuries and especially Rory’s, the play offs are looking like a stretch.

“However she ain’t singing yet, so naturally we will keep trying to win.”

A dodgy weather forecast on Thursday put paid to a Premiership guest booking which would have seen our young warrior returning to Leicester just a couple of weeks after the Lions released him and signed Craig Cook.

More points in Bandits colours and there’s a strong possibility that he may still get a fair bit of racing in at Beaumont Park this season.

On Sunday though Drew was manning the spanners in a neat piece of role reversal.

• Henning Loof is usually the man getting his hands dirty in the pits as mechanic for our Norfolk flyer but, approaching his 41^st birthday and some 16 years after his one regular season in British racing – with Somerset and Mildenhall – the German ace was back on track on Sunday.

He was raising the roof at Iwade as part of the Rye House Rockets team which faced Kent Kings in the second of a series of team fixtures raced under the alternative NORA banner.

Despite a fall in his second ride Henning went on to score a race wins and a couple of second places earning a heat 15 ride as the meeting went down to a last heat decider before Kent clinched the 45-43 victory.

“I scored a few points and it went pretty good,” Henning said after the dust settled.

“Drew was quite useful in the pits and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season with the Rockets. But it will be back to normal this weekend against Glasgow with Drew doing the racing!”

◊ The next guest instructor at the Bandits’ Academy knows that talent is literally on his doorstep.

Super stylish Duns native Dave McAllan will be joining Scott Courtney and the Berwick Academy crew at Langton Lees on Sunday 30 June.

David, who saw service with a host of northern clubs including Berwick, Glasgow, Newcastle and Workington, has done fantastic work with the Edinburgh Academy over the last few years. He will work with riders at all levels, focusing on technique and progression.

A minimum donation of £30 is required and those without a full speedway license can buy a day license for £10.

This session is for riders with their own equipment with minibikes and flat trackers welcome.

If you would like to pre-book then email club@berwickspeedway.com