Midland Red

Totally agree! (Would be interesting to see whether "a Rune Holta" would remain an adoptee of another country if he had an "easier" route via his own association!) The main drawback to the GPs as you say is the calendar, it's not like you can run qualifying rounds through May-August for one September date, unless . . . . . Perhaps there's a case for having a GP "circus" in September and October on (say 7) successive weekends, and then there'd be a chance of qualifying rounds in the same season And league programmes could then be planned prior to the GP "season" so that riders could ride in the domestic leagues and domestic qualifiers during the earlier months

Agreed! No question! All I was saying was that all of the 16 places in the World Final were reserved for a set number of places based on geographics, and apart from the years when riders were "seeded" to the World Final, my comment I believe to be factually correct I would much prefer some qualification system "on-the-track", an extension of the current GP Challenge for more (or all??) of the GP starting places And I do believe a return to the knock-out system of GP rounds (finish 3rd/4th in two races and you're out) would be a vast improvement on what we now have (apart from the fact that there would be added disappointment at the back for [enter rider's name] according to Tony Millard)

Pomerian Prussian German

Never said it was the same as being allocated a place - the point was that, even with qualification rounds, geographics always came into it somewhere In other words, there were places "reserved" in the final 16 for British born riders - provided they were successful enough in the type of rounds you mention The final 16 was not made up of the best 16 riders in the world, or the best qualified - but of the 16 who were successful through geographically based qualifying rounds Allocation (or seeding) of places did take place (as I said this has been discussed elsewhere) but my points were that there were two issues, places reserved based on nationality and British alloaction of wildcards if and when available

There are two distinct issues here 1 Should GB have (2) places in the GPs 2 Who should received any GB wildcard place(s) In all the "glorious" years of the World Championship, appearance in the one-off final was both by nationality and qualification, as places were allocated to the leading riders in the final rounds of qualification events in (inter alia) GB, Scandinavia, "Continental" Europe Agreed the GB rounds including the Australia/New Zealand riders, but essentially berths on World Final day were "allocated" to British riders - allocations varying from season to season Almost entirely, apart from some nominations which have been mentioned elsewhere, a World Final berth was then down to ability on the day(s) of the qualifying rounds As far as 2010 is concerned, if GB get two wildcards, Chris Harris has to be a leading contender based on his standings in BEL and GP, including the GP Challenge, also his British Championship The other is less obvious as all leading candidates - Woffinden, Bridger, Kennett, Richardson, Nicholls - all have plusses and minusses against their names Personally I would go with Woffinden to join Harris

Don't ask me ! It was a suggestion by "screamer" All I've done is show who would have qualified under that scenario Mind you, the Brits used to qualify (generally) by themselves, the continentals via European/Continental/Nordic/whatever qualifiers, for the PROPER World Championship Edit : Yes, I know, the ANZACs were with the Brits too - but we had more than two qualifiers!

I can remember Nigel Boocock beating Ove Fundin and taking him to a decider on a neutral track Happy daze!

Excellent read, particularly for a Coventry Kid born and bred I can just see the riders pushing their motor cycles along Holbrook Lane and down Lythalls Lane to the track, ready to have a go at the new sport And why did Brandon get so much rain pre-war?

But if the British Championship is the qualifier, as suggested, Ed makes it as second-placed rider

Always believed in qualification, not nomination I believe that a British Championship has been held, at Poole, and the winner was Chris Harris and the runner-up Edward Kennett On this basis, therefore, Bomber and Ed should be the two Brits in next year's GP series

Nigel Boocock Tom Farndon Dave Jessup

From 8pm it will be on a "red button" choice with the tennis

Congrats to Poole on winning a very enjoyable meeting Respects to Bob Dugard on track preparation before and during the meeting Respects too to Eddie Kennett for laying down behind the fallen Leigh Adams And to Bomber - unbeaten by an opponent on the track all night!

I'm likely to be in Poland between 10 and 20 September What fixtures are there in the country between those dates (with start times if poss) ???? Many thanks

As a footnote to the above (and with last night's fiasco at Brandon in mind!) I quote directly for Charles Ochiltree's "Talking Time" in the following week's programme : " Those folk, sitiing idly in the sunlight watching us water around seven o'clock last week, must have though we were pretty daft when inside thirty minutes we were being swamped out from above. The fact is the storms missed us all morning, all afternoon too, and the track was too dry for racing. The Met Office assured us that storms were dying out and that if we didn't have any by six o'clock we could consider we were in the clear. Well, being cautious, we waited until 6-45 and then considered ; raced out with hoses at both ends. And that we reckon was our mistake ...... it was tempting providence. Like not carrying a raincoat. Nevertheless, it was out of our hands and we had to suffer the indignity of cancelling a meeting, something we're as fond of as paying income tax. We guess we've just got to face it, Long Eaton "Archers" are shaping up to become our jinx team of '65! "

Col Cottrell fell and Ray Wilson failed to finish Teams : Coventry : N Boocock, C Cottrell, R Mountford, R France, J Lightfoot ©, C Harrison (*), H Booton ® Long Eaton : R Wilson, R Sharp (*), N Storer, C Hitch, K Adams ©, K Bodie, R Malskaitis ® © Captain ® Reserve (*) Supplementary Reserve The second half comprised a Triangular Handicap Match between "Junior Bees", "Senior Bees Select" and "Archers Select" plus Stadium Gold Sash Heats 1 ,2 and Final Total 20 heats Junior Bees : C Smith, F Hodder, P Gay (all gate) Senior Bees Select : C Cottrell (20yds), C Harrison (10yds), H Booton (10yds) Archers Select : R Sharp (10yds), C Hitch(20yds), R Malskaitis (gate), K Bodie (20yds) Stadium Gold Sash : Heat 1 : N Boocock, R France, J Lightfoot, R Wilson Heat 2 : R Mountford, C Cottrell, nominated rider, N Storer No guests, one "foreigner" (Malskaitis, New Zealander of Lithuanian parentage) Tickets on sale for British Final at West Ham - 7/6, 10/6, 12/6, 15/- Hackney top of British League from Oxford and Newport, Long Eaton bottom, behind Edinburgh and Swindon Track record (as it was for many years) 65.8sec, Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs, R Mountford (380 yards) Fastest time since record 67.2 Nigel Boocock Warwickshire Flying Mile 79.0 Ron Mountford Tactical subs : after 4 heats, a team 6 or more points in arrears may use a substitute rider Helmet colours : Red, Blue, White, Yellow & Black Interval after main match (13 heats) Oh happy days! When I and an important other could afford to go each and every meeting

On second thoughts, perhaps I didn't go at all because of the weather, and copied the result (with no time) out of SS !

Wouldn't you just believe - dug out my programme from this meeting (knocking a pile of stuff over in the process) - what do I find? You guessed - programme filled in for the one heat, but no race time given (Nigel Boocock beat Ron Sharp only two finishers) If it's not in SS or my programme, I wonder if the time was not given

In other words, in your opinion, she is not a very attractive person Fact!

Have to agree, Beespeed GB finished ahead of a Denmark team devoid of the current Grand Prix Champion and with its no 2 rider clearly hampered by injury And GB were clearly so far behind Poland and Australia in Round 1 I wrote on another thread - why do GB riders' machines not have the apparent speed of the other nations' riders? Last night, Harris and Woffinden look quite capable of beating the opposition with their riding ability but were let down by the pace of the machinery Richardson clearly had a better set up and did show some good speed King (last night) and Kennett (Monday) were so far off, Bridger lacked confidence as well as speed The future only looks good if machinery can be sorted

Fact 1. She is a very attractive person Probable fact 2. She is a very nice person Fact 3. She is utter rubbish at the job That's all

Great meeting - congrats to those who prepared a real racing strip, and to the riders for putting on such a great show Re the Brits, they all seem down on power compared with the rest - Bomber almost always does in GPs yet we all know what a top class rider he is, so why can't our boys get the set up right? Look at the speed that Adams and Miedzinski, for example, showed - probably only Danny King showed any real pace - even in front, Bomber always seems slow in comparison with those chasing Apart from Scott Nicholls, the only thing I missed was "Disappointment at the back for Denis Stois/Izak Santej/Mats Gregoric/Alecsander Conda"

QUOTE (Robbie B @ Jul 3 2009, 11:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Good call but 1928 - 1963 is only 35 years, Ross has been going for 37 and counting. Oops - the 20's to the 60's seemed a long span 1975 (or 1972) seems so recent that I forgot we're nearly in the 2nd decade of the next century (as the years/months/weeks/days fly by at my age!) Similar to the comment recently that the war in Iraq (which is only a current event) has lasted longer than the major conflict that was World War II - time perspective is so difficult to grasp Anyway, well done Larry Ross!

All this talk about Wembley - don't forget it's NOT the Empire Stadium with all its history and memories from Lionel van Pragg through to Ole Olsen, calling at Freddie Williams, Peter Craven and Ove Fundin on the way It's a brand new 21st century concrete monstrosity There's no magic to the "new" Wembley" like there was about Sir Arthur Elvin's old place The location of the Millenium Stadium (or Anfield South, as Liverpool fans would have you call it), so close to the centre of the city and with Cardiff Bay nearby, seems from the other posts to be far more favoured than the Industrial Park which is Wembley, Middlesex

Surely this has to be Ron Johnson, who rode prior to coming over from Australia in 1928, and last rode in 1963