Wackie

Shaun was never going to win that final although Per and Shaun did have a fantastic battle in heat 16 in which Shaun came out the victor. I recall an interview where before the run-off Shaun was quoted as saying something along the lines of "well at worst, I'll get silver". Per on the other hand didn't contemplate anything other than gold, and even when asked before the meeting started who was going to win, he simply replied "Per Jonsson"

Thanks for that Bluejam. Brings back many good memories, It's upsetting to hear that he continues to have problems following his awful crash, but I hope Per knows just how well thought of he still is with speedway fans in the UK. Per was on fire the year of his accident and although you can't ever be certain he would have been a favourite to take his 2nd world title that year, and with his consistency he'd of been up there challenging in the early years of the GP's too. It's 20 years next June since the sport was robbed of his talent, would be nice if a benefit type meeting could be staged for him again somewhere next year. He's also still thought of very highly by many of the current crop of top riders, I'm sure someone, somewhere could pull together a fantastic line up for a 1 off meeting for him.

Your memory does indeed serve you right Abs. A track record of 58.1 seconds which stood for the following 21 years until Smallmead closed. I think in all those years only AJ and maybe Rico got close to it.

But for the cruel injuries Per would most certainly have gone on and achieved so much more, especially with the onset of the GP's. But, The Doc is right, the 1990 World Final has got to be my most favourite speedway meeting too. It may have gone to a run-off, but there was no way Per was going to lose that race. Just Per-fect!

Speedway riders are a tough breed, fingers crossed for a quick and full recovery. The speedway family are all cheering you on Ricky!

Does Ole or a member of his family own a printing business???

Fantastic meeting, some great racing from both teams, but well done Monarchs on pulling back those 8 points and taking the win. Follow that Poole!

SWC will be shown on Eurosport - wish I'd have looked into the Eurosport player before re-instating my Sky subscription in April. Still they kept begging us to come back and at 50% off for 12 months I guess the deal's not too bad. Won't pay for a Sky Sports package though - can afford to, but for EL meetings only, and the odd F1 race that isn't live on the Beeb I don't consider this value for money, so make do with the 'Pikey' versions instead..... when I can be bothered.

Why thank you I could have used BV as an example in light of their recent faux pas I suppose. But seeing you are a Poole fan, and after cancelling a meeting due to a rider being missing and watching the diabolical EL meeting shown recently on Sky, I thought I'd use Poole as an example instead. But OK, I'll summarise, the BSPA members have probably turned more people away from the sport in the past 3 years than Eurosports coverage could do in a century. Better??? I still think you're on the wind up in any case. Speedway will now be shown in over 50 countries - it'll reach a bigger TV audience than ever before. Do you honestly believe that because the sound from the track isn't as loud as it is on Sky it'll put people off the sport?

You watch Ski Jumping on TV, yet you could only stand to watch 20 minutes of the speedway coverage last night! Please tell me you're on the wind up. You're a Poole fan, and you think Eurosport speedway coverage is going to turn people away from the sport!!!! You're promoter has done more damage to British Speedway in the past few years than Eurosport could do in a century. You watch Ski Jumping on TV, yet you could only stand to watch 20 minutes of the speedway coverage last night! Please tell me you're on the wind up. You're a Poole fan, and you think Eurosport speedway coverage is going to turn people away from the sport!!!! You're promoter has done more damage to British Speedway in the past few years than Eurosport could do in a century.

So the speedway started late due to the live tennis which ran over. Eurosport International's policy is not to cut short live coverage which has over run and they did push back the start time of the speedway so TV viewers missed as little as possible. Did Eurosport cut short the Cardiff coverage last weekend when it ran over? NO Would Sky have shown this meeting? NO Are you paying an extra £20+ a month specifically to watch GP/SWC racing? NO FFS some people really need to get a grip. I would imagine that those who are slating Eurosport have not really watched it much before. It's not all singing, all dancing with bells on type coverage like Sky produce. But they do develop their coverage of sports they show and have done a fantastic job with the motor sports they show. They don't single out riders as god-like heros and then constantly rave on about these to the detriment of any other competitor taking part, but provide generally non-biased and informative coverage, and generally do a bloody good job of it.

I guess it's all down to personal taste, but I prefer to see a world champion who has earned that title riding against the best there is. The qualifying system for the old 1 off's with a certain amount of riders coming from the continental & intercontinental finals never provided finals which showcased all the best riders in the world at that time. In the past 40 years the continental final has provided 2 world champions - you may call them surprise winners, but both were flukes in my eyes, and what maybe 1 or 2 at most other medalists? People look back at the 1 off world finals (and I have some fantastic memories from some of them) with their rose tinted glasses, but the qualification for them was flawed in respect of quite a few duffers qualifying through the continental final who really didn't deserve to be there. I think this was addressed slightly in the last couple of years of the 1 offs with 2 semi finals being introduced to determine the world finalists, and I can only think of Thomas Gollob and maybe Armando Castagna from the continental rounds who qualified from these. It's been a while, doesn't do any harm to throw the dinosaurs the odd bone now & then.

Actually the GP's are more of a world championship than the 1 off world finals ever were. I went to quite a number of world finals between '78 and '94 and saw some right duffers riding in them who literally really were just making up the numbers. Rather than a world title being decided on chance or an act of fate we really do get a genuine deserved world champion. I'm not saying none of the riders who won world titles prior to 95 weren't deserving, but there were more than a few that were 'flukes'. Speedway Grand Prix still has an element of qualification, which is more than F1, MotoGP, WSB etc.have, but you wouldn't say that the likes of Alonson, Vettel, Rossi, Lorenzo, Fogarty or Bayliss weren't worthy world champions because they didn't qualify for their respective sports championship rounds, Each of them fought tooth & nail to lift their world title trophy, just as the speedway world champions since 1995 have.

I'd stick Artem in. He might not have as much experience as his older brother, but has more longevity ahead of him in the series.

But you can't go giving out WC's on whats happened in the past, otherwise why not Harris too? He's won a GP! Lindback is too much of a confidence rider, which is something he's lacking again this year. He was beyond awful at Cardiff and was pitiful to watch. Unless he qualifies by right through the challenge he doesn't deserve a WC on his past performances. Looks to me at the moment like he needs to sort his head out again and there are better riders outside of the GP than him presently.

Take this years GP line up, omit Jonsson & Lindback and add MJJ, & Laguta and i I'd say we'd be in for another fantastic GP season.

Eurosport love bike racing. They show hours and hours of coverage of British Super Bikes, World Super Bikes and Moto GP. They are THE channel for bike racing and having speedway now on Eurosport is probably one of the best things that could happen for speedway. It's going to hit a more targetted audience than it ever did on Sky. Speedway GP's fall, at the moment, the same weekends as Moto GP's which has a massive TV audience. Unfortunately Eurosport don't have the rights to show the main MotoGP race live, so are showing the previous evenings Speedway GP in the gap between Moto2 finishing and them being able to show their MotoGP coverage.

Hopefully more great coverage from Eurosport this Saturday coming with the Best Pairs meeting from Torun.

Track was awful, riders bouncing around on bend 1 as well the problems on 3 and 4. Atmosphere went very flat after Tai's crash until the semi finals when things picked up again. Racing wise the worst GP of the season to date, 1 maybe 2 genuine passes. On the plus side, Woffy's bike ride fund raiser total topped £25k during the course of the meeting

I think the majority of British fans are pleasantly surprised to see just how well Woffy is doing, but we're only 4 GP's in. Gloating and the posting of "told you so" type replies is a little premature, and possibly tempting fate! And yes GC, that tattoo on either side of his neck is vile, the mullet haircut's not much better either.

Tai is proving his doubters wrong (me included) and has had a fantastic start to the season. To be honest I didn't think he'd fare any better than Bomber in the GP series, and was only included as the series had to have a token Brit. Fair play though, he's grabbed that opportunty with both hands. He'll still miff people off from time to time, talking through the national anthem at the British final etc. doesn't help his cause, especially when there is still questions being asked about his loyalty to his country of birth. However, I'm sure I saw him singing along to GSTQ on the podum last night which imo did redeem his oversight on Monday. As it turns out, the wild card picks and the qualifyers for this season have been a great addition to the series. So far it's been one of the best GP seasons in years.

Very sad news, thoughts are with Emil & his family. Can see him going on & wining the world title this year if he stays injury free. With the composure and determination he rode with tonight despite everything else going on in his life he might just take some stopping. Entertaining GP in the end, the new guard are certainly livening things up. Have read Nicki has broken his hand, hope both he and Ward are fit to take their place in the next GP.

Noticed that too, and they had another replay of the Bydgoszcz GP after race 1 yesterday. Plenty more mentions to come too I would imagine with the Swedish GP slap bang in the middle of the Jerez Moto GP weekend. The SGP's are reaching a far more targeted audience on Eurosport.

The broadcast does seem to flow better when there's no studio to cut back to every 4 races, but other than that, there's really no difference to what Sky used to offer. I do think British speedway may benefit more with the GP's being on Eurosport than when they were on Sky though. Eurosport IS the bike racing channel, and it was fantastic to see the Polish GP and replays mingled in with the MotoGP coverage at the weekend, and with it not being a premium channel, it's likely to hit the screens of far more people interested in bike racing than the Sky coverage used to.

Off the top of my head, Wizzer, Loram, Havvy, Garry Stead are all ex riders who would do just as well - given the riders available to them. Starman2006 - don't let the keyboard warriors grind you down, if only they all knew middlo the way you know middlo! He's told people he was misquoted, but nooo that's not enough for some, what a cheek expecting him to explain exactly what he said/meant!