Wackie

Hope that another isn't Woffinden for the sake of having a Brit in the series. Honestly, we can do without one, they'll still be the token Brit at Cardiff for the fans with the meeting wildcard. Holder seems to have grown up this year, maybe it's down to fatherhood? In which case, let Ward carry on being a knob off track, we don't need him breeding, one of him's more than enough! That might have been the case 5 years ago, but Matej seems to have lost his way a bit recently. That said, if he's in the mood he'll be an exciting addition to the GP's. All in all, the 3 qualifiers couldn't have been any better for the series. Hopefully if the permanent wildcards are given to Ward, Hampel, Vaculik & MJJ there's nobody in next years series who you'd pick out as a complete duffer.

The owner of this programme on ebay would have donated to the Rico fund by buying it in the first place, but a day after the meeting and it's up for sale with a minimum price of £3. The seller is obviuously trying to make profit out of this.... shame on them

Some great pics of last nights meeting here

Left directly after the final so didn't hear any booing (back in Reading by midnight!) but I can imagine a few fans were slightly peeved at Ward's move on AJ in their race together. Maybe not the best time to vent their displeasure with him, but it'll hardly detract from what was a great meeting, watched more importantly by a massive crowd. That was all for you Lee!

Woffinden was in the GP series in 2010, scored 49 points in total. IMO he's still not ready for the GP circuit and would fair no better than Harris. There are many better and more deserving riders out there worthy of a GP place, unfortunately non of them are Brits, but then we don't have a god given right to have a rider in the GP's, and in all honesty it wouldn't make much difference if we didnt have one at the moment. We'd still get the token Brit for Cardiff, but that's pretty much all we deserve.

Would track or support staff be outside the stadium 30 minutes before tapes up flogging complementary tickets? And why would they have about 200 of these tickets in sequential order, are IMG that generous with their freebies?

We did the same 2 years ago, and brought complementary tickets off some bloke outside the stadium wearing an IMG lanyard! It did cross my mind that IMG were selling off the complementary tickets cheap just to generate a bit more income.

I too was a little disappointed that there wasn't any mention of Rico during the meeting, but was impressed with the #RICO stand in the middle of the fans zone in the city centre, along with the tribute in the programme. Wasn't expecting a colleciton as I don't think these are sanctioned at FIM events, but a minutes noise at Rico's home grand prix would have been an amazingly fitting tribute, a similar tribute for Marco Simoncelli at the Valencia MotoGP round last november was spine tingling. I do think British Speedway needs to do something lasting to pay tribute to Lee, maybe installing the Richardson Trophy for the team who finishes top of the league before the play-off's?

Sky really are starting to take the piss with their GP replays. I know they can't control the weather & rain offs, but surely they could have some sort of magazine programme they could show in these instances rather than replaying a meeting many British speedway fans were at only 2 days ago! Those who weren't there would have also probably watched it live or caught one of the replays already shown. Really am re-considering my sky sports subscription for 2013.

I wonder how many complementary tickets IMG issue then, cos we brought tickets off a tout outside which were for the upper tier in middle of 3rd/4th bend and marked "Complementary". Paid £15 each (cheaper than an EL meeting!!) and speaking to the people around us they'd all done the same. We chose 3rd/4th bend, but had the choice of upper tier seats pretty much anywhere around the stadium! Moved down to the middle tier 3rd bend after 6 heats cos there were plenty of empty seats down there too, and you felt closer to the racing. W

Really? Must have come across better on TV, cos although the cardiff experience is enjoyable, the racing was dull. Only after Hancock & Gollob were out of the equation. About 8000 under? Thought it looked the lowest crowd at Cardiff for a good few years. He's a huge bike fan. Often visits MotoGP races and joins the Eurosport commentary team.

I didn't either Tracy, probaly because it was directly at a camera lens. I'll admit I've been converted! I'm now a fan of Nicki Pedersen after the past couple of months of watching him in the GP's and SWC. He'll give an honest answer/opinion to questions asked of him, and generally livens up meetings in some way shape or form. Not completely a fan of his riding sometimes, but he's a character within the sport & there's not many of them around these days. How dull some meetings would have been this year without him, it's a shame the EL can't tempt him back to liven that up too.

Ooops, can you tell I work in finance and have been having a sneaky look at the forum whilst at work this afternoon

FFS!! When will people get their heads around the fact that Denmark didn't break any rules saturday or cheat!

Why contratulate them? Cos they scored the most points in the final! Plenty of discussion going on on the SWC Final thread about the wrongs & rights of the joker. This thread is for congratulating Denmark on a string of fine performances which saw them deservedly life the Ove Funding trophy saturday night. Viva the red & white revolution!

Isn't gamesmanship part of sport? There was nothing dishonest in what Pedersen did, he was simply using the rules, or gamesmanship if you prefer to try to help his country win. Who's to say Crump wasn't happy to sit behind Pedersen and not try his best to beat him, same difference if you ask me. But you're correct, the precedence had been set by Pedersen as he was so hilariously blatant about what he'd done, and as I effectively keep saying, well done that man for showing how uncredible the rule it is for the sport. Sport shouldn't be about rewarding losers, and thankfully in this instance it didn't have a bearing on the overall result.

Why only show the last half a lap in the vid? Why not show the whole race in where Pedersen was constantly checking where Crump was and which lines were being ridden? Although even in the short video clup you've posted a link to, it's still evident he was doing this. I've never been a Pedersen fans (although my views are changing, he's a character the sport needs atm), and have seen him riding dangerously out of control, on this occasion it's my opion that he wasn't putting any of the riders or indeed himself in danger. As for giving the green light to future nonsense, the only nonsense is the rule itself and what Pedersen did last night was highlight that. If (and it should be) the rule is now thrown out of SWC, or at least the race off & final, Pedersen should be given the equivalent of a speedway knighthood! People who don't think the Aussies would have done the same need a reality check too. Crump was gutted Pedersen finished behind him, and repaid the favour in the very next heat, or do you believe Davy Watt really did have bike problems?

Rubbish!! I've just watched it again, Pedersen was right out by the fence when he slowed, he'd looked behind on bend 2, 3 & 4 on the last lap & knew how far back Crump was, he was never going to catch him or get close enough to have to take avoiding action. Jonsson was full on the gas until the line as well and was riding the inside of the track all race. I'm not saying using the rules to your advantage like that is right, but when the rule is nothing more than a gimick designed to reward losers, I'm glad Denmark exposed it for what it is. What was dangerous was ht17 when you had 2 riders slowing to avoid picking up points. Again, can't blame either the aussies or danes in that race, they again were trying to use the rule to benefit them, hopefully the situation won't ever happen again as last night should have been the final nail for the joker (and going off on a tangent, Tatum!! what a tool!!!)

Seems to be lots of discussion about the wrongs & rights about last nights SWC final, but no thread dedicated to congratulating the Danish team! So, Congratulations Team Denmark! A brilliant display from a team encapsulating youth and experience. No last places throughout the final, young guns doing GP stars up like kippers and tactics which showed the joker rule up for being the idiotic idea it is! Thoroughly deserve world cup champions. Great to see too that there is a new guard emerging. For a while it lookedl like the future years in the GP's would turn into the Holder/Ward show, but...... the danes are coming!!!

:rofl: Turned out to be a great meeting I thought, track improved and we saw some great racing and an insight into what the future has to offer. The joker shennaigans were brilliant, hopefully the stupid rule has shot itself in the foot, and will be consigned to the bin, but it kept the tension going. Well done to the Danes, they were the best team tonight and deserved their win. Great to see the team singing proudly their national anthem too, and enjoying their champagne, while the runners up had Aussie whine.

That's not always been the case though with Crump. Now yes, but in his younger days he persistently acted the spoiled brat, with histerical dummy spitting antics! I'm sure age & experience has mellowed him, and he is a leading example of a professional speedway rider these days but you can't erase the past, and whilst I respect him for the rider he's become, I can't quite forget the rider he was. The same will probably be said for the Turbo Tarts in a few years time. Whilst they're not particuarily petulant, they are very arrogant at times, which generally gets on peoples thripennies unless your a poole fan or another aussie! Davey Watt's had his moments too! So, calling it a hatred is a bit strong, but I'm definately not a fan of the Aussie team, so would prefer to see any other team on top of the rostrum. No sense no feeling!

The Russians are coming!!!! Hopefully it'll be 1st Russia 2nd Denmark 3rd Sweden 4th Australia More likely to be Denmark, Oz, Russia, Sweden tho

There were a number of referring faux pas last night. Too much movement at the tapes which hindered Team GB in some races, the Holder/Harris crash, which he eventually got right! The King/Smolinski crash which he didn't. King was passed the german when he decided to turn in on him - but you wouldn't see it that way As for Kenny McKinna being a Scot, of course that's why they were all there supporting him, but it was the BRITISH final. The fans, along with Kenny seemed to buy into the whole thing.

Fantastic meeting last night, on a fantastic track, and well done to the Brits who showed passion and determination throughout the meeting, and barring the couple of mechanical gremlins & dodgy referring decision (please don't tell me they're letting that cretin ref the race off or final) would have won the meeting. They did themselves and #RICO proud. Looking forward to seeing similar attitudes from them in the race off, although I do feel that winning the meeting and grabbing the last place in the final maybe a little out of their reach. But then again, who'd have thought we'd run the aussies so close!! If TeamGB don't make the final, I'll be cheering on the Ruskies! To be fair, you never hear any of the TeamGB squad be it rider, mechanics or managers refer to the team as "England". The only time I heard it mentioned last night was from the Aussies. It's a fair point, and one I excercised recently when I happily watched that scottish twunt lose at Wimbledon at the weekend. That said, back in the 90's I remember on more than one occasion a whole bend at Coventry being taken over by the Scots who'd made their way down to support Kenny McKinna in British Finals. They seemed to completely embrace the whole "GB nonesence", as many of the Scottish speedway fans do today, I'm thinking you're more a minority with your views.

Back in 2007 it was document that Greg Hancock had only signed for Reading unitl end of May, we got r/r facility for him. BSPA could have been giving us a bit of slack as Herbie's departure co-incided with BSI dropping us in the poo, but I doubt it. Midland Robin has already stated on another thread, as far as the BSPA are concerned the rider loan agreement is for the whole of the season, it's a bit irrelevant that the rider only agreed terms with the club for X number of months.