Pirate Baz

What to repair the burst water main ? Don't know if you heard but that didn't really happen.

Just got back from Belle Vue. OK no jokes about old cars, bikes and horse and carts. We have an oovernight stop on the long trips, and Brock and I have to give our ladies a day out on the way home. Warwick today. Anyway to the point in hand from personal experience. At 6:15 last night Dave Gordon was in the foyer of our hotel and he watched us leave for speedway, saying nothing. He was in conversation with other people I have to add. We arrived at the stadium to find everything closed up, for those of you familiar with Belle Vue, even the car park gates, so no-one, and I mean no-one could gain any access to the stadium. There was a scrawled 'Meeting Off' notice on the car park gate. We returned to the hotel and I asked Mr Gordon what the reason was and he advised us that there had been a burst water main and it was out of his control. Forums have covered subsequent events last night and today so there is no point adding to them. This morning I decided to pop over and look at the track. In previous years the stadium has been open on the following morning, and last year in particular I actually walked the (corrugated) track to see the reason for some of the previous nights spills. I actually joked with Kathy that I would take my mobile to let her know if I was arrested while over there. The car park gate was open but the stadium gates were still secured. I spotted a gap in the gate on the fourth bend and was peering through it, seeing nothing amiss with the track, when I was challenged by a security official who had spotted me, he said, on the CCTV. I simply told him that I was from Poole and not being able to gain entry last night was trying to get a glimpse of the track. This he told me I could not do. I said that I was disappointed that we never got to race last night and he said that he was surprised that the meeting did not go ahead. He told me that the track was in perfect condition when he left yesterday and appart froma little dampness on the second turn was in good condition this morning. I asked him what time he left yesterday and he said 2:30. So between 2:30 and 3:20 a water main burst and flooded the track, yet it had returned to normal this morning. When a water main bursts in the roads around town it seems to take several days. Trenches to be dug, pipes to be removed, new ones fitted, trench to be filled in, and so forth. This appears to have been carried out in the dark, behind locked gates, between 7 pm last night and 7 pm this morning. Great inconvenience to the riders that did make it yesterday, but also remember us fans. A 525 mile round trip, fuel for the car, overnight hotel, food and drink, ok maybe the drink is down to us, and maybe do it all again when the meeting is rearranged. I had thought at least Mr Gordon would have offered free admission for the restaging, but that was not forthcoming. End of saga. Thought you might like to hear from someone that was there.

Looks like all change anyway now. Bjerre to the Robins and Hans a Panther. Thing is Robins fans ....................... if you get King Kenneth you have to have KKS as well. They come as a package.

Thanks mate. That's brilliant.

Does anyone know the format this year? Presumably 16 heats with all riders meeting each other, then I'm gusssing four more heats starting with the lowest scorer in each team progressing to the highest. Good guess or not? Better still does anyone have a programme format for those of us watching on Sky?

Great info, thanks. It also works on the 'old' Sky boxes as well. Must be a new feature from Sky. This answers all our problems, but for anyone still intending to record the Sunday repeat, it on the Sky site as 3 hours but in the planners as 2. Guessing it will go onto the red button two thirds way through.

I posted on the other thread on this subject (this now seems to be the main one) about the difficulties in booking the tickets I wanted. Online would not let me book a particular block and every time I tried to speak to a human being I was cut off due to 'high call volume'. Well eventually I got through to a very polite and helpful lady who got me the tickets I wanted and took great delight in telling me that there was no handling charge on my tickets this year. There was however £5+ postage to be paid. This morning I went on to my BT account online and found out that the phone costs for booking these tickets, including all the times I connected and was cut off came to another £5. I take it everyone realises that these are premium rate numbers, and even if you have one of these 'all inclusive' BT packages the British GP numbers are still chargeable. Fortunately I got through in about 30 minutes but if you are on longer be aware that it will mount up.

Doing my Victor Meldrew again, but does anyone else find difficulty in getting the tickets they want from Ticketmaster? They push you towards booking online, but there is no facility for choosing a specific block, i.e. the one we had last year and every year. Price ranges yes but then you cannot be certain what the charge is for your particular block. If you reject those seats you start again and then get offered the same seats. Try to speak to somebody on the phone and get "Sorry but all our operators are busy. Pleas try later. You are about to be cut off."

If you can get through! I am old fashioned. Due to experiences of aquaintances I don't like giving card details over the web. OK last century I know, to you youngsters out there. However I have tried three times. Got the message that calls cost 10p per minute. Waited for a maximum of 10 minutes each time (listening to that plinky plonk music) and rung of after my maximum patience i.e. 10 minutes. So far I have spent £3 and got absolutely nowhere. They are taking the.....mickey aren't they. To be serious I am considering giving it a miss next year as this sort of service winds me up. By the way my wife calls me Victor Meldrew.

But it's only scheduled for 1:30 to 2:30. Then I guess it's on the Red Button. So it's be in to watch it live, or avoid the result somehow until it's rerun in full at 11:00 on Monday morning.

I know I'm about to incur the wrath of everyone here, and ignoring the technology argument, as I didn't have that last night, I thought that Dave Robinson got most decisions right, but I sit in front of the referees box and get the same view. Artur moved, both times, be it only slightly second time, but live on the night I thought he'd moved. I would concede that having come home and seen it again on the recording it was minimal, actually looked lees than 'live'. I thought Jason Doyle fell on his own, and while the dirt deflector argument was made it was not clear in my mind on the replays, allied to the fact that Jason was not in a good position on the track which could have suggested (not that I'm saying he did) that he put the bike down. I thought the decision to exclude Hougaard was right and a brave decision. I said at the time, and it was confirmed on the replays at home, that Hougaard looked accross at Bjarne's position on the track before cutting accross him and taking his front wheel. I don't think that he meant to bring him down, but blatantly cutting accross the line of another rider like that is not right, technically in front or not. Just my view folks. Two sides to every argument.

Someones got to be first. I assume the limit is £190,000 as per last year ? 3. Emil SAYFUTINOV - £50,000 6. Nicki PEDERSEN (Captain) - £45,000 9. Freddie LINDGREN - £35,000 12. Chris HOLDER - £35,000 13. Jarek HAMPEL - £25,000

Jason Crump please.

Out 1 - Nicki Pedersen 11 - Chris Harris In 2 - Jason Crump 7 - Andreas Jonsson New Captain - Jason Crump (I will confirm this on the other topic page).

Thanks for that R & R. My wife always says she doesn't know why god gave me eyes !

Anyone seen the draw? Want to print my programme.

Too much listening to tantrum Ghostwalker. Totally different incidents. Hans was ahead of Harris when he drove under him. I agree Hans went down softly, but he was clipped. In the Pedersen incident Hans was clearly in front and Nicki rode into him trying to force his way accross.

I'd like to submit please 1. Nicki Pedersen (Captain) £60k 5. Hans Andersen £45k 10. Freddie Lindgren £30k 11. Chris Harris £30k 15. Emil Sajfutinov £25k Total £190k PS Is everyone else having trouble getting on the speedway world website today?

Sorry if this has been already said elsewhere, but just got back from Germany and in a rush to catch up with various things before the play off final tonight. Have been to Germany and Czech Republic for the last two weeks. Last week the weather in Koblenz where we were was georgeous. All right, 100+ miles away, but every weather forcast on the TV was good for the whole of Germany. Germany were playing Russia just down the road, and the word was that a big loss was in prospect as only 5,000 tickets to the speedway were sold. Another rumour was that the programmes were not even printed. You put two and two together!

Well does anyone know the answer?

The only reason we scored in mid/late meeting was that we had a run of inside gates, and we still did not utilize them to our best advantage. This emphasises how strange it was to use the joker on gate 4 in heat 6.

The manager must take some of the blame. Part of the job is motivation, and unless he was trying to do a Brian Clough, the negative comments comming from him before the meeting weren't good. Ok the riders didn't perform, but what was the logic in using the joker with Scott in heat six when Scott had not performed in his first ride, and was on gate 4. That was not clever. The Scott comes on TV and says he had bike troubles early on and changed bikes.

What is the format this year? I would like to prepare a programme for Saturdays Sky meeting, but the declared teams have only 5 riders. Last year we had reserves named if my memory is correct, at least that's what I have in my PC still. Have they gone back to the old format? Does anyone know the current format? Last year heat one was the four number ones, and heat two the four number twos etc up to heat five. Is that the format for 2008.