salty

He tries the young guys (to more or less universal support). The young guys did Ok last year but have, by and large, not performed as expected this year, therefore, he has gone for the guys who have been performing better, which happen to be the old guys. Did you want him to stick with Kennett and Bridger the way they have ridden this year?

Change the record mate, Holta's reasons for becoming a naturalised Pole are well documented. It's just a fact of life in international sport nowadays. Just look at the England cricket team. As for your comments about the Danes, what are you on about? Do you think they could just recruit a top class rider from another country?

As long ago as......last year! Poland won with 44, Russia 4th with 35. Best team won today, fantastic effort from the Poles to come through and win after the start that they had. Even then I couldn't see them beating the Danes in 4 of the last 5 races. I think the Brits put on a good show, certainly seemed well motivated and were in the mix throughout.

Not strictly relevant to the "Tom Farndon" book, but I was searching on Amazon and found that Jeff Scott's latest tome is available at the bargain price of £443.98 (plus postage) from a seller in the USA! But more importantly whilst looking for the Ivan Mauger tome I came across a few books similar to the one in the link. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Newcastle-Diamonds-Riders-Pedersen-Emiliano/dp/1155636074/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_4 Can you spot the most obvious mistake on the cover of that one? A wee bit of searching and apparently these books are simply reprints of Wikipedia pages and are therefore to be avoided.

Did they use an air fence in the past couple of years at Rye when they hosted Under 21 qualifiers? And will they have one in place for the Under 21 Team Final in September?

Might not be the end of the world. The Swedes got 14 points from the first five heats in the run-off from the same draw. Whether our gating will be up to it is another question.

Agree it's poor that there are no Brits in the Final, in fact only Haines got to the semi's. Why Bridger and Woffinden didn't do the qualifiers I have no idea (though I would imagine Tai wanted to concentrate on the GP's). Woffinden obviously got the GP pick as the second Brit in the absence of anybody else worthwhile. Sure it is probably a bit early and he has struggled. For what it's worth I hate the fact the Brits have to rely on nominations and I think the whole system is flawed. Was a good ride by Ward at Lynn, but he hardly "stalked" him. They swapped positions 2 or 3 times. If you are interested bet365 have Ward at 14/1 for the Under 21 title. Given that he is only 4 points behind the leader you might want put some dollars down....

Just about scraped in the top 5 Aussies! Good job Batch only had 4 rides otherwise he would have been 5th. To be fair it was a gater's paradise, but often that's the name of the game.

Definitely John Titman. Go onto the Retro Speedway site, click gallery, British teams and on page 6 of the Halifax section there is a pic of John from the same era.

"form rider" ! He got 8 points from 5 rides, including three consecutive 3rd places at the business end of the meeting. You can't get away from the fact that he and Schlein were the weakest two in the Aussie line up. Granted he did well to 3rd place from Woffinden, but it was only for 3rd place. Most would agree that Lindgren's ride from 4th to 1st in the same race was a more stunning ride.

Dates back to the Final 3 years ago when the out of touch Greg Walaszek became "injured" and was replaced by Damien Balinski. Caused a stink at the time and since then there have been no reserves. That's how I remember things, but I stand to be corrected. Certainly not an ideal situation as a rider getting injured cannot therefore be replaced.

All right, I'll bite. As far as I can tell there was only 1 PL rider on show last night. Aarnio, from Scunthorpe, who was brought in as a last minute replacement and wasn't disgraced, beating Stead in one race. The Swedish rider you are referring to is, I assume, Daniel Nermark, who hasn't been a KL rider for a good few seasons. Regarding your comments about the PL racing, clearly in the PL the riders are ALL PL riders so the racing is going to be closer than if one PL rider is up against GP riders in a World event. Quality of racing doesn't really depend on what level we are watching does it? The most important factors are riders of similar ability and a good racing track, doesn't matter whether they are National League or GP stars. I can see where you are coming from regarding PL clubs moving up, but surely their viability as a business comes first. It is not as if the Elite League clubs are particularly thriving and making promotion a worthwhile objective. I honestly can't see any reason why a relatively successful Premier League out fit would want to risk their future by moving up.

West Ham are bidding to get in there, but far from certain. I think the site is pledged to remain an Athletics facility (that was part of the bid), which doesn't fit with West Ham's plans. Lot of lobbying going on. There are other stadium/facilities on site which would be more suited to Speedway.

Really enjoyed last night's meeting, which built and built. Swedes first set of races knocked them out of the running and they did well to come back as they did. Lindgren was unlucky in Heat 1, his arm was clearly knocked, but of course Tatum was just looking at the leg and missed it. Well done to King's Lynn, hope they get more meetings at that level. They deserve it for the work they have put in to improve the stadium.

Should be a cracker. According to Sam last night, Pedersen is definitely a non-starter, but I still favour the Danes on own "shale". Swedes will bring in someone to replace Nermark, hopefully THJ, and will go close. The Aussies I guess will look at replacing Ward and Schlien who were their weaker links last night, but will probably find Vojens will suit them more. Russians without Emil look like the outsiders, but don't forget they did beat the Danes at Vojens last year, and the other guys showed they were capable of getting round there. Personally, they are the ones I'll be rooting for. edited: Just read on the other thread that THJ is no go, maybe one of their other young riders?

Scunthorpe - which is in the UK.

How was that a track tailor made for the Russians? If anything the slick conditions should favour the Danes. You mention a "weakened" Danish team, but their loss of Nicki probably has less effect than the loss of Emil for the Russians. Cast your mind back 12 months and the Russians won the Vojens round. With a fully fit Emil I would give them a good chance of beating the Brits around Vojens.

Pity about that. I was hoping to see Katajisto ride. Hope the Finns put up a decent show.

Then you would have a closed shop of the same 6 teams. Keep it as it is. Was only 2 years ago that the Russians qualified to get in the last 8 and then made it through to the race-off.

I think it's obvious that the weather played a part in the track prep. Even so the Poles rode brilliantly whether from the gate or from the back. Holta's ride from last to first in the second round of heats was pretty special and it's always good watching Gollob, especially when he tries to team ride! Fair play to the Russians as well. Without Emil they were obviously weaker than last year, but they all got stuck in.

Not far away then. Have lived here for 10 years, on Lisburn/Belfast border. Glad your Backtrack itch has been scratched!

Obviously in a perfect world then all clubs would be striving to perform in the top section. But the world that modern day Speedway finds itself is far from perfect. The demands of the GP's and leagues overseas means that the Elite is a midweek league and as our clubs are run as independent businesses you can't blame them staying in a League which more suits their needs. Much higher costs in the Elite, but certainly no guarantee of much bigger crowds.

What a load of cobblers. As long as the track holding such a meeting has the requisite facilities then it doesn't matter whether its Elite or Premier. King's Lynn have spent money on improving their stadium in recent years and deserve to hold events like this. Similar story to Rye House who have done likewise and applied for the Under 21 events. As for Rob Lyon, give the guy a break. He might have a background in the PL but at least he is used to success. Can't really argue with his choices for Mondays meeting.

Issue 39 plopped on the mat this morning. Nice one!

Great to see Sarj back in for tonight (though obviously would have preferred it in circumstances other than an injury), hope he goes well.