salty

Sorry Speedyguy, the Brian Belton book I was referring to was of course the one about Bluey. Norbold I haven't read any of Brian Belton's books so excuse my ignorance of their quality. Given the generally supportive nature of all those in the Speedway written media it just sticks out a little bit when 2 of his tomes get criticised. Maybe you could elaborate why this would be so.

Poor Brian doesn't get the best of reviews does he? Wasn't it his book on Split Waterman that John Chaplin gave a poor review to? Might be worth getting the book just to make up my own mind.

Liked the new look, particularly the article on Leicester. Don't know about 2 out of the 8 colour pages being adverts though. Or the Pistols and Abba photos being in colour. Tommy Jansson article was excellent, will entice me to get the book.

When this meeting was first announced Matt Ford was quoted as saying "we are anticipating the crowd will be huge" and also " an event that will go down in the annals of speedway as the best send-off ever from these shores for a speedway rider". Now even allowing for SS's inability to guesstimate the size of the crowd accurately, it is clear the event did not live up to that early hype. So why was this? Is Ricko not so popular as Ford imagined? Was the event poorly promoted and over priced? Was the field lack-lustre? Or was it a combination of all 3? Either way I don't think we have to re-write the annals of Speedway.

Nice one Ricko!

Surely its time something was done about these "foreigners", not only do they beat us at everything, but they now have the temerity to come on OUR forum and have opinions different to ours.

Can't believe that people can have a pop at Middlo for not winning the World Cup. Look at the raw materials he has got to work with compared to other countries. Given that the first 3 WTC campaigns were wrecked by injury I would argue that if anything he has over achieved in his time at the helm. Also think it is great that he has the bottle to come on this forum and give his point of view. How he can be compared to the massively overpaid, tactical desert that was Eriksson is beyond me. Having said that beware of any Sheikhs inviting you out to Dubai, Middlo!

Main problem for Millard last night was that without the studio or Sophie in the pits he had to do a lot more talking than normal. Consequently, he talked a lot more drivel than during an EL meeting. Personally, I wish Pearson would tone it down a bit, but he does give a far more professional sheen to proceedings than Millard. I'm surprised that Sky still tolerate someone who makes so many basic errors. Thought it was quite an entertaining meeting, AJ, Lindback and Hamill all putting on a show. I also thought Tomas Suchanek did ok, particularly in the race where he came from 4th to 2nd only to lose it on the final bend.

Have to echo Brit Pete on this. I worked for the magic sign for 14 years and I would be very surprised if the person who prices up their Speedway odds is very knowledgeable. The guys who price up their books in major sports are very shrewd and have an encyclopaedic knowledge of their speciality, but I would be surprised if they even have a Speedway specialist. The key for us punters is to be patient and wait and wait for that value.

Very rare to see bookies making that sort of error. Quite surprised to see Ladbrokes playing in such a market, didn't think they were that big on Speedway. Judging by their prices they don't really have a great handle on the sport either.

Leaves us with the horrible possibility that someone gets a 15 point max and then gets an ef in the final thus not qualifying. Why can't they just have it as top 3 after 20 heats?

Don't see any reason why GB should have 2 wild cards. If Nicholls qualifies by dint of his performance this year then there might just be another place awarded, so if Stead or Harris were to do well at Vetlanda they might just catch the eye of the organisers. Unless Richardson improves dramatically or gets some influential sponsors he's got to be out.

So the full line up for the Final is:- Jagus Kolodziej Pepe Kosciecha Andersen Gjedde Max PK Harris Stead Holta Sullivan Ferjan A Dryml Smolinski Laukkanen Nine of which have been in GP's before. Good to see 2 young Brits there, but it will be a big ask to get in the top 3.

It's top 6 to qualify as long as a Swede is in the final. As PK qualified from Hungary that means the top 6 here will go through.

Unless there is no Swedish qualifier for the Final, in which case only 5 go through from Zarnovica and the Swedes seed 1 through.

Agree that is part of the reason, but I also think there were a lot of evenly matched riders who took points off each other. Don't forget the GP's have had Pepe perfoming poorly all year not to mention Richardson.

Holta and now Laukkanen. Gutted for Gafurov and Lukas, fancy getting 10 points and only finishing 7th!

Kolodziej won the 2nd and joins him. The gaffer, Lukas and Kai for the 5th and final spot.

Apparently Heat 21 has Lukas in red and blue, the Gaffer in white! beat me to it.

Yes, but this is Speedway isn't it, where as we know rules are there to be changed at a whim.

3 extra heats shown on the Polish updates site. Don't know the riders line up yet. Come on The Gaffer!!!!

Holta and Andersen finish on 11, Laukkanen, Gafurov, Dryml, Kolodziej and Jagus finish on 10. Anyone know what happens now to split them?

Last heat - Holta, Dryml and Gizatullin all on 8. Winner qualifies 2nd goes level with 4 others on 10 points.

Don't know what happened but he got no points. Still 11 should be enough to qualify, gonna be a big scramble though with a lot of riders in a bunch.

Unfortunately Andy has not been picked for the next round. He was obviously under the impression he would be next in line, but as usual he has been shafted by the powers that be.