salty

Is the 16 rider thing planned for next year?? If it is then I assume that this years top 10 will join with the 6 who qualified from Poole, which would mean no wild-cards and no seeded riders for 2004???? That means no Loram, no Lukas, no Max, but we do get Jesper B. Or are they thinking ahead to 2005? Seems like cost is the main incentive.

I think if Cegielski were to be fit (big if) he would take the place of Bajerski who faded quite badly towards the end of the season. In fact I would favour Hampel to be picked before him in any case. Hope Mark gets chosen but I do have a nagging feeling that they may only pick one Brit...

I think if the GP format had been in use from say 1984 then Hans Nielsen would have won far more than his 4 titles. With the possible exception of Erik he was the dominant rider in the World up until the Gp's started. I am certain his consistency would have bagged him at least 3 or 4 more titles, particularly in the early 90's. Remember how after not being Champ for 5 years he was the first GP champ in 95 and nearly won again in 96 when he was slightly on the wane. The GP structure would have been made for him.

As ever it will be interesting to see which way Benfield go with their selections. In the 1st year of picking 6 seeds they looked to increase the number of Poles (Pepe, Seb and cegielski?) an extra Swede (Jonsson) and a Norwegian and Slovenian (Rune and Ferjan). This was at the expense of Screeny who had been injured most of the season. Last year I think they plumped for the next 6 in the standings. My guess would be Lukas, Lee, Max for definite with either Hampel or Bajerski (possibly both) and hopefully Loramski getting a spot in front of Hans Andersen. Think Mark as a recent World Champ deserves a slot given that he has been injured most of this year, but am a bit worried that they may not see fit to seed 2 Brits.

Has to be Crumpy, he's been up there for the last couple of years and deserves to see his name on the role of honour.

Would love to see Tomasz win this one. On the "normal" tracks he could still be World Champ. When push comes to shove (for want of a better phrase) I don't know whether he will have the same determination to win as riders such as TR,JC and Nicki.... therefore 1.Crump 2.Tomasz 3.TR 4.Rune(very quick round here I reckon)

Regarding the ruling on bets being carried forward, Ladbrokes rules on this eventuality were that bets would stand for the restaging of the event, but could be voided by request prior to that restaging. (seem to remember that happening when the Grand National was re-run one year.)

Steve As a Cradley supporter who lived in London and went to Plough Lane throughout the 80's I seem to remember the Dons being the first team to win at Dudley Wood for donkeys some time during the 80's. Must have been 1984 I think.

Much as I hate Barratts at least they are in the business of building cheap, badly constructed houses, so I can see the logic of them building on the Wood. But I can't forgive the incompetent/corrupt planning inspector who gave them the go ahead in the first place.(overiding at a stroke all the other previous planning decisions). May he rot.

Frigbo The trouble is that a number of GP riders don't go through the qualifying process. The way the Gp standings are at the moment, riders such as Bajerski, Max,Jonsson,Lyons,Cegielski,Loram and Richardson will be left hoping for a seeding for 2004. Add to these PK and possibly Lukas. If Lukas falls out of the top 10 then Bajerski is most likely to replace him, leaving 6 of the other 7 names above to hope for a seeding(depending on Cegielski's fitness) Who else would you think is worthy of a GP spot? I think of the riders who qualified Pepe is much improved, Kaj deserves his chance, Bo has been unlucky this year in the GP's and his SWC showing was excellent. Think Jesper and Ales may struggle but that is a view coloured by their recent EL struggles.

Totally agree with the above comment. The track last night was pants. After the first bend the only overtaking was up the inside of riders who made mistakes and drifted wide.(Honourable exception was the Russian who swooped round Floppy in Heat 7) Pound to a penny Vojens will be very slick on Saturday as that's the way the Danes like it. Whoever gates will win...

Agree that it isn't too healthy knowing that you may be replaced but from a business point of view I don't think you would get promoters agreeing. If a rider is not doing the biz and the team is losing then the promoter owes it to himself and his patrons to try and do something about it. Sometimes the moves backfire (witness the changes often made at Belle Vue), but I can't see the promoters agreeing to having their hands tied like that.

Haven't got the stats to back it up but I get the feeling Floppy is a bit more competitive away from Arlington this year. Having said that as someone else said we ain't gonna win the thing so why not give Harris and Steady a go. Given the Americans team troubles we should at least qualify for the run-off, but that might be as far as we get again.

ENGLAND 39 Simmons 10 Betts 10 PC 9 Wilson 6 Ashby 2 Louis 2 E. Boocock 0 SWEDEN 39 Michanek 11 Lofqvist 10 Persson 8 T. Jansson 5 Holmqvist 3 S. Sjosten 2 Nygren 0 Regards

My 1st match Cradley v Newport 28th sept 1968. Funny story about it is that I was supposed to be going to my first Wolves match at Molineux that afternoon, but the chap who was supposed to be taking me (my mates sister's boyfriend) let me down, cue squalls of tears etc. To try and cheer me up my Dad took me to Dudley Wood that night and it was love at first sight (with the sport that is not the "stadium"). And the Wolves got beat 6-0 HaHa!

I don't know railway end, in 1969 (my first full year as a supporter) Cradley finished 7th which was by far our best season up until the late 70's. The majority of my early years was spent watching us at the foot of the table.

With all due respect to riders like Bird, Harris, Allen and Stead, when they have ridden in big meetings such as the British Final or the Test against RoWorld they haven't set the track alight. However, it would probably have been better to take them as the back up to the first choice 5/6 than riders like Havvy, Floppy etc. I can't believe that Middlo thinks we can win the thing so why not use the opportunity to give a few more of the youngsters a taste of the atmosphere. I guess Mark has been included to ride in the first meeting(4 per race)

Railway End You must have been a follower about the time of the "Flying Magyar" himself. The one and only Sandor Levai. I remember one season, 1969?, when he was the biz around Somerton and became quite a folk hero. He was still useful at Cradley in the mid 70's all though he must have been nearly 50 by then. Regards

The late great Chris Julian was tough as teak.

Don't know about his grandad but his Dad Ian rode. Most succesfully at Mildenhall where he was National League Riders Champ one year i think.

Evo You are right, although we were a great team that year a number of the home meetings were crap with the opposition beaten before the start. The away matches were more entertaining but even then we hit some big 50plus scores. I think the financial problems stemmed less from smaller crowds but more from the big payouts to the riders.

I can understand Crumpies anger, he is probably contemplating another season without realising his all consuming ambition and as we could all see it obviously hit him hard. The pervasive nature of the TV coverage, particularly in the pits, has brought a number of examples of people losing their temper. I seem to remember Nicki P having a bit of a wobbler in his pit lane. What we must remember is that the nature of such coverage is going to be warts and all. A similar analogy would be to have a camera in the changing room of a beaten football team, where I am sure we would see similar emotions. It was obvious that Crump wanted to be on his own, there were no members of his entourage in sight. Maybe one of his team could have prevented the intrusion? Could this emotive display be at the root of why Jason can't make that final step up to World Champ?

Sandman Yes you are right about the race-jackets. The Internationale I remember most was when it was won by Trevor Hedge. If memory serves he beat Ivan in a run-off after Ivan had fallen. They tried to revive the meeting as The British Open at White City (won by Sigalos £5K prize) and the following year it was rained off at Plough Lane. Unfortunately it went the way of so many individual meetings. It was as if the crowds and riders got sick of them. At one point Wimbledon used to hold at least 4 a season...Internationale,Spring Classic,Laurels,Cearns Memorial Shield etc,etc. I think a big meeting as suggested above would be great but the prize would have to be good to motivate the riders to compete.

Accepted with grace.

JBlanch Just to clarify...my viewpoint is that of a spectator. As such I would view the quality of a track by the quality of the racing I see upon it. This obviously depends on many things shape, size, amount of shale etc,etc. My point was that I didn't feel the re-vamped Hackney track didn't provide racing of the quality of the previous track. Having said that I seem to remember that the lack of banking was forced upon them by the confines of the new stands. Can't remember the pie and mash stall either.... But I take your point that the riders and fans may have different (slightly)views on what is a "good" track. Regards