pandorum

Enjoyed the meet and GB did well. Of course they won't get in the final but a good battling display would be nice. Good to see the signs are Russia will compete rather than just be there. They have an outside chance of winning the event. Gizatulin will be a better choice than Artem Laguta. Should be a cracking meeting. Pity Scotty is sitting it out but understandable. One thing I found strange about the TV meet on Monday was how those insane commentators kept saying it was a packed stadium when it obviously wasn't. Did they think they were doing a radio show.

I see no difference between what Emil has done and what Lee R did. I think they are wrong but can understand why they did it. Britain could barely field 5 riders at the start of this season as both Bomber and Scott were thinking of doing what Lee did. The Brit under 21 team rode with 4 riders a year or two ago. Should they have been banned? It's a massive dissapointment as Russia are one of the teams that could have won the SWC but they will be lucky to qualify with this team. The SWC needs to sort this issue out and ensure this does not happen again or the sport will look mickey mouse to an observers I meant MORE mickey mouse of course.

I seem to recall a similar situation involving the Brit under 21 team fielding 4 riders and they were not banned from anything. It is of course a disgrace but no good attacking the Russian riders. Our own speedway authorities are lucky we can find 5 riders to take part in the SWC. It's time that a properly formatted FIM system was agreed to allow riders to be compensated for travel etc at these so called BIG events. Emil is wrong not turning out on monday but he has the same kind of point Lee Richardson has and that Scott and Bomber were considering before they finally agreed to turn out. Asking riders to pay to represent their country is idiotic and shows what a silly little sport speedway is. Sky must be fuming and if the Russians get knocked out as I think they will then the SWC will be seriously devalued. I was looking forward to seeing the Russians as I thought they had a chnce this time round. Of course I would love to see the Brits win but I am not simple and know that would never happen. But this kind of thing is so annoying as it should have been addressed by all involved months ago and resolved with at least some kind of compromise. Speedway: ridden by heroes. Run by idiots.

A slight knock? Great meeting and Nicki always adds to the entertainment although should have been excluded three times ....twice in one race That Danish kid did well and Laguta was unlucky. Harris will not get a chance again in the GP so he either shapes up or ships out.

He probably thought after Nicki sent him into orbit jump off or die...hmm...jump off. I love watching Nicki but he can dish it out but can't take it.

Amazing advert for the sport of speedway. Wuffy was really unlucky but it's a hard sport. Well done to Scott and also to everybody who took part especially Ed, Ben and Robbo who were entertainers. David Howe as well as he had every right to have a go. The two kids got a couple of rides there seemed a decent enthusiastic crowd and fantastic TV coverage. Breathtaking speedway and nice to see Britain with some damn good triers to choose a WC team from. Nice gesture from Chris at the end after being sent into orbit by his rival. Chris must have been gutted but showed he is a Big man! Once again a shame for Wuffy but he showed he was a Big man too. Best British Final for decades.

That's true as that was an unpredictable format that threw up all kinds of interesting permutations. Probably too many riders to pay for so thats why they dumped it. Getting rid of Ole has certainly been a step forward.

Yes he has done well this year but overall he has been lamentable in GPs so does not deserve a pick. Of course he is in the top 8 and hopefully maintains that after Saturday as after Mondays heroics the man should be there but has to EARN his place to be able to say that he has a right to mix it with the top riders. Brits this last few years have been a joke in GP and think that they can just waltz in because the TV coverage needs a Brit or two. This needs to stop. Let our riders be there because they deserve it and have earnt thier place rather than get it by default due to being British. We will never see a Brit World Champ until the charity stops and our riders realise that they have to earn thier places by hard work. Chris has done well at the end of the season and nobody can deny his right to be in the GP if he earns his spot. Artem Laguta will likely struggle next year but he earned his place so nobody can deny his right to be there but our riders just get a spot because Sky TV needs a Brit. Tai has done well this year and has leanred a lot. He does not deserve a pick but hopefully can use what he learned to qualify for 2012. Scott and Ricko do not deserve anything GP wise. There are better riders than them in the queue who will miss out because of nationality. I would rather see one deserving Brit who had earned thier place by struggling to qualify properly doing well in 2011 than two charity cases making fools of themselves. Good luck Chris Harris tomorrow I for one will be rooting for you. I hope you do it and I hope next year our riders know that qualification will be their only route to GP. Then we might see a Brit on the top podium.

cheers 2 I will check it out on Saturday

Cheers.

Anyone know of sites where I can go to watch it on my lap top? No access to Sky TV on Saturday.

Congrats to Gollob and also to Chris Harris for putting himself in a position to deserve to be in the top company next season.

Well done TG. A genius on a speedway bike plain and simple. It took a while for him but he eventually got there. Not everybody's cup of tea but surely only the hardest hearted fan would begrudge the guy his glory? Congrats to a speedway legend.

Neither match was any kind of spectacle over any of the 4 legs. But having said that fair play to Coventry for grasping the nettle of the EOESG! Wolves were awful home and away and Peterborough deserved all they got last night. That track was a disgrace and it was fortunate nobody ended up badly hurt. I feel sorry for the 'Boro fans if that was their team during their most important meeting of the season. #1 was a joke and good luck getting rid of him for 2011. Schlein was unlucky as the ref was wrong on that one. But it would not have made a happorth of difference as 'Boro gave up in heat #1. Speedway never seems to grasp the concept of the Big Picture and always seems like a Mickey Mouse operation run by used car dealers. It's NOT what Speedway can do for you. It's what YOU can do for speedway. The Play Offs should be a showcase for the sport NOT a showcase for the dullards that run it. Once again another p#ss poor play off. Bet the final is even duller. Prepare tracks for racing that blows the watcher away you morons not just tracks that blow! Good luck Coventry as you will need it against Poole.

Can Harris hang on? Not if he performs like that again. Lamentable has been his GP nickname and he still has not done anything to deserve a pick. Same goes for Woofy. He has learned and showed a few bits of promise but the sooner the Brits get out of the 'charity hand out' habit and realise that only hard work will get them in the GP the quicker we will have someone who will put up a decent challenge. No one can put up ONE reasonable argument why a Brit deserves a pick. We have lived on the 'series needs a Brit' argument for so long we here have started to believe such crap. The series needs guys like Darcy, Artem, Freddie, Aussie Chris, Emil, Antonio and even Woofy but the Brits need to start deserving thier spots. No Brit pick for 2011 please and let our guys ponder that they can only get in via the qualifiers for a few years. Might wake the buggers up. Congrats to Gollob who is arguably the best rider to sit on a speedway bike in the last 20 years. Seen guys like Mauger, Collins, Michanek, Briggs, Olsen, Penhall, Neilsen, Gundersen and Tommy Jansson and this guy is up with modern greats like that. It's about time Poland had a great world champ to savour in. Gollob is the man. Lets hope he can finish it off in the next four weeks.

The idea that the reintroduction of the old one off world final would invigourate speedway in some way is so utterly barmy that it's not even worth laughing at. But I will anyway. I can remember that so much interest was paid to the old world final from my fellow fans when it was held outside the UK that often they had no idea who had won it a week later and even less interest. I have been to two one at Wembley and one at Bradford. Neither was that great. The GP system is exciting and absorbing and fans are able due to the TV coverage it gets be part of the whole event sharing the excitment over a series of months and not read about it in the papers a week after. If they can even be bothered. The old system was poor and the only saving grace it had was that your local rider could be part of it for an hour or so at some meaningless qualifier event. The GP pits a decent line up against each other without the old system which had to pander to poorer speedway nations by giving them half a dozen no hoper places. Of course there will be riders who can't have a hope of winning the event but as Chris showed last time they can be spoilers and have an affect on the overall winners and losers. The GP system is massively better than the old one off final and anyone who thinks it is not is loony tunes. The fact that speedway does not capitalise on the TV coverage is speedways fault. Promoters have a product that gets good TV exposure and waste it by the fact they are amateurish idiots who could not promote thier collective way out of a paper bag. It's not GPs fault crowds are down and the GP is the only bright spot in a mediocre summer of elite league racing. High prices, lack of any proper long tem planning regarding the future of the sport and promoters who after decades of TV live speedway still cannot interest anyone in sponsoring the league shows where the problems lie. GP has lifted the sports profile here in the UK but the sport still wants to be a little known minority sport run by used car salesmen who I would not buy a second hand wheelbarrow from. The farce that is the Elite League a week before the start of it's showcase finish shows who is to blame for the decline of the sport in the UK. And it's not GP speedway.

Harris did brilliantly and was unlucky not to win the GP. He was without doubt the best rider on that day. But this changes nothing when you consider the pick situation. Is Chris better than Nicki, Greg, Hans, AJ or Holder? In terms of GP no he isn't. He is hardly a draw for the series either and as it's a business trying to make money Nicki P will ALWAYS be considered before Chis Harris. Emil is a stone cold cert so three picks available. Nicki if he fails is stone cold cert #2. So two left. Hans and AJ are favourites of the competition audience so will likely get the other 2 picks if they too fail to make the top 8. And so it should be. Bomber has done nothing really in GP to stake his claim. Fine he won at Cardiff. Brilliant acheivement but the vast majority of his performances were lamentable. Nice to see him make the top 8. He has a 7 point cushion. He just needs to score more than his rivals for 8th spot to make a fully deserved place for himself in the GP. If he does that no one can argue he does not deserve to be there. If he fails to do that then he does not deserve a pick as he will have flopped big style in the final run in. If he can't even keep his place with 7 points on his rivals with three to go then he will be of little impact next year. It's not a big ask for him now is it. Secure a place with a 7 point head start over 3 meetings. If he can do that then there may be some hope he can do himself justice in 2011. We all know that Chris is a good rider but he has not done himself justice in GPs. He does not deserve a pick. Plain and simple. He must secure his spot and not depend on charity. Deserve a place Chris rather than expect a place. If Britain is ever going to regain a place in the elite speedway nations it needs to aspire rather than live on past glories. Good luck to Chris and I hope he makes it. Yesterday was an awesome display and hopefully we will see three more good ones and him secure 8th spot or higher.

I can't seriously think of one single cogent argument to justify a Brit pick in next years GP. Emil is a certainty and deservedly so and if anyone thinks Harris or Woffy deserve a place in front of Hancock or Nicki P then they are living in one strange world. The Brits just sit back and expect 2 picks so don't put the effort into qualifying that others less favoured do. No one can argue that Laguta does not deserve his place as like Zorro he won the qualifier and the 2nd and 3rd likewise. Harris could not even do that on his own track but knew he would get a get out of jail free card anyway. It's time the Brits stopped getting free rides and earned their spots. Let them go through the qualifiers knowing this was their only route and perhaps we will get a decent well deserving Brit in the GP who does what guys like Zorro did and make an effort when they get into the competition. He knows that its top 8 or nothing so gives it everything. The Brits know that however pathetic thier showing someone will drop them a 'pity pick' because it's felt the series needs a Brit. British Speedway used to be the envy of the speedway world but now it's a backwater being left behind on the world stage by a nation once considered here as a Mickey Mouse speedway nation in Russia. We will never get back to a decent level on that world stage as long as we depend on sympathy. We need hard work and effort at all levels to aspire to once again be top of that world stage. Mark Loram won his world title because he put the effort in and since we lost him we have had no one who looks remotely like even a near potential world champ. I like Woffy. he has showed a little bit of grit in GP this year. Not enough to deserve a pick but a spark that might do him justice in years to come. He has learned from his year in the GP and that will put him in good stead for the future. But he needs to know that the qualifiers are his only route as picks will be at a premium and better riders considered before any Brits. Let them strive to get into the GP and maybe, just maybe when they get there they will do themselves justice. Nichols and Harris do not deserve a pick. Rico is the same. What exactly have any of them done to deserve any consideration other than be British and do well in a Brit final which is full of PL riders? Our best prospect could not even qualify for this years Brit final. Brit speedway will never better itself if it depends on the patronage of GP picks and Sky. Yearn to be in the GP. Strive hard to get in the bloody thing and when you do earn the right to be in that company make sure that nobody can say that you don't deserve to be there. Other riders do that so why do ours have to be different. End this nonsense of Brit picks because they are British. Let us earn our place at the top table not depend on charity and then we might see a Brit world champion once again.

Is there anything fans here won't whine about I enjoyed the meet and it was wonderful to see our riders come out on top. Of course GB won't win the WC but as long as they give a good account then that is progress. Moaning about the fact we only beat weakened teams is pointless. GB were weakened by the loss of Loram and Louis in previous years but had to just get on with it. That's speedway. Credit where its due and our lads did marvellous. I thought the Aussies would pip us and those last 5 heats would go their way. Glad to see I was wrong and our lads fought for every point. Tai beating Holder was class and had to laugh at his comment that he could see what Chris was doing by watching the helmet cam on the big screen. Good one son! Lee got a great win and Steady was exactly that. Bomber and Scotty were top class and inspired the rest. Getting to the final is an acheivment for GB and one hopefully they can build on. It might help inspire some of the younger lads to want to be part of that. Our boys never seem to get the money from sponsors they deserve and have the handicap of usually being outclassed equipment wise but last night was their night and they deserved their glory. Putting them down especially when those doing it are British is silly. Last year the Russians deservedly got tons of praise for thier qualifying feats and what GB did last night was no different to that. We are hardly a top speedway nation anymore. Give cerdit where it's due and deserved. We did well last night.

makes you wonder where exactly some people watch speedway if this was boring. Must be a helluva track. If there was passing every bend for every lap for every race someone would say it was not as good as Scunthorpe last week. Excellent meeting from start to finish. Tai did well and was unlucky to run three lasts at the end. He beat three of the worlds best riders in one race so is capable thats for sure. Good to see Chris do well. He earned his SF place and was a threat in the final. Good lad. Lets see more of that. Jampel deserved his win and if he ends up #1 fair play to him. I would prefer to see Tomas Gollob do it as the guy is the best there is and has been for many years now. sad to see Nicki, Jason and Greg struggle but they will be back thats for sure. Peter Prot is not an adequate replacement for Emil thats for sure so hopefully we will see him at Cardiff and not the Pole. Good crowd and they made plenty of noise. A great advert for the sport. Kelvin sounded worn out. Let's see it continue and provide a fitting world championship season and a fitting world champion.

Make it worth while people going to live speedway ie lower admission, maybe arrange with away track to allow thier fans in for half price as a reward for travelling? it's radical but might encourage a lot more to attend, have a proper programme of races including perhaps a second half of somekind, reintroduce something along the lines of the golden and silver helmet match races that might attract attention, radical changes to rules to make them simple but effective such as get rid of that imbecelic double point nonsense, have a national strategy to attract sponsors and promote and develop the sport, encourage young Brit talent by perhaps limiting reserves in both EL and PL to Brit only, have test matches at PL/NL level here and in europe to allow talent to grow and more importantly learn, make a proper concerted attempt at national level to provide decent racing circuits encouraging tracks to provide proper entertainmenet and proffesional running of meetings,encourage schools to get involved by going into the places with riders and bikes and giving concessions to local schools, have a national strategy that provides help for areas wishing to develop the sport. Work together to build the sport up instead of against each other to drag it down. Hell its not astro physics after all. A troop of chimps could run the sport better than the current lot

Thats a shame.....it would be great to see GPs in front of large crowds both in terms of atmosphere and perception with regards TV coverage. The last GP was a joke in terms of the crowd. Encouraging local schools to attend via cheap admission would be a good thing to do as kids are usually very vociferous towards thier local heroes. Speedway seems not to have the slightest clue how to make itself look good to the wider viewing audience. It has such a wonderful avenue to promote itself with GP coverage and seeks short term gain instead.

I heard Led Zeppelin were reforming especially for the event......either that or Kajagoogoo I always get those two mixed up.

Not bad considering the way the weather affected the track. Makes you wonder what it would have been like if not for the rain. Some decent racing and some good passing and an exciting finale. But the crowd was non existent which is a worry. Obviously a few got put off by the weather but surely all those who bought tickets turned up? That along with the lack of sponsors must be a worry for taking GP forward. They may have a few meeting sponsors like Exide who are in for 4 meetings but have no substantial GP sponsor. Considering the coverage this must be a worry. And as far as the Andersen/Harris clash I could not believe what came out of his and Taters mouth. Hans headbutted Chris arm to get past him. I have seen some weird ways of passing but that was a classic. The ref was quite correct and anyone who saw it different must have been either Hans family or drunk Mind you the late great Jack Millen would have approved I am sure

If energy drinks start putting money into speedway bloody great. These guys can plug thier drinks all they want if some money comes the sports way. Maybe Rockstar will sponsor cardiff again.