iris123

The times are a changing...well they have changed a while ago if we are talking about speedway.There will be a place for leisure,it is very important.How many gyms/fitness clubs have opened up in the last decade?Trouble is,there won't be much of a place for an environmentally unfriendly sport in cities and towns that occurs weekly or even fortnightly.Face facts,we are seeing a change in cars and their use coming pretty soon.It will be extreeeeemly hard to defend noisy,dirty motorbikes racing around for a couple of hours every week and especially if they are sharing a stadium with dirty noisy stock cars as welll

A very short report from Berlins RBB,after the ice hockey and table tennis http://mediathek.rbb-online.de/tv/rbb-AKTUELL/Sport-bei-rbb-AKTUELL/rbb-Fernsehen/Video?bcastId=3907840&documentId=50569968

As I say,i am just glad this is one area speedway has kept pretty clear of It does seem in the modern era sportspeople think it their right to be in these major competitions and so if they fail to get into their national team,will just swap to some other country.Or you get countries who haven't got the talent and so as a quick fix instead of investing in building a talent pool just 'buy' someone elses.I watched a programme about Turkey and one of the dodgy Asian countries,maybe Kazakhstan that were offering good money to African athletes to compete for them.In typical style a lot of the carrots dangled before them never appeared.There was the Russian football team filling up with Brazilian players or the I think Qatar handball team full of ex-Yugoslav country players Just imagine if Italy started to offer big money to Polish or Danish speedway riders,or riders from the major countries started turning out for Finland because they didn't get picked for their country?As it is,i still don't see what this new system has done to improve the lot of the lesser countries.You can pretty well pick who isn't going to make it through to the final and with GB,Germany and Poland you have 3 countries who pretty much held a SWC meeting annually.........

And as I mentioned before there was a german woman representing South Korea,because she couldn't get into the German team

Actually I thought speedway was a bit crazy on some points,but it seems so far have been quite reasonable.It came to my attention during the winter Olympics that some other sports are pretty slack with their rules.The German Ice Dance pair that won gold have appeared in world chmpionships as Germany,but the guy(French) didn't have a german passport.He only just received one a short while before the Olympics as they have stricter rules than the world championships....... And in handball there is one guy who has played at international level for 4 different countries.Ok,you have to allow him 2 as his first country(Yugoslavia) doesn't exist any more

Ok,i thought maybe you was suggesting Finland had a great chance if they rode in Germany?!?

Personally don't think it is that interesting.He is part of a squad and not even that good any more.......

Just to humour you,as it seems nobody is really bothered,but why it this worth a remark?

We will have to wait and see what happens when Bayern play on a Monday,but there is a general across the board feeling of being pee'd off with tv(Sky)wanting so many days and so many different kick off times as well.It seems the fans are organising themselves and are to an extent being taken serious by the Bundesliga.The fans argument is that football use them,their noise,their colour and their numbers to gain sponsors and tv deals,but are exploiting their support. The first Monday game two weeks ago the fans of both clubs made a pact to go silent through the game making sure there was no atmosphere.The Dortmund fan clubs elected to boycott the game.I am sure the protests will go on.But for how long and with what result is up in the air.The Bundesliga are saying the deal is signed for the next two seasons or so and there is nothing they can do.The situation is probably made worse now that a day or so ago the Champions League announced they will also have two different kick off times

Friday afternoon used to be ok to get into the pits for the GP riders practice.If you just want to get a look at the bikes and riders it is ok,but it all used to take a bit of time for the riders to get out on the track.Never started on time Just seen this Freitag, 2.3. Training ab 13h Samstag, 3.3. Stadionöffnung 14h Bis 15:30h Fahrerlageröffnung ,which means the pits are open from 14-15:30 17h Rennbeginn Sonntag, 4.3. Stadionöffnung 11h Bis 12:30h Fahrerlageröffnung ,which means the pits are open from 11:00-12:30!! Rennbeginn 14h

I think the next game will probably be 81,000 as usual,we will see,it is a general protest about Monday night games.Not sure who is next up,but wouldn’t be surprised if some protest is arranged

25,000 Dortmund fans boycott game because of tv on monday!! http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/bundesliga-borussia-dortmund-patzt-bei-fan-boykott-gegen-montagsspiele-a-1195537.html

Taken from a website...... The Bureau consists of 4 nominated Members, two representing the ACU are Tony Steele and Graham Reeve (ACU Members) whilst Alex Harkess (BSPA President) and Gordon Pairman (BSPA Promoter) represent the British Speedway Promoters Association under the independent Chairmanship of Tony Gillias (a former Rider with Coventry & Scunthorpe). Now thinking about it the decision was made by the BSPA,but was it 100%?If it wasn't,then it is of course possible that one or maybe both of the promoters were against it in the first place.But obviously they are in the minority,so even if both were for the decision,then there is the chance they could be outvoted,which is a 'big difference'

Bauer has pulled out of both the German Championship as well as the weekends GPs because of a foot injury/infection.Svensson takes his place at the weekend

Also interesting that Jell isn't in the line-up.Think he was a bit miffed that he was overlooked for a spot in the quails having finished 3rd in last seasons German championship.Of course he wasn't happy that Bernd Sagert picked others and Sagert is also involved in the Berlin promotion,i think https://www.wochenblatt.de/sport/landshut/artikel/219709/markus-jell-sucht-sein-glueck-im-sand-spaniens#gallery&0&0&219709

There isn't a rule that states a german licence holder must get the wc,is there?I thought the promoter had the right to give the wc to anyone they want

To an extent the answer is already out there.I saw on tv this week in one country they have a battery station,where you drive in hand in your almost empty battery and pick up a full one and drive on again......

Terrible crowds so far.Ok they made the excuse for Astana that it was out of the way and no history of the sport etc etc,but even in Russia the support isn't there

I was going to say the first heat was the highlight of the meeting and it went downhill after that not only for Hefenbrock.We did have the excitement of Scott and Chris going into a run-off with Holta for a GP place.But we then had the hype of the big money final being fixed......and that was it for Gelsenkirchen I was at least lucky to go to the right GP.My friend from Manchester went the year after,and we all know what a disaster that was!!!

I do remember that exciting first heat of the Gelsenkirchen GP when the crowd went wild as Hefe came home ahead of Zagar,Gollob and Harris.That must have been one of the highlights of his career

Difficult for me to say.Live I have only seen him in 1 heat in which he fell and was out for the rest of the meeting Remember watching him on tv in a Euro meeting I think from Landshut and he looked a great prospect a few years ago,but his progress seems to have stalled a bit.Here's hoping he is a good 'un Have to say,i never rated Kroner much.He always seemed to be a bit behind Smoli,Hefenbrock,Wölbert and Matze Schultz at the time,but he had a decent career and Schultz didn't achieve very much,so what do I know

Team lists out for the 2nd tier league and all the usual suspects named apart from Hefenbrock,so maybe my assumption was right Teams und Aufstellungen: Black Forest Eagles Daniel Spiller Ethan Spiller David Pfeffer Maximilian Pongratz TM Sönke Petersen TM Reiner Armbruster Meißen Hornets Martin Smolinski Jonas Jensen Ronny Weis Richard Geyer Lukas Wegner Mathias Rex TM Maik Pilz TM Henry Schumann MSC Olching Valentin Grobauer Michael Härtel Philip Schmuttermayr Tim Wunderer Erik Bachhuber TM Stephan Wunderer Emsland Speedway Team Kevin Wölbert Kai Huckenbeck Geert Bruinsma Jörg Tebbe Fabian Wachs Kenneth Jürgensen Jason Jörgensen Timo Wachs Jan Meyer TM Tobias Kroner TM Wolfgang Geiler Güstrow Torros Tobias Busch Hannes Gast Lukas Baumann Leon Arnheim Max-Wilhelm Kruth Ben Ernst TM Hannes Heider TM Maurice Mörke Diedenbergen Rockets Mathias Bartz Marius Hillebrand Leon Maier Maximilian Pott Henk Koonstra Julian Bielmeier Celina Liebmann TM Andreas Schumacher TM Steffi Schumacher Landshut Young Devils Stephan Katt Sandro Wassermann Jonas Wilke Maximilian Troidl Mario Niedermeier TM Klaus Zwerschina TM Johannes Gradl Neuenknicker Hexen Sascha Stumpe Steven Mauer Darrel de Vries Marc Leon Tebbe Fabien Neid Maximilian Firniß TM Mirco Korte MSC Cloppenburg Fighters René Deddens Lukas Fienhage Niels Oliver Wessel Kevin Lück Jonny Wynant Jason Sobolewitsch Michelle Köhler TM Manfred Bäker TM Thore Weiner

Not sure if it has been mentioned.Not that great,but Niedermaier has the wc for Berlin

Teterow I think have some help from the town council as it is a very important part of the town.It is really the hilly grass track that is a major part of the history of the town and although crowds for that are nowhere near the 100,000 it used to attract over a weekend,it is still a major attraction in that part of the world I think that weekend finances the club and the rest of the season t a large part

Part of the trouble with football is that the small countries have far too much power within FIFA.That is why we are where we are and have so much trouble and corruption in that sport at world level. Now we have it from Phil that a similar situation is occurring in speedway.Well it is no surprise.We have a similar situation.We have someone from a small speedway country running the sport and seemingly bowing to similar countries.Italy have no chance of getting far in the SWC and lets be fair this competition hasn't changed their prospects much if at all.Look at the other countries of a similar level and it is the same.But what they have done is out of some selfishness and delusion,spoilt one of the best competitions the sport still had.