iris123

This is days old really,but not settled one way or the other. In a way and it has been said before,the main thing is a riders development and he has to make the decisions he thinks are best.I am not sure there is another sprt where fans turn on someone for choosing to go to a foreign team.Football players have done it for decades.European ice hockey or basketball players jump at the chance to get a contract in the US.Of course speedway is unique in that riders can choose to ride in numerous leagues,but we were always happy when we had the best league and had the advantage of seeing most of the worlds best riders.You have to see the other side now things have changed. Of course it is a bitter pill to swallow if Robert ends up riding for some team in the Bundesliga,but not for a British team.Fact is British or German teams and even lowly Polish teams are being used as a springboard to one of the top Polish or Swedish teams and on into the hoped for GP series etc.It is a fact of life and if any of us was in the same position we'd probably make the same choice

Maybe it really will be tandem speedway bikesand they are waiting for the first to be built,so they can do some publicity photos? Happy X-mas

Czechs announced their riders about a week ago.Think Jan Klatovsky was down for Ylitornio

Hmmm,a lot of the time it is more like "Four guys turn left two times and come back to where they started in about 5 minutes",which is sadly a big problem.

My dad was one of those strange people who looked at the programme and after the meeting threw it away!!!Never filled it in and because of his blooming strange habit of just tossing it on the floor,i have absolutely no record of which meetings I attend during the 60s and early 70s.Arrggggghh.Can you imagine how tormented I have been having some complete nutcase as a father?What the hell was he thinking of?

Actually there is a link going back to England.The main restaurant selling Labskaus to the rich and famous,is the Old Commercial Room,which is situated on the street named Englische Planke.The street gets its name because a few hundred years ago the English community in Hamburg had a sports ground on the street and because it lies on the banks of the river Elbe when they played ball games,the ball would roll off towards the river,so they put a wooden plank boundary around the ground...... https://www.oldcommercialroom.de/ The Anglican St.Thomas Beckett Church lies nearby

Is this an 'enhanced' photo?Even their faces are in New Cross colours,although I thought the Rangers colour was a bit different to this.This looks more like Coventry yellow!!!!

Search the forum as this topic has been raised a number of times.But I did put this on one thread before and there is more stuff if you google

He could just go over and do some rides when there are training days.Rye House,seem to hold them regularly,even last weekend if I remember correctly.Or Scunny or even Iwade .There are others of course.Just have to look at the clubs websites or even here in the amateur section etc Have to take a chance with the weather of course.Could make the trip for nothing

When was this then?Most seasons there was always,so it seemed numerous chances to see the top stars and local rivals Take 1968 around the time i first started going to Plough Lane and you had for example home and away challenge v West Ham for the Supporters Trophy,you'd get the KOC and that season we had Kings Lynn then a world Championship quali round,the Wills Internationale and then a GB v Sweden test followed by the British Final then we had home and away v West Ham and Hackney in the London Cup as well as the Laurels!!!!!,plus all the British League Meetings. Later seasons we had the Spring Gold Cup regional qualis and the Spring Classic etc and then came the Southern riders Championship,which was imo a waste of time

GB isn't a league meeting.I think Henny's was the first in the British League,which doesn't include test meetings

Funny,i saw an interview a week or so ago with Henny and Egon Müller and Henny told the story of him riding in Russia at I think Togliatti and had a bad accident.Think he broke something,but anyway the ambulance came on and the medical staff put him on a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance without securing him.So the ambulance sped off and henny flew out of the back!!!! He was laughing about it now,but I bet he wasn't laughing at the time.He finished off with 'it could only happen in Russia'

Well maybe she can ask him then?

Was that the same with Emiliano Sanchez? Actually,i am not sure this is correct.Covatti rode for Italy in the SWC and you can't do that just with an Italian licence,you have to have Italian citizenship.Ferjan couldn't ride for Hungary until he got his passport,despite having a Hungarian licence.Maybe Covatti has dual citizenship though

It was answered years ago.The person doing the site,said it didn't interest him,but if either Parsloes or yourself wanted to compile the stats then they would put them on the site.4 years and neither you nor Parsloes seem to have taken up the challenge

But the draw was done by the same people who will be doing the draw for the new competition.Surely that won't change much?

No real bias for me either.If anything I guess I should be towards Niemi as he rode for Wimbledon.But then again Joonas rode for my local team here,Brokstedt.So evens stevens

Yes,i did mention in an earlier post that his career was hampered by a number of injuries.And we agree on that.I do think it extremely close with Joonas just ahead,but can understand others who will say Kai was the best.A few times he did quite well,winning or coming 2nd in qualifiers,but also had to ride in Hungary etc which as I said Kai's route back then was mostly riding in Scandinavia to qualify for a world final

It is difficult to compare,as I said.Joonas never had the mainly Scandinavian or home English track route.Maybe f-s-p will expand,but looks like he wasn't that often nominated for the GP qualifiers anyway Something tends to remind me that there were clashes with the Longtrack????Seem to have the idea it gave Smolinski trouble as well

Forgot about that.I was looking at his path to the 1980 world final.And it does show up the problems with the old system,because no way would you say Kai was better than Ole Olsen or Ivan Mauger or Peter Collins or Michael Lee,but on that night at that track he finished above them.What are we supposed to get from that stat? As I mentioned elsewhere in a series of one off individual meetings a rider like Lubos Tomicek was a finger tip away from qualifying for the GP series and a 2nd tier rider like Kyle Legault made it all the way to the Challenge!!!

Trouble is when you look back Kai got into the world finals generally by a fairly easy route and hardly had to ride outside Scandinavia to do it.The one time he did,i think he had to ride at White City of all places!!!! Saying that he did do well once or twice and a couple of times only finished above riders he would have been expected to. Difficult to compare because of the years between them and the change in world qualifying systems and change in league size and strength.I take your points and also the point about the strength of the longtrack now compared to back then.I do think there is little to choose between them

Just seen that Luca Bauer is going to be riding with an Italian licence this season!!! Trouble with the German federation.Just like his father then? Seems the trouble stems from last year when he wasn't nominated for the EM after being the only german rider to compete the year before. The german nominations for the word championship quails are Ylitornio Niedermaier,Busch and Pletschacher Örnsköldsvik G.Bauer and Hans Weber

Mikka Loppi was tipped to be a star.What ever happened to him?

If we compare them at least in the British League,as for the earlier riders we don't have Polish comparisons(not sure if they rode in Sweden?) We have Teromaa 1975..Leicester..34..132..154..41..5.91 1976..Leicester..34..144..266..17..7.86..1F 1977..Leicester..29..135..281..20..8.92 1978..Leicester..37..159..324..22..8.70..4F..1P 1979..Leicester..20..79..115..9..6.28 1979..Cradley..2..8..11..2..6.50 1980..Cradley..33..130..142..31..5.32..1P world finalist 1978 Niemi 1976..White City..29..99..94..26..4.85 1977..White City..39..164..234..47..6.85 1978..White City..34..137..227.5..18..7.17 1979..Eastbourne..34..164..348..11..8.76..4F..1P 1980..Eastbourne..23..113..228..8..8.35..2F 1981..Eastbourne..1..5..6..1..5.60 1981..Birmingham..48..222..367..46..7.44..1P 1982..Wimbledon..42..185..329..43..8.04..2F..2P 1983..Wimbledon..44..181..320..27..7.67..1F..1P 1984..Ipswich..50..201..371..30..7.98..3F..1P 1985..Ipswich..39..161..201..46..6.14 1986..Swindon..23..98..203..4..8.45..1F 1986..Ipswich..16..67..130..4..8.00 1987..Ipswich..45..186..328..26..7.61 1988..Ipswich..38..180..278..31..6.87 1989..Coventry..30..105..104..19..4.69 1991..Long Eaton..12..48..73..7..6.67 world finalist 80,82,84,85 Kylmäkorpi 2001..Eastbourne..38..158..185..28..5.39..1P 2002..Ipswich..30..122..131..20..4.95 2003..Arena Essex..35..178..403..28..9.69..1F..2P 2003..Eastbourne..40..182..303..32..7.36..2F 2004..Eastbourne..30..127..187..36..7.02..1P 2005..Coventry..14..70..111..15..7.20..1F 2005..Peterborough..12..56..86..15..7.21 2006..Arena Essex..32..158..299..20..8.08..1P 2007..Lakeside..21..100..153..30..7.32 2008..Lakeside..27..123..181..42..7.25 2009..Lakeside..29..125..189..23..6.78..1P 2010..Eastbourne..34..165..286..26..7.56..1P 2011..Eastbourne..34..158..288..25..7.92..1F..2P 2012..Eastbourne..14..65..117..13..8.00 2013..Peterborough..12..52..91..8..7.62..1P 2014..Eastbourne..30..130..201..14..6.62..1P 2015..Coventry..24..101..171..17..7.45..1F 2016..Wolves..15..66..108..12..7.27 GP wildcard 4 times? http://wwosbackup.proboards.com/thread/1566/joonas-kylmakorpi I would say Joonas is better without doubt than Teromaa and comparable if not better than Niemi given he rode in a tougher environment as I have shown a few times when you compare say the number of over 10+ averages in 1964 to the number in a larger league in 1965.The larger the league the easier it is to get a higher average.So Joonas has done very well,especially seeing as he often had an injury.So as far as I am concerned there is no way Niemi is head and shoulders above the rest and no way Teromaa is easily the next best.Not on these stats.I'd also say there is not much chance that Kai would have made 4 GP series I was actually a bit surprised,because I thought Niemi would be a good bit better than Joonas at speedway,but to me it doesn't pan out like that

Not while you have a hole in yer ass