iris123

Mateusz Szczepaniak has the wildcard for Ostrow 19.09

I thought you might......... A couple of speedway riders with german surnames,suggest as would generally happen,that not all people with german heritage left Poland Glücklich + Hampel for instance

When a GP is in another country they might well be past the watershed in that country.How are we going to cope when the GP gets to Australia?

If you take it that communism "influenced the social fabric...." then surely you should agree that German occupation or annexation of part of what is now Poland also had a similar influence. Here is a pretty good list of pre WW2 speedway meetings in Poland.Sure you will notice a lot of Germanic surnames and even german riders.Alfred Rumrich who rode briefly for Wimbledon for instance and the brothers(I guess) Geyer.And just look at the names of some of the Bydgoszcz clubs riders.........Helmut Zimmerman,Herbert Beitsch and Albrecht von Alvensleben,all riding for Bydgoszcz in 1930...... http://rlach.republika.pl/pl_1932.htm

Like I mentioned before,i do think the Poles were very proud people before the Soviet occupation.They seemed extremely proud and brave during WW2. There was for a brief period after the war a town in Germany that was cleared of its inhabitants and handed over to the Poles.It was called Haren,then the Poles named it Lwow and then under pressure from the Russians named it Maczkow from 1945-1948.What does seem important is that most of the Polish soldiers seemed to end up in the UK rather than go back to an occupied homeland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haren,_Germany On a speedway note,i think I am right in saying that former speedway rider Kevin Teager now lives in Haren

Interesting theory.How do you come to this conclusion?I wonder why Polish air crews were so passionate and patriotic during WW2?I wonder why Polish people are amongst the most religious in Europe?Surely yo can't be suggesting they became so patriotic during the communist period?And why are their near neighbours the Danes so patriotic then,without having lived under communism?

Do they also run a junior meeting in the name of "Wladyslaw the elbow-high" I wonder?

Maybe,maybe not.A couple of the local sports clubs near me for example are "Sportverein Eidelstedt von 1880" and TSV Stellingen von 1888" so maybe "Klub Sportowy Polonia" which was formed in Bydgoszcz in 1920(the year the Red Army was repulsed) and predates communism and went on to include a speedway team,might have been formed along german sporting club lines........ In fact a quick search of a few clubs(not only speedway)such as Lech Poznan and they all seem to have been formed in the early 20s,after the Polish independence and before WW2 The oldest still existing Sportverein in Germany from 1814 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSV_1814_Friedland

Have it at the Oval.Easy to get to from my parents place and the name just cries out for speedway.........

That is how sports clubs are generally run in Germany.HSV in Hamburg also run Handball and even Dancing I think among a numer of sports.Local rivals St.Pauli also have a very good Rugby section for both men and women.Bayer Leverkusen also have a big athletics section and one of their club embers won a gold at the World Athletics championship yesterday.Think both Gorzów and Zielona Gora were up until the end of WW2 a part of Germany,so maybe that tradition comes from the German sporting clubs.Wroclaw was also up til the end of the war part of Germany and the German national side even played a few home games in the city

How many times have we said that over the years...............

Ok,how many of the existing clubs can afford to run a whole season at the moment? Think in the recent past we have had Matt Ford and Bob Dugard both saying they would like to hold less meetings and they lose money every time the open the stadium.Like I said before I don't think the idea would suit all or most,but maybe a couple.It might save one or two clubs from closing all together.Why couldn't they re-negotiate their agreement?Why can other sports hire a stadium for 1 meeting?Flat track for instance or the recent sidecar meeting at Brandon http://www.sidecartrackracing.co.uk/ If sidecars can do it for a meeting,why shouldn't speedway be able to do it for 6 meetings.Surely the owner would be far happier with 6 meetings than 1.And i'd guess he would be far happier with 6 meetings than none! I don't imagine there is a long list of sports waiting in the wings to hire some of the stadiums.Just a thought A club like the Isle of Wight seemed to struggle outside of the summer season,so they could well be a possibility to run just around the summer holiday period with maybe a couple of side car and flat track meetings thrown in

I used to love it at Plough Lane to get into the pits or wait outside in the car park or outside the grandstand bar for a chance to get autographs.You had to be quick to get Ivans Some were miserable though even in those days.But now I don't really care to mix with riders.Just like Gemini.She doesn't.That Iversen,does he ever smile?Nicki is great though,especially with the youngsters.Like chalk and cheese those two

That is something that Egon Müller often points to as a problem with modern speedway.He uses his own career as an example,that he often used to stay behind after the meeting and mix with the fans and even do his singing on stage.Ok that was in Germany at the weekend.But he say's that nowadays the riders turn up an hour before the meeting,get ready,race,pack up and are off to the next country ad infinitum.Don't really think it is one of the major problems,but every little helps

Maybe nobody said there were too many clubs in the 60s/70s because circumstances were different like you say.But the problem has been that not enough was done by promoters to attract youngsters and train them up.It became easier to get some youngster over from the continent rather than try and do the work themselves.We became over reliant on foreign riders and are paying the price nationally and internationally(Tai excluded).Now we are stuck in a situation where promoters just say we can't do anything as we don't own the stadium.We can't choose our race night and we can't train up riders.Basically as Harkess said,"we see the problems,but we can't do anything......."

Cardiff runs one meeting a year Brighton ran 1 meeting a year as did Telford etc.They were all a bit special,at first anyway.But that isn't the point.My point was to try and save some clubs from going totally out of existence,could a season of say 4,6 or so meetings help save them?I only went as extreme as 1 event to try and answer TWKs good point of would people get out of the routine.Look to Poland,Denmark and Sweden and most other countries(in fact all countries apart from the UK) and a season of 2-10 meetings seems to do the job,so why should the UK be so much different to the rest of the world?I am not even saying it is the answer for all or even most,but maybe,just maybe for a few It is quite obvious speedway is on a big downturn.We have been having the discussions on here for over a decade.We have been told that the promoters know best and it is after all their money.But what has happened in the last decade?Has the sport got its house in order and started to re-group or has it stumbled from one problem to the next?Belle Vue getting a brand new stadium is one light at the end of the tunnel,but I don't think that alone is going to save the sport from even more problems in the near future

Don't you get it?The sport is commiting suicide!!!!.Something needs to change and a "one size fits all" idea isn't working.Maybe if some clubs only ran a few meetings a year it might make the event a bit more special and might be able to gain more sponsorship.I used those examples as an extreme to combat the rgument that would people support something that only happens 4 - 6 times per year.The more often something is held doesn't mean people will attend.They might well just pick and choose.As for your counter argument about throwing live music out a pub,well just your usual crap.Now comeback with a better idea or throw your toys out of your pram and bleat on about how you used to commentate on some tv channel,so you must know everything there is to know about the sport and should be in charge as you have all the answers

People flock to Silverstone or Wimbledon and possibly/probably don't attend another F1 or tennis event all year.Just as examples

I'd also say there was some prejudice against Robert(or Germany) because he rode in Germany.When I posted videos of him at 14 beating the likes of Smolinski and Zabik people were saying it was "mickey mouse" in Gerany despite the calibre of rider he was beating.Think obviously the way he went about riding over here at a young age and the reported attitude rubbed people up the wrong way as well

I think some members here watch any and every meeting that has a livestream,so they are experts on speedway in most countries without ever having been here and know all the riders without ever seeing them in the flesh.Not really the same as following a team and seeing riders week in week out.When you see someone sporadically you tend to get a false impression imo.In my own experience you can seemingly always see a bad/good meeting from someone if you only see them occasionally.But they are far more dedicated than me as I can hardly ever watch a whole meeting on the net........

Have said for years that there are too many.At least for league speedway.It would be better imo if some "clubs" just ran maybe 4 or 6 meetings per season and not have to do a whole league season.Run once a month during the summer months and let the other clubs do a full league season.Would never be allowed even if some clubs wanted to do that though.......

Not sure that is true.Thought scientific evidence proves speed is a big factor.Slight reduction in speed makes a big difference.But you will always get freak accidents like someone falling off a sofa and being very badly injured because of the way they fell or someone falling from a few storeys up in a block of flats and hardly having any injuries at all

I am not sure there is a hard and fast rule,but haven't some of the worst accidents taken place on the big fast tracks such as those in Poland,Germany and Argentina?Earlier today while at work I was thinking one of the answers was to make the tracks smaller so as to reduce the speeds.One of the reasons that came to me was that I have hardly if at all heard of any bad accidents on the small 80cc tracks in Sweden or Denmark and these kids are inexperienced.So is it because of the less powerful bikes ?

Who remembers the controversy of whether it was Boycie or Boycey and the Poole fan who used to get her knickers in a twist about it

A youngster of 15 years old died in a road race in Germany over the weekend.Rider in front made a mistake and fell and the kid had no chance to avoid him and crashed and unfortunately two others hit him.It was the third death so far this year at the track in Ochsersleben.Was also someone in a German grasstrack or sidecar meeting killed at the weekend http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/sport/Tod-mit-15-Jugendlicher-stirbt-bei-Motorradrennen-id35236172.html