iris123

And of course Kildemand is the wildcard,not reserve

Ha ha.....wondered when someone would post this But M.Michelsen is 17 and Mikkel Bech .18

Seems from a parent of one of the Danes,the 80cc test meetings are next weekend.As both seem to be fairly near me i will try and get to one of them.Would appreciate it Ghostie, if you can post the Swedish squad if you happen to see it

Probably for most.Not for me.I am a Wimbledon fan,so biased i admit.I am also not a fan of Hampel.For me Eddies record in the Bl speaks for itself.Unlike Hampel or Plech he didn't get to ride regularly against the worlds best at an early stage,.He was almost 30 when he came over to Wimbledon.Who knows what he could have achieved if he was allowed the freedom of Hampel?Which leads to an even bigger question really that has nothing to do with this thread i guess......but what could Plechanov have achieved if he rode regularly in the BL? Think you also have to take into account that over the past few years a large percentage of the GP series is run in Poland.Plech or Jancarz etc didn't have such a luxury.I'd say if this system was running in their day they both would have fared better whereas if Hampel was riding under the old system he might not have had so much success.Just opinion though

Jancarz was the clear second best imo.Think the record speaks for itself also.......Eddie's averages in GB were better than Zenons 01 JANCARZ Edward Wimbledon 1977 28 9.61 02 JANCARZ Edward Wimbledon 1979 18 9.26 03 JANCARZ Edward Wimbledon 1978 25 8.60 04 PLECH Zenon Hackney 1980 23 8.34 05 JANCARZ Edward Wimbledon 1980 20 8.10 06 JANCARZ Edward Wimbledon 1981 17 8.00 07 PLECH Zenon Hackney 1976 36 7.92 08 PLECH Zenon Hackney 1979 20 7.70 09 CIESLAK Marek White City 1977 34 7.15 10 PLECH Zenon Hackney 1975 4 7.11

Would only be speculation on my part as i haven't heard an official story.Could well be that.Could be that they want their Golden Helmet weekend to remain the highlight of their season.A few days back Herxheim in Germany held the poorer brother of the SGP,the Longtrack GP.They managed to attract 16,500 ehich is around the norm for their bank Holiday meeting.Now they only raised the price by €2 ,so i guess the extra €30,000 or so covered the cost of hosting the meeting.Maybe not.I know one Longtrack in Germany nearly went bust hosting a LT GP.You would have to ask what would Pardubice gain from an SGP?They have their big traditional meeting where they can pick their own field and not have to pay any fees to outside authorities.Although of course in the past decade or so they have had to compete with Poland for the top names. Some clubs make enough money from a big weekend or meeting to cover their season.Guess Pardubice do for the Zlata Prilba meeting,Teterow do i think for next weekends Grasstrack/speedway weekend and Güstrow make a fair bit of their money from next weekend as well.It is a big gamble that might put a clubs future in jeopardy if they try to put on another big meeting.Güstrow are doing just that this season with the SEC.Have to see how that will turn out,but early on, ticket sales were very good so i heard.But the SEC cost a fair bit less than SGP,so the gamble is much smaller

Hasn't it been said as often as it has been said that the Marketa track will be better next year,that Pardu don't want an SGP?

Slightly unfair......it is a permanent speedway track that hosts a number of meetings per season,not just a one-off and is an ok stadium in a pretty amazing city.All going for it really as long as they blooming well get the track sorted out for once!!!!!Which they have been promising for donkeys years......get that small factor right and it is a perfect setting

If there is any passing tonight,fingers crossed it isn't on the inside eh?

Isn't it just the normal crowd for the Bank Holiday meeting,no matter whether it is a GP or not?Thought the bumper crowd was always around the 15-20,000 for years

I was very impressed with Fredriksen when i saw him last year.Really looks like a good prospect

An idea might be to print them off at least once a week,maybe every day and put the printed version in a pocket or one of those hip purses that some people carry round with them and jingo!!!! whenever anyone fancies just looking up spontaneously some averages,there they are.I mean the SS only comes out once a week,so if you are online every couple of days maybe it might be an idea and you are one step ahead of those people who just carry their copy of the star around with them all week long in case they need to know an average or two for some reason!!!!

Guess it is the same in Germany,at least in football.Which is why there are no Russian oligarchs or Arab sheiks owning any club.Think it must be different in Ice Hockey though as i am sure one guy owns both Berlin and Hamburg. On the speedway and numbers of riders,wasn't there a rule over the winter that helped protect places for swedish riders?Seem to remember some of the young Danes moaning that they hadn't got the team places they thought they were going to get

Very similar to how Danish clubs work and sports clubs in general in Germany and i guess many countries.This structure makes it fairly hard for any Sheik etc to take over a Bundesliga football club.This weekend there is a 'crisis' meeting for the Hamburg football club where a certain group want to 'take over' the club and make the football team seperate from all the other sports that it runs.It needs 75% of the votes to get into power,which makes any sort of takeover very hard. On the number of riders,i think Anders Michanek in Backtrack mentioned there were 300 riders(hope i am right,going from memory)when he was riding and it was down to about 100 or so when the article was done.So the decline has carried on.Remember watching Billy riding for Sweden U21s against Denmark U21 and that must have been 9 or 10 years ago,so it will be very hard for him to reach a decent level now i would imagine.Seen Berntzon + Engman during their 80cc career,which i have most of the top Swedes since Mellgren and Andersson.Last year at the Gold Trophy Final i saw Joel Kling,who was the only Swede to qualify.Hope to get to either or both the Euro 80cc finals and i think there is an 80cc test match against Denmark planned,so might get to see a few more.But i guess the Swedes have been waiting for about 10 years for another rider to come through into the top level.From that U21 meeting 9 or 10 years ago none really made any impression on top level speedway.The likes of Aldén,Eric Andersson,Ricky Kling etc.Then again the Danes didn't really fair much better although at one time it did look as if Hougaard,Klindt and Madsen might get up there.Think all of them at least made the Danish SWC team,but the next generation look like overtaking them

Regardless,each club must have someone who acts as 'boss' and goes to meetings to agree on rules for the season etc or are you saying that the rules are handed down to the clubs from Svemo without anyone having any input?Sure as hell can't have each community turning up to an annual gathering!!!! So the question still stands.Do the clubs work together or do they try to out fox each other.....

guess the last two letters refer to someone from Manchester?The first two could refer to something rude!!!!

Yes,but most of the passing was on the inside......which doesn't count

Personally i found the large green letters better.I knew from the size that it was something of importance and the colour green was reassuringly telling me subconciously to 'go' there.Now i found that innovative.But i am always worried about using a link with a red font, as i am sure thousands of others are ,as it is sort of warning me of using it and so i never click on links in red.Red font links are a no go for me i am afraid

Sound is ok on Eurosport in Germany

Weak answer Phil.Someone of Ole's experience should know at a glance what problems there would be with the shape even before the track is layed down.But certainly since the track has been there since November then Ole job should be to come up with solutions or what has all those decades of experience taught him?I am a fan of the GPs,but some of the things that are going on are really making me wonder if the fans are just being taken for a ride over and over again.Continual use of poor tracks and moving into places like Tampere and have big doubts about Riga as well.........it is no wonder fans lose enthusiasm

Taking into account there was almost as many at the embroidary exhibition at the Womens Institute and the Mosquito killing competition then the place would have been packed and people locked out if they didn't clash.Then again if Finland had have had a game today in the world Ice Hockey championships then the gate would have been about 1,257!!!!

At least Phil will be on here sometime over the next few days to tell us how much work has been made on improving the Marketa track

What we have at the moment is a long time manufacturer that was on the brink of closure,but is now at the moment saved.So that tells us there isn't much money in making speedway engines.What we have are speedway riders who spend quite a bit on engines,but also spend more maybe on getting those engines tuned.The people making money out of the sport are the top riders and the top tuners.It doesn't seem like the engine manufacturers are making much.So if you make engines cheaper will the manufacturers make more profit?Will the riders and promoters pocket the money saved or will the riders spend it on more tuning etc?

f-s-p has already stated that there is a basketball game on tonight somewhere in Finland........so that is where the missing thousands are

That wasn't a rule was it?It was a steady move for those who wanted.There were still riders riding uprights some years after the first laydowns came in.Phil wants a backward step to a simpler cheaper engine.Now who is going to choose that when there are faster choices on the market?So there would have to be a rule brought in.......