Mr Snackette

Not so sure about that, and booking hotels for the 2nd and 9th might lead to some dissapointment!! Say no more. But, hey time will tell!!

As an update, we have just been advised that the Liberec meeting has been cancelled. As far as we know the meeting at Divisov is still on, and we are awaiting confirmation as to the details. As Travel Plus clients will be aware, (well those of them who have travelled with us to Prague before!!!) Divisov is the home of the Jawa factory, and is about 40 minutes to an hours drive from central Prague.

Pure and simple the Polish product is far superior to that on offer in the UK. They use squads, not guests. They have real tactical substitute rides, as opposed to silly golden double rules. They have a genuine eight man team, where a quality number 8 can replace someone who is having an off night. Also the fact that they only have 7 home regular season fixtures, plus 3 more at home in the play offs, makes each fixture more of an occasion. As they say: Less is sometimes more!!

Slany is around 40k, and you can drive it in about 45 minutes to hour. Liberec is about 120k from Prague, and you should be able to drive it in about one and half to two hours. The Slany meeting starts at 6pm, and we are await confirmation of the Liberec start time. Those who are on the Travel Plus European 12 day tour, and the weekend tour to Prague, will have the opportunity to visit both tracks, as we will be running optional excursions to both meetings.

I think you'll find that were going via Slovakia! See you next Thursday in Budapest.

I tried that and ended up in a small village 137k and 2 hours drive from Torun!! Best to enter "63-400 Ostrów Wielkopolski", and you get the correct directions. Distance 230k, around a 4 hour drive. Looks like it's Gniezno for me, and a more civilised 100k drive from Torun.

With the World Cup well and truly over, its time to move on to the next GP. Travel Plus will be there as usual, this time with around 100 clients looking forward to a weekend on the Italian lakes. For those that missed the announcement in the Speedway Star, we hope to be able to publish photos taken whilst we are away on tour. Obviously a lot depends on the quality of the internet connection we can get, but all being well photos should be there to view. So if you’re travelling with us (and I know there are a number of Forum members who do), you can tell friends and family to go to: http://travelplusontour.fotopic.net/ and they can see what a great time you’re having. Obviously if you’re on the tour don't forget to have a look when you get back.

Apparently Scoop Pearson has gone into training with legendary Norwegian football commentator, Bjørge Lillelien. For the Final, and using it as a promo, Sky plan to overdub the commentary of last night's Heat 13 with the following: "Søren Kierkegaard, Viggo Mortensen, Brigitte Nielsen, Victor Borge, Morten Olsen, Peter Schmeichel, Hans Christian Andersen, Helena Christensen,Ole Olsen, Whigfield, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Can you hear me Anders Rasmussen. Your boy took one hell of a beating. Your boy took one hell of a beating." Fade to picture of Union Jack, overlaid with the boys of Team GB, and sound of Rule Brittania. PS. This is no time for gloating!!!!

Badge, having supplied you with a copy of the rules, I think you need to download the meeting spreadsheet. From this you will notice that Tomasz replaced Jagus in Heat 22, as a tactical joker, quite legitimately as per rule 078.9.4. Heat 24 was his own programmed ride. So all above board and nothing to get grizzly about. Just as well SCB isn't the GB Team manager!!!

Badge, as Subedei was a bit curt in his reply, go to the following link: http://www.fim.ch/EN/rules/Sportifs/ccp/2006/CCP_078_en.pdf It will allow you to download a copy of the competition rules. Hopefully this will add to your enjoyment and understanding of the competition.

Horses for courses. The Aussies, who remember won the meeting, will not be relying on team that got them to the Final, as Schlien will almost certainly be replaced by McGowan. In the same way, the choice of Stead for Rybnik was absolutely the right one, and the choice of Louis for Stead is clearly right for Smallmead. I'm sure Middlo will do the right thing.

I understand that the Torun / Leszno meeting has been put back to Saturday 15th July. Not sure why. Mind you with a full programme on the Friday. and the World Cup meeting on the Sunday, may not be a bad weekend for another visit.

Thankyou Champion that explains things perfectly. It also explains why Miskowiak wasn't able to replace Kajoch in the Rzeszow / Tarnow meeting. Thanks again.

As someone who has watched a little Polish speedway, I wondered if someone could help clarify the regulations surrounding "the number 8". Firstly who can ride at number 8? Are there any restrictions? Who can a #8 replace? What's the maximum number of rides that a #8 can take in a meeting? Any help would be much appreciated.

What a superb meeting. Really enjoyed it. The crowd and atmosphere were fantastic. I think that had Wieslaw Jagus not touched the tapes in heat 14, Torun might just have nicked it. I did like look of Stanislaw Burza, who appears to have some considerable potential. But for me the highlight was seeing Thomasz and Trick lining up in heat 15, evoking very pleasant memories of Ipswich in 1998. The meeting itself helped reinforce my view of just how shoddy Elite League speedway is in the UK, which must now be considered a very poor third to both Poland and Sweden. Hoping that Rzeszów is as good on Sunday, which I understand starts at 6pm. Thank you Champion for you help with start times, much appreciated.

Thank you for that, but I was seeking the start times for the Tarnow / Torun meeting on Thursday, and the Rzeszów / Leszno meeting next Sunday.

Are Polish start times state secrets? Despite emailing the clubs concerned, I've yet to receive any confirmation as to when these two meeetings start. Torun's website, confirms Champion's post and shows a start time of 7 pm. Yet on the Tarnow website I took this at 4pm CET: "Do kolejnego ekstraligowego meczu, tym razem z Toruniem, pozostało już tylko 3 dni i 22 godziny" My Polish isn't that good, but the above appears to suggest that next meeting starts in 3 days and 22 hours time, which by my cacluations makes it 2pm on Thurdsday. Any help with this and / or the Rzeszów meeting would be much appreciated.

Trip now confirmed and looking forward to spending a few days in Krakow. Do any of our Polish friends have confirmed start times for the meetings at Tarnów and Rzeszów?

I hope to be in Poland for the long weekend 15 - 18 June. Looking to take in the following: - Unia Tarnów - Apator Toruń on Thursay 15th - Stal Rzeszów - Unia Leszno on Sunday 18th. Does anyone know the start times? Thanks in advance.

Who said nostalgia ain't what it used to be??!! It good to see the old Yarmouth question given is annual walk. For those new to the Forum there have been a number of discussions regarding this topic. One of the best replies came from my old chum James Easter who posted this on 25 September 2004: "I can tell you that any hope of a Track at the YARMOUTH RACE TRACK is a 100% NONE RUNNER. The Horse Track is next to loads of housing on 2 sides. Add to that a golf course situated in teh centre of the complex. add to that a huge Caravan site on the East side....More chance of teh Ppe being Jewish. The Stock car track runs 3 nights a week with cars..3 nights a week with Dogs. They do NOT want Speedway...How come...I have tried 3 times. Similar to situation in norwich...not a prayer...Again I tried for about 8 years and the best I got was the bums rush outa the door. Sad, but true is that the last person who made noises did immense harm to the cause.... what a shame as it is still a hot bed of interest" So there you have it. I look forward to reading a similar thread this time next year. Perhaps this could rival reports of the first cuckoo in spring!!

Officially, according to the SWC website, only the Swedish round at Malilla has been confirmed, the other rounds at Rybnik and Reading, are still marked as provisional.

Neither, it'll be the East Anglian Angels, as I'll be there the night before!!!

Hotel accomodation in Daugavpils is certainly going to be a problem. I was speaking to Jimbo who tells me that with over 6 months to go before the Latavian GP the TP tour is virtually full. He is trying to find additional accomodation, to enable him to take additional numbers, but has so far failed to find anything of the quality that his clients quite rightly expect.

As an alternative try Wizz Air. Depart Katowice Mon, 17 Jul @ 20:35 Arrive Stockholm - Skavsta @ 22:15. A 45 minute drive will get you to the delightful town of Lynkoping, and after an overnight stay it's a gentle 2 hour drive to Malilla. On the other hand those that like to travel by road take the 600 km road trip from Rybnik to Gdynia, and then jump aboard the night Stenna ferry from Gdynia to Karlskrona. A tranquil sea crossing entirely stress free!!! From Karlskrona it's just 200km to Malilla. Alternatively park your sofa in front of telly, order a few beers and a pizza and watch it from there!!! The choices are endless

Is there any news yet, as to what fixtures have been moved from Sunday to Monday for the purposes of TV?