ShadowCaptain

A stroll down to the local non-league football on the council pitch will almost certainly provide more expletives than a whole season of speedway. It is in the nature of sport. Would I take a child to non-league football? Yes, and take the opportunity to explain about the use of swearing in intense situations, whatever the level. My complaint about Nicki (and I am an NP supporter) is that I would also want to teach a child about respect for the officials, no matter how bad, and no matter how wrong. The expletive might have been mild, but should not have been issued,no matter what the provocation on the track. Swear at the sport. Swear about the participants, if you must, but do not swear at officials. All sports need their controversial participants. The hard/dirty player you hate, unless he is playing for your team! Nicki fulfils that role very well, and there are others to name who have also played the role. They may rant; they may throw helmets, they may swear (and perhaps be caught doing it by a distant camera), and they may complain about decisions, but swearing at an official, no matter how mild some might suggest, should not be condoned.

Long shift, Dave! Lot of sheets?

Perhaps there should be a competition for the most greedy hotel in Cardiff. My nomination is the Sandringham Hotel, a very lowly ranked hotel, that has put its prices up for the Grand Prix from £38 to £135, an increase of approximately 355%!!! Welcome to Cardiff!

And the decision, enforced by the Olympic activity at the stadium, to hold a speedway meeting during the football season! Cardiff has become the kind of event you would recommend to a friend, who would probably love the excitement and the noise and the razzmatazz, but has become commonplace for the 10-year veteran. The formula is successful, but has hardly changed inside the stadium since the first meeting. No surprise, perhaps, that some supporters are becoming jaded. The draw was unkind to the meeting. The better riders met each other in early races (heat 2...), so the best of the racing came early in the meeting, with later races tending to feature two contenders, and two whose chances had gone. Perhaps a tweak might be to get rid of the random draw, and 'seed' the draw so that the leaders in the standings before the meeting are scheduled to meet in heat 20, the next four in heat 19, and so on. I am greatly in favour of extra entertainment in the arena, but using a dance troupe forty yards from the crowd might require some explanation. Rather than music, perhaps the entertainment should feature something else from the sporting arena. The requirement to have so much in place on the centre green before the meeting (fireworks, etc) precludes, for example, an artificial BMX track. but the motorcycle stunt riders that performed in a previous meeting were phenomenal. Outside, Cardiff remains Cardiff, and it is a pity that there is no other covered stadium available that could or would host the meeting. Speedway fans can be raucous, but are generally well-behaved. Walking round Cardiff, with bottles being thrown, stones being thrown, and fights occurring, none of which included speedway fans, was more than disconcerting, and personal safety could well be a factor in determining whether to return.

Questions, but no answers, CR! Swim backstroke and avoid the pollution. Simples!

If the strike does go ahead, apart from any disruption for the GP, it is going to pose both financial and logistical problems for the ECB and Glamorgan if cricket fans cannot get to the England v South Africa game. Glamorgan, in particular, could not afford another cricketing problem.

Exactly. Sports need to entertain. If this requires gadgets, then use the gadgets, BUT NOT AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. If the broadcaster demands that league meetings are closer, then, perhaps, the TR must remain, hated though it might be by the purists, but other sports make a differentiation between levels. There are no fielding restrictions in test cricket. There are none of the 'speed-snooker' criteria at the World Championships. No bonus points for scoring more tries in Rugby Union. These gadgets might all make their respective sports more attractive at league or club level, but the highest level of international competition in any sport should be 'pure'.

The whole concept of a 'joker' in a competition of international stature is ridiculous and insulting. It belittles the sport by turning it into something that has to use artificial gadgets to attract, or retain, its public. The contest is there to determine which is the best nation in speedway, and, no matter what gadgets might be employed in league speedway, they have no place in the sport at the highest level. If there is a requirement for something to help a nation catch up, then, as other sports have done, introduce a 'substitute' rule. Not a reserve, who slots in to races for any other riders, allowing manipulation, but a genuine substitute who can replace a single rider for the remainder of the meeting. This might help to make the scores closer, and the team using a substitute successfully is merely making use of the strength of its squad. As for Nicki Pedersen - congratulations to him! Competitors in all sports attempt to use the rules to their advantage. Nicki did not make the stupid rule; he took advantage of it.

Instead of a reserve, a substitute. A common practice in sport. If a rider is performing badly, replace that rider with the substitute, with the risk that a later injury would force a team to ride 'short'. The substitute rider could only take the rides of the rider he replaced, and the rider replaced could not return to the team. Possibly, two substitutes. This would favour teams with larger squads, or better squads, but that is what happens in football and rugby, without complaint.

Jason Crump, Nicki Pedersen, Greg Hancock...

It is a different debate that we have already had, but I can get to Wembley in about 40 minutes, yet would MUCH rather go to Cardiff. And, to stay on topic, not much opportunity for camping in the Wembley area! A bit of dossing, perhaps...

Water would not be a problem, as long as they did not try to bring it into the stadium with them, and were prepared to pay the ridiculously inflated bar prices, and have the bottle tops confiscated. And, why restrict it to the centre green? A couple of tents pitched on the second bend could only add to the excitement. Riders from gates 1 and 4 on either side, and riders from 2 and 3 through the flaps. A Tonka toy tractor to mini-grade inside the tent... Is this getting silly?

Surely any sport with a handicap system (golf, horse racing) 'punishes' a winning team or individual?

We tend to 'go large' for the grand prix and only get through about £500.

Wembley stadium is very modern, and there are some parts of the Millennium stadium that could do with sprucing up, but part of the reason for going to the GP in Cardiff is the peripheral activities - the chance to meet friends, to enjoy the street festival and the supporters, to mingle. Try doing that in Wembley! 40,000 supporters are not going to come together in central London, and there is no space around Wembley to meet, drink, eat. The key issue is the roof. I am not going to risk more than £200 buying tickets for an event that might be postponed, or cancelled, or raced in ridiculous conditions. Cardiff has hardly needed the roof to keep out the rain, but it has needed the roof to sell advance tickets.

Should Cardiff consider 'family' zones in the stadium? There are zones without the horns. If Poles, or Brits, or any other nationality have a more 'robust' approach to speedway, with or without alcohol, fair enough, but not to the exclusion of those who might be concerned about the welfare of their family. It is not fair to suggest that the less able should have to move to a different part of the stadium because there is the threat of violence nearby, but the provision of family zones, or alcohol-free zones, would provide a safer environment.

0871 220 0260 also works. They have agreed that I can collect a replacement ticket from the box office at the event. To be fair to them, they were very helpful when I contacted them.

Has anybody else received an e-mail from SEE tickets that their Grand Prix tickets are invalid, and have to be returned and replaced? If the e-mail is not a scam (and it has, for example, the correct order number on it), how are they planning to get tickets returned by post, then send out replacement tickets by post, and guarantee to get them delivered before the event? Worried...