waiheke1

i'm no fan of Middlo, but to criticize his use of the joker seems harsh. if you left harris in and he finished ahead of woodward, then you wouldn't have been able to use tai as a tactical in heat 15 as we wouldn't have been 6 points behind, and then tai was in heat 16 anyway (and hancock in that also). and you cant use the tac ride or joker after heat 16 is my understanding. because it's a ridiculous decistion to use your tactical and joker rides to replace your weakest rider with your to strongest? again, i'm no middlo fan and he has made mistakes, but i think his use of the tac riders in the swc have been pretty much the oviocus and correct ones (i know i disagreed wtih scb around the timing of the harris ride, but not the principle of replacing two kennet rised with tai and bomber) my thoughts: firstly, obviously disapointed as this was our best chance in the near future to get a medal, and finishing below latvia and usa is well below how i thought we would do. like many i would have picked worral over kennet, and retained cook for the gaters paradise of prague. But, at the current time we have tai who is world class, bomber who is still internastional class, and then a bunch with not much between them. no guarantee that if middlo had selected differently we ould ahve done better. if we ere going to make the final we reslly needed tai to perform as hancock did (not a criticiasm of tai), and that bridger and barker needed to outperform woodward. looking ahead, cook and worral will hopefully become international class, but it shard to see them becoming world class. to win the swc i'd say at a minimum you need two world class riders, and to inetrnational class. the hope has got to be that young lambert fulfills his potential, cook and worral likewise, and maybe uin five years time we could challenge for honours. on cook's outburst, while its a little disapointing, at the same time at leats it shows passion so not neccesarily a bad thing (a little like when footballers sulk when subbed, in some ways its better than a player not caring), and hopefully he will be back in the team next year.

I reckon they should bring in a rule that if a team has not used their joker they should be allowed to use it in heat 20 regardless of the score. Would make things a little less unfair on a team in latvias position but still fulfil the aims of current system and actual increase the chances of a ladz head decider

Ivan manger reckons not, says noone practiced gating as much as himself and olsen. Reckons pc who had more natural talent didn't work as hard. Obviously some riders will be naturally better gaters than others but imho gating is more something that can be improved with practice than racing from the back

yes. my mistake.

tough heat so no guarantee Harris would have done better - think it makes sense to use it next Kenneth ride. why was Tai not used as tactical joker though? (following on updates so assuming he was just a tac sub?)

you were saying....

surely heat 2, Tai up against three much weaker riders...

Tai captain ward Doyle cook nki hampel

if the meeting was being held in any other country id agree, as it is i think the el provides some guide to form. GB could well end up third twenty points behind the danes, but if all four riders are on form on the night they might just sneak it by a point...

i actually reckon GB have a chance of winning this - not massively high bbut maybe a 1 in 4 shot. if you look at form in britain this season, there can't be too much in the EL averages beyween Tai, Cook and Kennet vs NKI, Bjerre and MJJ (2012 EL). If those three score reasonably evenly then it comes down to Harris vs Pedersen, and while you'd expect Nicky to comfirtably win that head to head, Bomber does tend to raise his game for Team GB and Nicky is still battling an injury, so you never know. Of course, i do appreciate that all 4 danes ride KL well, but i still reckon GB have a better chance of winning here than they do beating both the Aussies and the Swedes in Prague. and of course with no reserves (if i understand the rules correctly), all it takes is an injury to one rider to ruin a team's chances of winning on the night (obviously hoping it doesn't happen, and frankly i think they should revert to the old system of 4 plus a reserve). agree that Worrall should have been given the fourth slot, BUT I hope Ed proves us all wrong and produces a great display. This after all is one of the best chances GB are going to have in the near future to finish top three or higher in the world, given the injury worries for Russia and Australia, the poor form of the Swedes, the Poles with Gollob passed his peak and the new wave really just emerging.

really? the tac sub rule was in effect back in the 70s, in a form which gave a much greater advantage to the trailing side. so u r saying long standing supporters stopped following 40 years ago? or that they have since left the sport because the "new" tac sub rule doesn't give enough advantage to the losing team? keep up scb , all the teams had at least three top class heat leaders, just look at how many riders averaged over 8 points per meeting...

not really true, the side of 83 is the only which comes close to that, id agree they had six to claim Jan o was a seventh is probably pushing it, yes he averaged over 7 but spent the whole black season at reserve. still arguably the best bl team of all time? Apart from that the heathens sides were generally top heavy with very weak reserves (Reid, verner , barrett , s Collins etc) but this did allow them to have four genuine heat leaders (Andersen grahame Collins plus penhall/king/pedersen ). don't disagree with the point u are making though, although there were some pretty awful bl sides too in that era ( swindon of 82/83, eastborne 83 Halifax when kc was injured, exeter of 84 spring to mind)

Kk 20 more lindgren 20 more mjj 20 more gollob 30 more

Emil holder nki gollob

Emil 18826 holder 15k pedersen 15k nki 15k ugly ducking lindgren

Stenclund and nillson in 83 and 85 stand out ss the weakest champions for me. an era in which Jan Anderson was the only world class swede, the great ofvthe 70s retired or well past their peak, and nilsen and Jonsson yet to emerge as world class.

It cost over 20 quid to go to osdsal for the world final in 1985! 29 quid is about the same as i paid to go to the nz gp this year and i think its great value

Emil 10k holder 10k gollob 10k zagar 6676 patent gollob nki zagar

zagar 20 more vaculik 20 more zmarzlik 20 more tai 20 less kk 20 more nki 20 more

tai zmarzlik hampel kk

mod - perfectly understood. that is why i was asking if anyone could advise me of PAY streams that could accessed from my location. otherwise my only option is to not watch, or to watch freestreams (i did not request link for free streams). certainly do not want to in any way jeopordise your site.

anyone know of any sites where i can pay to watch elite league speedway from new Zealand ? or in fact the gps or wtc? or is my only option free streams which are potentially breaching ownership rights? Mod Note: BSF stance is very clear - we do NOT allow 'free stream' links to be posted. Unlikely as it is, it could possibly land BSF's owner in trouble and that is not a risk it is fair to take. Thanks

disaster

GROUP 1 = Tai Woffinden (25) GROUP 2 = Chris Holder (25 GROUP 3 = Greg Hancock (25) GROUP 4 = Antonio Lindback (30), GROUP 5 = Krzysztof Kasprzak (25), THE FINAL 4 Emil Sayfutdinov 7 Tai Woffinden 8 Chris Holder 12 Greg Hancock

woffinden 20 more jonsson 20 less lindgren 20 less dryml 20 less