waiheke1

i was thinking along those lines too as a posdible mitigation - if tgat is the case then its not really an outlandish statement. in that context you could argue that he didnt mean that literally all young people drink and do drugs, just that it is commonplace. still a pretty foolish statement though

and hoddle was expressing a belief in reincarnation/karma which is shared by hundreds of millions worldwide. Not sure how many share middlos views

and hoddle was expressing a belief in reincarnation/karma which is shared by hundreds of millions worldwide. Not sure how many share middlos views

Unfortunately it seems the comparisons with mike lee are coming true off the track as well - main difference being lee didnt go off tge rails until after he had a world title to his name. Be a real shame if he joins the likes of lee and the morans who never fulfilled their potential due to a fondness for drink an drugs - and he also seems to lack the redeeming feature of being a nice guy. As for middlo - what an utter tool.

good point. what are the elegibility requirements to enter, or is it an "open" meeting?

have to say i have mixed feelings about that - i think bunyan was the right choice last year, and if bill buckley thinks it will help the gate this year then fair enough, hes the one who has fronted the cash to bring the gp here. But tbh - and i realise as a kiwi this may be treasonous - i think i would rather be going to see batch in the number 16 race jacket than bunyan

Kiwi - will that be on sky or free to air? likely to be same as last year i.e. full replay day after meeting?

my 100 for world chsmpion on hampel

utter bollocks. bar the rut which emil hit i thought tgectrack was exceptional for a first time effort- would u have had a race like heat 20 if the surface was crap? did u actually watch the gps last year? most gps were, in my opinion of course, of a very high standard of racing

agree, but this is not unique to speedway. football is the same, perhaps this is common to most sports?

im firmly pro gp, thought ladt season was superb and very exciyed about this year - but think you do the old wc a disservice. The qualifying meetings were far from boring, and for me attending the ovetseas/coomonwealth finals, even british semi finals were highlights of the season. Personally i think the one off final generated more excitement, though i agree this was partly due to the atmosphere and largely due to the high presdure on every race for the contenders . and whike i agree agree that the racing wasnt as good as we saw last year in gps it wasnt universally bad- for example odsal in 90 and the second half of the 85 final were top notch speedway.

allright, only about 6 weeks to go. Anyone coming over for this? Any word on when the wildcard will be confirmed? Rumours seem to be that Troy Batchelor may be in line rather than a kiwi representative (Bunyan and Wells are the other names i've heard mentioned) Much as I think Bunyan was the right choice last year (and performed very creditably), I'd be much keener to see Batch this year. And does anyone who knows about such matters know if the incredible summer (hot and dry) we are having will potentially impact upon track preparations if it continues? I know its a totally different surface, but i've heard the car racing at the Springs has been pretty dull this season with very little passing due to the track.

Agree vaculik and possibly jonsson look good value for an each way. Hampel @ 12 possibly the best value to win - the longest odds out of the seven riders i can see as potential champions

Holder emil and pedersen top three for me (not neccesarily that order). that darcy ward might go all right too. What about picks for riders u think will struggle? kk zagar and tai the obvious ones but will be some big names struggling to make top 8. Quite possible no swedes making top 8?

Yeah, I can understand that, as an Aces fan that's how I view Andy Smith, a true Hyde Rd product right down to the shambolic gating...

Intertested you've got Tatum ahead of Simmons Sidney? Simmons was the main man for Wimbledon in the early 80s, wheras Tatum had just his initial two BL seasons for the Dons - actually surprised at the number of people who have Tatum in their teams, as while he was obviously a great young talent, he didn't actually achieve that much in Dons colours. Replace Jancarz with Ross and that would be my team Rare occasion, but I'm in agreement with you here Parsloes. No right or wrongs in naming this type of team, so long as you can give some sort of justification for rider's inclusion I don't think anyone can disagree this however, is utter bollocks!

Hampel BUY 8 NKI BUY 2

Sweet, thanks tnt. you may want to edit your podt ecplaining the rules as that states picks cant be chsnged before the nz gp.

Do you have to buy one rider and sell one, or could you buy two? am i reading correctly that once picks are made no changes are made (i.e. if u make your pick now and your rider picks up a pre season injury u are stuffed)?

How have you worked out these stats? must say i found it perplexing that you could rate carter - three finals no top 3 finishes - ahead ofxlee, who finished on the podium three times. i then noted that carter hsd a hifher points per final record than lee which i thought could explain it- though this would seem a slightly simplistic measure- but lee had a higher average than peter collins who nade your list? also, how did u compare scores/results from gps (and various formats) vs old style finals?

In his auto biography Briggo reckons he would have won the world title in 1984!!! had he not tinkered too much with his bike prior to the 1984 NZ Champs (where he finished fourth, a couple of points shy of what he would have needed to grab one of the two qualifying slots). He reckons had he qualified, he would have had the bike set up perfected in time for the overseas final, and on the revolutionary laydown he had invented reckons he would have had too much speed for his rivals, and even at that age been world champ. he also reckons that the laydown egine, when ultimately adopted in the 90s, has been one of the worst things for the sport, in terms of driving up rider costs.

i've got programmes/speedway stars from the 80s lamenting the decline of speedway, so it must have started in the 70s or earlier. causes mentioned back in the 80s were slick tracks/poorly prepared tracks which didn't provide exciting racing, too many mediocre foreigners, people having less money/competing attrractions etc. - pretty much the same complaints as today! I guess in terms of the British League being the number one one world speedway, the fall of communism and rise of speedway (and presence of money in speedway) in POland was one fo the main factors. 1980 was i guess the last year that England was a superpower of speedway, grandslam winners, then of course the following year i believe it was either the SCB or the BSPA made the brilliant call of refusing to allow Peter Collins to ride either for England or in the world championship as he was takeing a year out from British domestioc speedway, Mike Lee started to go off the rails, and arguably never since have England/GB been the sports leading nation. Of course the decicsion in the early 70sfor Great Britain to mean just that, rather than includign the commonwealth nations, was also a pretty big factor, if the Aussies raced for Team GB of course GBwould still be a super power with a reigning world champion. in terms of crowd attendances, i'm guessing speedway has technically been in decline since the end of the boon post-war years of the 40s/50s? and as someone eslse has already mentioned, tvs becoming a standard household feature (rather than a rare luxury) was porbably a significant factor in declining attendances. Its not all doom and gloom though - last seasons's GP series was superb (IMHO) in terms of the quality of racing, and the 2013 series has arguably one ogf the great all time lineups, personally i can't wait for it to kick off MArch 24th at Western Springs

Huxley, Duggan? Interesting reading Briggos autobiography, saying that he reckons Crump snr would have been world champ in 75 if he'd done it right - reckons he should have used the four valve for the first month of the season where he cleaned up, and then kept it for the world final. The psycholigical edge of the riders not having beaten Crump while he was on the 4 valvve he reckons would have given him the edge to take out the title.

Holder now one of the top 5 Aussies of all time?

Jonsson, Jan O Pedersen and Ermolenko were three superb riders who did race Hyde Rd, however all peaked after Hyde Rd closed, and while all rode it well, I don't think any were true Hyde Rd specialists. Briggs for me would rank below Mauger, Rickkardson abnd Fundin. On a side note, just finished reading his auto biography which is a superb and very intersting read.