waiheke1

even with Morris, GB would not have made the top 2

and have the oppotunity to score more points by doing well in the semi (and final) not really a valid analogy. And if anything, its the opposite. Under the current system, the rider who gets the most points (goals) gets closer to the title. Under a proposal where the winner of the final gets guaranteed the most points, its like saying Chelsea scored three goals, Man City only got two, but they scored the last goal, so Chelase should take the points (last goal wins like). Personally, I think the current points system is by far the best that there has been, striking the right balance between EVERY RACE counting towards the title, rewarding the best rider on the night, and still having the excitement of a meaningful final on the night. good to see you back IO

Great ride holder!

in 1982 you could have said the same of Denmark... I'd be very surprised if we don't see another aussie take the title before the decade is out. its also worth noting that only about 9 nations have EVER produced a world champion, and all of those nations have had decent chunks of time without producing one. Sweden perhaps have been the most consistent since the war, but that's larely due to the phenomenal Fundin and Rickardson , and even they went 15 years without a wc at one point.

ok, admittedly its still early stages, but at this point its quite possible that Lingren and Bjerre will miss out on GPs next year. The three Danes Bjerre, Andersen and B Pedersen are all struggling, and if there is to be a Danish WC next year, you'd have to think that if he can continue his current form NKI would be in with a strong chance of getting it ahead of Bjerre (can't see B Pedersen or Andersen being offered a WC for next year). The three swedes Jonsson, Lindback and Lindgren are all hovering around the top 8, I can see one qualifying, one getting a WC, and one missing out. At this point in time, I'd tip Jonsson to make the top 8, Lindback to finish 9th and get the WC, leaving Lindgren to miss out. no watch bjerre and/or lindgren make a fool out of me this weekend...

Western Springs. Sure its a bit of a commute from Beds/Bucks, and there's only 1 meeting per season, BUT... this year's was a hell of a good meeting!

Hyde Rd by quite some distance. Also the Shay, Odsal and Western Springs.

As oldace has pointed out, for a period in the 70s England/GB were undoubtably the top speedway nation, cleaning up the WTC and the Pairs. 198 - when England did the "grand slam" would however be the last time it could be said that England "ruled the world." I have a sneaking suspicicion that this sequence may come to an end... Guess you'd offer me pretty good odds then if I'd like to bet on a Pole being world champion before an Englisnhman?

Holder Jonsson Lindback Wild Card THJ

Parsloes - other than 75 & 78, what years do you think Olsen would have won? 72 I'd say a 1-2-3 of Mauger, Olsen, Briggs 73 Michanek, Mauger, Olsen 74 Mauger, Olsen, Michanek 76 Collins, Mauger, Simmons. 77 PC, Olsen, Mauger. 79: Lee, Olsen, Mauger I have Olsen down for 75&78, the next closest I would say 77, because PC would have been riding on one leg for the last three rounds, 79 also a close call, but I think Lee would have won one title, and that was arguably his best year.

Interesting thoughts Dave M, but have to say I disagree. Mauger – I think he would probably have finished on the podium every year from 67-79, but I reckon he would have only finished with 6 or 7 world titles (68-72, 74), so no major increase. Kennett – I don’t think he would have made any rostrum appearances under a GP system. 78 was arguably his best year, but I think the top 3 that year would have been Olsen, Mauger and Simmons. And in fact, I think it’s questionable as to whether he would have actually qualified for the 78 series in the first place. Simmons – I think would have finished third in 76 and 78, can’t think of any other seasons where I would have tipped him for a podium finish. Autrey – I reckon would have come close to top three in 78/79, maybe picked up one medal. Interested to hear your thought son the years you think Mauger would have picked up titles, and Kennet/Simmons/Autry medals.

Hampel Gollob Hancock Nicki Pedersen

Speedwaygp.com had a comment that highlights would be shown in on sky in nz - however that comment is now gone from the site and like yourself I can find no mention in sky online guide.

great ride gollob

Anyone have links for streams that can be viewed o n an android?

Pr Pawlicki (WC) Hancock Crump NICKI Pedersen

and you could add Shaun Moran to that list of 1989 riders as well. However, look at today - under a one-off sytem, there'd be at least 9 riders with a genuine chance of being world champion (Gollob, Hancock, ward, Emil, Jonsson, holder, Hampel, Crump, Pedersen), as well as others capable of making the rostrum depnding on venue (Lindgren, Lindback, Laguta, Bjere even Harris). I'd agree there is perhaps no-one currently riding at the standard of an 89 Gundersen/Nielsen, however think the rest of the field would be comparable. I'd also suggest the likes of Butler, Adjoran, Tesar etc. were far worse than anyone in the current series (even Ljung). One way of increasing depth - if there is a current lack- may be to bring back old full team test matches - I realise squeezing these into the calendar may be impossible) - that gave exposure to top class racing to riders not yet quite good enough to make the WTC/WC teams - England particularly benefitted, but so too did the Danes and Americans.

It almost certanly is too optimistic, though at the same time getting a visitor from overseas to NZ has got to be worth much more than $200 to the government in terms of revenue. NZ is quite a different scenario to Wales. Because of the distance, I would assume most overseas visitors would stay for at least a week (perhaps just a long weekend for those comping from Aussie) - whereas in Wales, I'd imagine a lot of people would arrive and leave on the same day, or at most stay 1/2 nights - thereby spending alot more money.

Lets compare today's GP line up with the World Final line ups in 89/90. 1.Hans Nielsen 2.Simon Wigg 3.Jeremy Doncaster 4.Erik Gundersen 5.Kelvin Tatum 6.Mitch Shirra 7.Andy Smith 8.Tony Olsson 9.Gerd Riss 10.Roman Matousek 11.Karl Maier 12.Troy Butler 13.Olli Tyrväinen 14.Ronnie Correy 15.Zoltan Adorjan 16.Bohumil Brhel 1.Per Jonsson S Shawn Moran 3.Todd Wiltshire 4.Hans Nielsen 5.Jimmy Nilsen 6.Henrik Gustafsson 7.Kelvin Tatum 8.Armando Castagna 9.Rick Miller 10.Richard Knight 11.Martin Dugard 12.Roman Matousek 13.Zdenek Tesar 14.Ronnie Correy 15.Antonin Kasper 16.Zoltan Adorjan Now, there is no doubt in my mind that the current GP field is much stronger than either of those, though I do appreciate that owes a lot to the vagaries of the qualifying system in those days... but the 2000s did see the emergence of Nicki Pedersen, Emil, Hampel etc. and 2010s we are seeing the likes of Ward and Holder. And while the 90s saw riders like Ermolenko, Pedersen and Havelock win world titles - had the sport not lost prematurely three of the genuine greats of the 80s in Penhall, Lee and Gundersen, we may very well have viewed the late 80s early 90s as a period where no riders emerged to challenge these three (plus Nielsen) - just as we have seen a period where no riders have been able to challenge the Gollob/Crump/Pedersen/Hancock strangle hold - a period which I believe is coming to an end, with the likes of Hampel, Emil and Ward strong contenders to dominate the next few years.

an article from nz herald late last week - Bill Buckley a fair whack out of pocket. tbh, auckland council and Nz govt should front up with some cash in my view. There must be say 1000 overseas visitors for the event - get the govt to chip in say $200 for each of those, which must be a very cheap investment compared to gain to economy - thats $200k. then get Auckland council to chip in $100 for each visitor to Auckland for the event - again cheap compared to benefits to hospitality, hotels etc. - thats another $500k, which should see Bill break even, and maybe even make a bit if the corwd is bigger next year (which, weather permitting, I think it will be). http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10797238 Has an official attendance been confirmed anywhere?

Ok, prior to the NZ GP my thoughts were: Hampel 2. Emil 3. Gollob 4. Crump 5. Holder 6. Hancock 7. Jonsson 8. N Pedersen 9. Lindgren 10. Harris 11 Bjerre 12. Lindback 13. Andersen 14. B Pedersen 15. Ljung Based on the NZ GP I reckon I’ve got Hancock and Lindback too low, and Emil, Holder and Harris too high. So, tweaking it slightly, my revised view is: 1. Hampel 2. Gollob 3. Hancock 4. Crump 5. Emil 6. Holder 7. Jonsson 8. N Pedersen 9. Lindback 10. Lindgren 11 Bjerre 12. Harris 13. Andersen 14. B Pedersen 15. Ljung

here you go Sidney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=excw4fGxVbY. Also, mighty more smashing the track record in the same meeting. to be fair though, I'd say Mort had "only" about a 50% head to head record against KC, and I think in the BLRC he had an 0-3 record, the two of them (along with Eric) would be the three best riders of Hyde Rd i the 80s in my view. If you saw KC beat PC in a BLRC, that must have been 1980, at a time when PC was still one of the top4 riders in the world (along with Jessup, Lee and Penhall), while Kenny was a young talent yet to establish himself as an England regular - so I'd argue PC was closer to his peak than KC was. Worth noting that in the 70s Olsen actually had a better BLRC record at hyde rd than PC. If you could line up all the greats of the 70s/80s in one meeting at Hyde Rd, Mauger, Olsen and Pc would have to be the three favourties, but KC, Gundersen, Nieslen, Mort and Penhall would all be well capable of taking out the meeting, and the likes of Lee, Michanek, S Moran, Ross would all be competitive too.

I'd suggest that (unless you crash) speedway is perhaps less physically demanding than say a game of football, hence why riders can race serval times a week i.e recovery time is less. So, this may not be much of an issue even for older speedway riders Also, i'd suggest that any slowing of reactions by the age of 40 can be compensated by the benefits of experience i.e. in not getting into situations where quick relfexes are needed to avoid injury. It's worth noting that goalkeeper is arguably the football postion where quick reflexes are mnost important, yet also the postion where players tend to reach their peak at a much later age, I'd suggest therefore that there's no reason why speedway riders can't ride as well or better at 40 as they did at 30. I'd be interetsed to know Humphrey if you do believe Hancock is a wose rider now than he was 10 years ago, and if so, on what basis? I doubt we'll ever see footballers playing into their 50s like Mathews did though, the speed and intensity of the game is so much faster now than it was in his day.

I'm certainly not saying he was a consistently good starter, I watched enough of him at Hyde Rd to see him have to take the worst as well as the best from the back. However, you don't win world titles without being able to put together at least some good starts on the day (another example would be Jan O) - perhaps the difference between say himself and the mighty Mort, who just couldn't gate to save himself! would have liked to have seen a peak PC take on a peak Kenny Carter at Hyde Rd, Kenny was the best visting rider in the 80s, I think I only saw Pc beat him once (excluding ef/ex tapes)- but of course Pc was past his best by then.

Schoolboy error . I did actually mean Nicki Pedersen (honest), but your decision is the only fair outcome. Shame he didn't come through for me at 17-1, as that would have compensated for my dropped points.