crumpiefan

Really enjoyable GP and a great win. Woffinden just goes from strength to strength and can see him making it 3 titles this year. Just a quick point of view on the 'is tai british' discussion. Yes he is - born in England to English parents who emigrated to make a better life for themselves. The only bone of contention i possibly have is that in my opinion his decision to be 'british' was heavily influenced by the fact breaking into the gp's was going to be simpler as a brit than as an aussie. Brits get/got wildcards easier than aussies plus the competition was tough. crump holder ward etc etc. Don't agree with him not doing the British title rounds either. But overall the lad has been great for british speedway and knocking him does seem unfair. Maybe its the British way

I don't think its a case of moaning, more a case that in peoples opinion eurosport seemed to be doing a decent job. Ok a 3 year deal was up and naturally had to be renewed/replaced. But img know that going to bt sport means fans will have to make changes simply to still see the sport. I accept that in this day and age free sport is a dying breed. On a slightly different note where does the money from this deal go? Straight to img or is any put back into speedway at all?

I'm sure there's a way round it. Its just being a massive technophobe i don't fancy the idea of change! And it is a fact that at a time when - though of course relative compared to more mainstream sports like football cricket tennis golf - speedway has possibly a bigger profile here than in the preceding years due to tai's success,the gps are going to be more difficult or more expensive to access

Have to say i'm pretty disappointed with this news....i appreciate the finances involved but (how naive does THIS sound) it would have been nice if the powers that be had given more thought to the average fan. With no virgin media in my area (huge office half a mile away but no service??!!) and having had many problems with bt in the past i guess thats that. Yes very disappointing

Thanks to all,judging by what you say i'm hoping eurosport keep the gps. I do anyway to be honest. Thanks again for all your advice

for people who don't have sky, how do you generally watch the gps? I bought sky a decade ago, totally for two sports - football and speedway, well football just doesn't float my boat any more so IF I cancelled sky (why pay that muh for one sport, everything else I watch is pretty much on freeview) where could I watch the gps.....please understand technology and I aren't best buddys so talk in layman terms!

Is emil's continued absence purely down to him or does his 'entourage' have as much influence as we hear? If he was at best a top 8, top 10 rider maybe just maybe i'd understand him staying away but he's right up there. Seems such a waste

congratulations to poole, best team over the season - seems fitting the team finishing top wins the play offs. if only belle vue had in 2005. the difference to me (apart from the huge points swing between the reserves) was poole had more riders who on the night(s) you fancied to win races, belle vue had zagar cook and nicholls in the home leg and probably just cook and nicholls tonight. very proud of the aces tonight tho. just regarding the goggles business, I would imagine most right minded fans would rather win a title on the track than via appeals etc but that said I have definitely seen teams' scores adjusted long after a meeting for all sorts of reasons so why didn't the scb act, even if was just to fine newman without a change to the scores?

Great comeback from the Aces although in all probability too little too late. Zagar and Cook our main men tonight, reserves a massive let down. Expect Poole to win by 16 plus on Wednesday. By the way out of interest as its a Sky meeting does a different guy prepare the track and don't the home team get a say? As it was clear as day from being there tonight that it took over half the meeting for Belle Vue to work the track out yet Poole clicked immediately

this may be a regular occurrence but I can't say I've noticed it before - when sarjeant goes through the tapes (think its sarjeant tho I may be going on past reputation) if you look at the footage the start marshall makes a sarcastic 'oh that's a shame' gesture behind him. never seen this before so is this usual?

i don't know how much influence ole olsen has since tony olsson took over the race director role a few years back but when he was responsible for the gp tracks far far too often the tracks were too slick and simply made passing nigh on impossible at times. i do understand to a point the reason for olsen producing tracks like this was the possibility of rain,so by making tracks this way he gave the gp a better chance of surviving the rain if it came. however sometimes the track resembled a road as sky's keith heuwen always pointed out i remember. veering away slightly from that subject some of the tracks on the calendar never produce great racing - prague is usually one that springs to mind,gothenburg can be bad on both extremes - i've seen gps there with no action yet also gps that have produced shocking accidents. don't think latvia was that great when it was a gp track 4 or 5 years ago either. as the post above mentions copenhagen is one of the better ones in my opinion, cardiff malilla and bydgoszcz more often than not produce(d) decent racing too. lastly another bugbear of mine is when one gate is useless,such as the last gp when gate 4 was the graveyard gate. i don't know how you get round that particular problem and it does close the field up scores wise but its far better when all gates are relatively equal. but all in all i think this season has been ok so far

finally back from the gp in terenzano - lack of passing on a slick track,but rain was expected. it came before the meeting but not as much as possibly thought. one great race,the tussle between emil and gollob. very close meeting,no outstanding rider on the night,congrats to aj,tho the real winner on the night could well turn out to be greg,big step towards the world title.

at the risk of sounding anti poland just cast your mind back to the farce a few years ago. was it walasek who was last twice then was 'signed off' by the doc then balinski came in and changed things. too many rules,too many loopholes. i'd prefer no joker but i'd stick with the tactical subsitute. and certainly they need to rotate the final more,i appreciate that poland sells out and has the best atmosphere but in the interests of fairness there is poland,sweden,denmark,gb etc etc. one country staging the final 4 times in 7 seasons is not right imo.

holder has gone up a level this season,imo he will push for a medal in the gps. just saying hampel wouldn't be the opposition you'd choose ideally. didn't affect things tho the best team won.

not over analysing it at all,just stating the fact that australia weren't in a position to use the joker till heat 24 when they had to face hampel. ideally they would have used it against a kolodziej or kk. the result was a fair one - as other people have said all the poles came good at the end whilst oz only had 3 riders at their best,denmark and swedens big guns (bar bjerre and lindgren) failed to show. but even saying that,the joker rule has been at other times just that,a joke.

have to say although each team had chance to play joker i don't think the aussies would have ideally picked holder against hampel would they. holder was great but so was hampel,they would have chosen an easier heat but basically had no choice.

purely and simply finance. too expensive i would imagine to transport bikes,mechanics etc. i agree tho it would be good if the finals were selected on a more even rota,not poland every 2 years, but thats me preferring the sport side to the financial aspect. poland deserved their win.

well done poland,i was really rooting for the aussies but wasn't to be. very enjoyable meeting.

number 3 is spot on,no matter what people think of barker pulling him out of a ride that will make no difference won't do much for the lad's confidence. middleditch did the very same thing 5 or 6 years ago,took simon stead out of his last ride when the tie was already lost. the joker was played early,no problem with that,but off gate one????

exactly. doesn't matter when you use it as long as you get the full value of it. i've never understood the reasoning behind waiting to use it,it was clear to most people that boyce missed a trick.

funny breed us black country lot yo ay kidding

i'd like to think that the quality of the track can be fixed in time,the first few times i went it seemed to really cut up and more recently it was smoother but with less racing lines. reproducing the whole atmosphere of cardiff would be a lot harder.

thats what i meant,maybe not now,but in 2 or 3 years time. the point i was trying to make was that as other countries have 2 or more gps then in theory there is no reason not to give britain another round so long as the facilities are there. one other question though - with other countries being mentioned for possible gp locations will the series expand in terms of number of gps or will the current 11 stay roughly the same?

thats the way i see it,it certainly would be a big gamble to replace the 'jewel in the crown' gp with one potentially inferior. lets be honest,they have three in poland,why not give britain another gp?

see if i can go next year then,its like you say,cardiff is about the atmosphere as much as anything,even though we don't go till the saturday morning its a great day out.