moomin man 76

The problem with demanding exclusivity contracts is the additional financial obligations that will inevitably come from demanding such a clause in a contract. PZM/Ekstraliga may wish to tie riders down to riding in their league and one other, but it will come to a price. Unfortunately, this is the major flaw in the system, as there are already enough instances of riders complaining of Polish League sides not meeting the financial terms of the contracts they have negotiated, before any additional exclusivity clauses are considered.

I can't see how any recommendation to enforce riders riding in two leagues only can be practically implemented, with the amount of doubling up that happens in both Sweden and Britain. If PZM/FIM or whoever want to restrict riders from riding in more than two countries, it has no legal basis, as any such instruction would not comply with 'restraint of trade' legislation, as effectively each rider is self-employed and can choose to ride for whom they see fit. Moreover, it may 'free' up team places for other riders, but outside of Poland, I cannot see where there is a glut of junior riders to fill the team places that are created. Whether we like it or not, the speedway scene in Europe and the Rest of the World is shrinking. There are far less riders than there were ten years ago. One of the more interesting aspects of the ruling is that clubs in Poland who employ non-Polish riders, who would be considered to be outside of the elite of the sport, may suddenly find themselves that they can't fill team places except with their own juniors. After all, why would any such rider consider signing a contract, to ride in Poland when there is no guarantee of meetings and indeed no guarantee that you will be eventually paid for your services?

I think that is a fair and objective assessment of the Poole performance. Big performances from both reserves, a crap showing from Holder and three riders who were out of their depth.

I am certainly no fan of Poole, but to be honest with the 2nd leg at Belle Vue largely being a no event after the large Belle Vue victory in the first leg, I would have made exactly the same decision; especially after Wolves opened up with a 5-1 in the first heat. It definitely will be an entertaining final. Here's hoping as others have mentioned for no guests and no rider replacement.

The best team won on the night and deservedly won on aggregate. Middlo took defeat on the chin, didn't look for excuses - e.g. not protest for Tungate to be put back into Heat Fifteen. For Poole, without their reserves they frankly would have been hammered. Holder rode like he normally does at Monmore - he may not like the place, but his points scores including tonight have been unacceptable for an ex-world champion. Aside from Newman and Ellis who rode their hearts out to keep Poole in the tie, the rest of the Poole lineup were mediocre at best. Onward and upward for Wolves; for Poole and Matt Ford a winter to contemplate what 'advantage' they can manufacture for next season. One thing that is certain is that they won't have the benefit of Newman and Ellis both at reserve next season.

But the question remains on who chose Przedpelski to be first reserve given that he finished nowhere near the qualifying places in the meeting at Belle Vue.

And so we go on...more triviality distracting from the reality that most of what is being speculated on here may not be relevant come the end of the meeting... Irrespective of what may be said about Matt Fords' methodology and how legitimate it might be, the reality remains that if Wolverhampton pull back the deficit and win on aggregate it will not matter one iota... If they don't and Poole win on aggregate what is being speculated and suggested on here both in support and in opposition to Matt Ford and Poole Speedway is not going to make one iota of difference to how the BSPA view the situation.

Hardly an asset to the GP series, but no worse than having Chris Harris in the series.

Many thanks for the clarification, as I was under the impression that One Sport chose the permanent wildcards for the series, wildcards for each round, as well as the supplementary reserve riders (subject to approval from the FIM).

Good to see Nike Lunna get the chance to replace Joel Andersson, as I feared One Sport would find a way to circumnavigate the official reserve rider list and include another Pole as Andersson's replacement.

Interesting - where is this data available? I checked on-line, but couldn't find anything with the usual google search. I'm moderately surprised though that the only Finn mentioned is Nike Lunna, as I would have expected Jooa Partanen and Jesse Mustonen to feature somewhere. All three are still U21, which bodes well for the future.

If Teterow is the best venue that IMG/BSI can secure in Germany, they should be embarrassed. Or, as others have suggested, is it simply down to the promotion at Teterow being the only ones in Germany who are prepared to pay the staging fee demanded by IMG/BSI?

Przedpelski is first reserve - no surprises as he's a Pole and the series organisers are Polish (One Sport). I bet they didn't bother to ask Nike Lunna (2nd reserve) who outscored Przedpelski in qualifying at Belle Vue if he fancied a ride this time; nor the 3rd reserve, Kenny Wennerstam.

In my opinion, there in lies the problem with the series. IMG/BSI are happy to milk the sport for as much as they can in staging fees without actively looking at the wider picture, which would perhaps result in lower staging fees and a concerted strategy to get more spectators into a wider range of venues.

I wouldn't disagree that the action on track has been entertaining this year. This aspect of the GPs is not stale. In my earlier comment, I was really criticising the staleness of thought behind the whole series. There is little by way of innovation of thought, to promote the series above and beyond core speedway countries and core speedway fans. The same venues are being recycled. For instance, I cannot seriously believe that Teterow is the best venue that IMG/BSI could source in Germany to stage a GP.

If that list is to be taken as definitive, it seems that BSI/IMG have spent the past twelve months doing nothing other than renegotiating deals with existing venues, rather than looking at ways and means of growing the series. In all honesty does the sport really need three GPs in Poland and two in Sweden? In reality BSI/IMG are doing little to promote the sport in different market places and are content to do little more than collect their staging fees and sell television rights contracts. The organisation of the series is stale, with seemingly little new thought going into promotion and marketing.

If you were to include the micro and mini-speedway races at this year's Finnish Championship at Hyvinkaa, the meeting started at 11.30am and finished c.6.30pm. Even if you were to only include the qualifying races and the final a five hour marathon from 1.30pm-6.30pm takes some beating for around twenty five heats of speedway. Of course, the situation was not helped by a huge rain storm after heat eighteen, which resulted in the whole track having to be rebuilt with the wet dirt scraped off the the surface.

I suppose it keeps up spectator interest, but it does seem a strange format whereby a rider can be amongst the also-rans for most of the day, scrapes into the final with a second place finish in the B final and then wins the A-final. I'm happy for James Shanes, but the format just doesn't work for me.

The facilities and location of the stadium in Tampere were far better than the vast majority on the GP circuit. The promoters also managed to generate a decent crowd for the GP in 2014. Unfortunately, the track was awful. As far too many people observed, it was far too narrow and far too long down each of the straights, to generate any sort of passing lines. The sight of spectactors leaving en masse as the racing continued in 2014 from the poor fair served up was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Equally, I would imagine that even if an alternative venue could be found in Finland to stage a GP, there would be unlikely to be any would be promoters willing to take a punt on staging an event. This would leave BSI/IMG themselves as the only potential promoters, but they are far happier milking the GP series for whatever they can generate as staging fees than taking a risk on running a GP in a less established speedway nation.

Jooa Partanen finished 12th, but is far less experienced internationally than the vast majority of the field. With the right support behind him (especially equipment), I suspect he will go a lot further in his career than many of the higher placed finishers will.

Sweden have a very weak set of U21 at the moment, so it shouldn't have come as any surprise that even with home advantage they finished last with 17pts. I would even argue that Finland has three riders - Nike Lunna, Jooa Partanen and Jesse Mustonen who are at present the equals, if not better, than those chosen to represent Sweden in the final.

Indeed, the right decision has been reached. Cradley shouldn't have been awarded the league points at the expense of other teams in the league and Mildenhall still have the chance to win back the points they have been deducted on the track. The only question that remains is whether Mildenhall will lose custom through the gate, as a result of Mr Jolly's actions. I can't imagine that many Heathens fans, for instance, will be likely to attend the re-staging.

Here's hoping that neither Freddie Lindgren or Martin Vaculik win one of the three available qualifying slots. I have absolutely nothing against either rider, but I dislike the notion of promoting riders into the GP Challenge when they have already been eliminated from the qualifiers. Indeed, I would personally get rid of the whole idea of 'Wild Cards' in all World Championship Qualifiers. I can't imagine that a local wild card e.g. Paco Castagna in Italy puts that many extra bums on seats for local organisers.

Indeed...anyone taking a casual look at results from either the World U21 Qualifiers or European U21 Qualifiers will see how weak the next generation of Swedish riders are.

Are they from South Africa or Rhodesia (e.g. Salisbury, Gwelo, Bulawayo)? If they are the latter, they aren't quite as scare as you might imagine. The vast majority wouldn't go for much more than £1 on Ebay.