moomin man 76

If you are travelling on an overnight crossing from Stockholm to Helsinki, the stop over in Mariehamm isn't really an option, as the ferry is usually birthed up for no more than fifteen minutes (or at least it has been every time I have travelled on the ferry).

There are a couple of tracks in Estonia. The main track is just outside Tallinn. The Tallinn Hippodrome has also staged longtrack racing in the past. The sport has staged a revival in Estonia in recent years, but it would certainly be still considered to be a minority sport. Last year, an Estonian Team rode in the Kaupunki Cup (Second League) in Finland.

Big scoring from Mats Jarf. What a pity, he doesn't appear to have the budget to compete in the GP Series.

My apologies if you found the post insulting towards your own personal efforts, as well as the role played by Buxton in their years of continuous membership of the National League. One of my own personal highlights of the time that Dudley/Cradley have been in the National League was the quality of the Buxton side from 2010; especially the rapid rise to prominence of Craig Cook. It was more than a just reward for the hard work of all at Buxton in the development of British talent. The point, I was largely trying to make in my earlier post was that all clubs, at all levels, would benefit from greater spectator numbers. As a consequence, it seems unfortunate that some on the forum would rather blame many of the 'ills' of the National League on Dudley/Cradley, when a less blinkered approach would benefit all. Furthermore, I would like to reiterate from my earlier post that British Speedway would be in a far healthier state if there was actually a concerted effort to develop more training facilities, such as those enjoyed at Buxton and Scunthorpe. A natural consequence, would be the production of a wider range of riders of all abilities, which would in turn alleviate the shortage of riders that some clubs are currently experiencing. British Speedway will not, in my opinion, rise to enjoy greater international prominence when the country persists in having as many training tracks as exists in such nations as Finland.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little impartiality in this debate. As it stands, there does not appear to be a vast number of new tracks being built; nor clubs willing to effectively set up reserve teams, despite the praiseworthy efforts of Coventry, Kings Lynn, Plymouth and Scunthorpe in that direction. For better or worse, the Heathens will be riding in the National League this season. If they were not, there would be an additional seven riders looking for a team place. In an ideal world, the Heathens would be riding in the Premier League and the National League would primarily consist of reserve teams, or stand alone development tracks like Buxton. However, if you removed the Heathens and their travelling support from the league, it is debatable whether such sides as Buxton would find it financially viable to remain at National League Level. Such tracks as Scunthorpe deserve a large amount of credit for their role in the development of British youngsters. However, Scunthorpe's role is so prominent due to the sheer lack of proper training facilities in the country, that the majority of British youngsters will at some point in their development inevitably pass through such training schools (for instance Ashley Morris). At present, the UK has as many devoted training tracks as Finland, who would no doubt be considered to be a minor speedway nation by the majority on this forum. There are many who would denigrate the Heathens role in the development of British youngsters. However, when the Heathens were re-established for the 2010 season, if you were in Ashley Morris' shoes as a fifteen year old still at school would you sooner travel a significant distance across country to carry on riding for Scunthorpe, or as a Wolverhampton based rider, ride for the Heathens at Monmore Green and Perry Barr? It is also often forgotten that the Heathens also took a chance on a young local grasstracker, Tom Perry, who prior to that point had very little speedway experience at all. That is not to say that I agree with all of the decisions that the Heathens management have made. Trying to bring in Brady Kurtz was clearly wrong, as was the decision in 2010 to bring in Micky Dyer. The National League should be for British riders only, rather than Australians masquerading as Brits, due to the convenience of having partiality. The Heathens though are not unique in taking such an approach. I cannot remember any such vitriol when Newport brought in Todd Kurtz, or Mildenhall brought in Cameron Heeps. To suggest that the Heathens management have to field a top side to keep up crowd levels does not entirely hold true. The 2011 side was decimated by injury; suffered a number of humiliatingly high home defeats (for example 27-64 v Stoke), yet crowd levels remained high and vastly exceeded the majority of National League tracks. For Heathens fans with longer memories that I, crowds in the 1960's and 1970's remained high in spite of being served up mediocre teams year after year.

The same faces and sadly the same likely outcomes - the non-Russian riders hopelessly outclassed, with very few exceptions. Sadly, it appears that the FIM have little real interest in the sport, apart from collecting their inscription fees from staging 'World Championship' meetings. As much as it pains me to say it, the Russian Championship is of a far higher standard than the 'World Championship.' For the World Championship to have the status that it truly deserves, the FIM have to grasp the nettle and realise that without significant financial backing and training time for the non-Russian riders, the same scenario will persist year upon year. It simply isn't enough to hope that from somewhere a new Stenlund, Serenius or Hirvasoja will emerge.

Kalle Katajisto could easily put 2+ points on his starting average, while Kyle Howarth's career will continue in an upward trajectory.

The guy was a legend, as the clip shows. Not a great gater, but one of the best from the back, I've ever seen in ice speedway Still the only Finnish ice speedway world champion (1990). One of the few Western riders who had a hope of competing with the 'Soviet machine,' who would arrive at each world final and work as a team to try ensure that no non-Soviet rider had a chance of winning. A pity that there's no Western rider at present, who can compete in the way that he, Eric Stenlund and Posa Serenius used to.

Ryanair did fly from Edinburgh to Tampere until 30th October 2012, but then pulled out of Finland, apart from the aforementioned route from Stansted to Tampere. I just wish they would reinstate the route! If you fly to Helsinki, the train is as good an option as any. It is clean and efficient, with a journey time of one and a half hours.

A truly abject performance from Team GB. Finishing behind Australia may not be any disgrace, but to finish behind both the United States and Latvia is. Lets be frank, we've finished behind a team that is essentially a one man band (United States), in which one top class rider inspired his team-mates to score the odd point here and there. We've also effectively finished behind a Polish Division One side, Lokomotiv Daugavpils, minus Joonas Kylmakorpi. That's right, a country (Latvia) with one track and around twelve registered riders, but plenty of team spirit. That's how far Great Britain has sunk in world speedway terms. The current Great Britain set up is a shambles; there's one world class rider (Tai) who learnt his speedway in Australia; Harris who's never learnt to gate and is on the way down (he isn't even in the Top 20 Elite League Averages); Barker who's all mouth and no substance and Bridger who at least tried but was unsurprisingly left wanting. Neither of the latter are in the Top 20 Elite League Averages either. Whilst all this is happening, Cook roles in yet another paid 15 maximum at Redcar for Edinburgh. Prague was always likely to be a gate and go track, so we patently pick three riders who cannot gate and leave behind a rider who may be inexperienced in world terms but can at least gate.

No doubt, there will be an alternative format drawn up over the winter to avoid such discrepancies. The SWC organisers could probably just about contemplate Russia being in the qualifiers, as this year has not been the first year where they have lined up with nowhere near their strongest team. However, with Sweden theoretically in the qualifiers next year, I'll be extremely surprised if the format isn't changed to accommodate them.

Craig Cook's biggest 'fault' is that he lacks experience at the highest level of the sport, which is hardly surprising given that he only started riding five years ago. He may not make it to 'world class' level, but pulling him out of the 'Race Off' is hardly going to help his development. Unfortunately, the alternatives, which seem to consist of Bridger, King and Barker are hardly likely to significantly surpass however many points Cook may score in Prague. After all, the aforementioned riders are hardly 'big' scorers at Elite League level, let alone on the Continent.

Not at all. I'm certainly no apologist for BSI and wish One Sport Marketing every success in this venture, as well as the revamped European Championship. However, their own decision to create a 'composite' Czech and Slovenian side undermines the credibility of the event, as it is no longer solely national sides taking part, which was the original purpose of the event. As it stands, the composition of the American and Australian sides is incomplete. Who will end up as the reserve riders for these teams? Polish reserves, riders from other nations, or none at all?

If they were so determined to field a 'select' team, rather than solely a Czech team, they could have done a lot worse than asking Martin Vaculik to ride and label the team 'Czechoslovakia.'

Including Matej Zagar as part of the Czech team may make their line-up stronger, but it reduces the credibility of the event in my opinion, as one team is now a 'best of who's available line-up.' If the Czechs weren't able to field a strong enough team of their own, they shouldn't have been included in the first place.

I'm surprised no one has considered Kalle Katajisto. I know that he hardly covered himself in glory in his last season with Edinburgh, but his scores in the Swedish Allsvenskan League and in Finland in the past year would be worthy of consideration. In addition, to the best of my knowledge he lost his team place at Rospiggarna before the start of the season through team changes and no fault of his own, so aside from his Finnish commitments he should be available.

Its good to see the participation of the Estonians in the Kaupunkki Cup this year. Success should not be measured solely on points scored. Exposure to riders of a higher stature will no doubt help develop the Estonians, to the point where hopefully they can enter a team into the SM-Liiga in the years to come and individuals into the World Championship/European Championship qualifiers.

If that is case Philip and I have no reason to dispute the validity of your statement, then BSI and the FIM are poor judges, not only of rider ability/potential, but of the mood of the public. Chris Harris never convinced in all the years he was in the GPs and as I type, he doesn't even have an average sufficiently high enough to be in the Top 15 of the watered down 'Elite' League.

The gradual downgrading of the British Final over the years has simply reduced the level of interest for both fan and rider alike. Unfortunately, no rider can really hope to gain much by way of sponsorship for the title of British Champion, so prestige alone is all the riders are riding for. For most, that is simply not enough. At least the offer of the GP wildcard offered some form of short-term incentive, but at best now a good performance might get a place in the GP qualifiers for the following season, from which you cannot qualify for the GP's until the season after.

The organisers would also have to do something seriously wrong, not to attract a higher attendance than the numbers of spectators present at Ullevi last night.

Indeed, there's good racing on show, but sadly not enough spectators in the stadium, or I suspect sufficient viewers at home after the poor start to the meeting.

For all those doubters who wondered whether a GP in Tampere/Tammerfors was viable, they would have to try pretty hard to get a worse crowd than that inside Ullevi tonight!

If this is true, I for one, will be absolutely delighted! It'll be nice and easy to get a Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Tampere; take the service bus from the airport to the railway station, before walking a shot distance to the stadium. I can't wait!

On paper the Lonigo semi-final looks the easier, with a number of qualifiers from the Debrecen qualifier, which was significantly weaker than the other qualifying meetings. Is it not beyond the realms of common sense, to allocate riders equally according to known form? It is equally patently unfair that Jurica Pavlic has metaphorically 'two bites at the cherry.' Effectively, he can finish in any place in the Divisov semi-final and be guaranteed a place in the race-off at his fathers track at Gorican. If he were then to qualify for the GP Series after previously being eliminated, which is conceivable in my opinion, it makes a mockery of the whole qualifying system.

The dominance of Polish riders at U21 level is very similar to that achieved by Russian ice racers. Unfortunately, neither is healthy for the long-term future of the sport. At Under 21 level it is sad and unfortunate that riders are not even prepared to enter the qualifying rounds, as they know that they will not have sufficient backing either from sponsors or from their federation to allow them to compete. This is where the Poles have a distinct edge over everyone else.