moomin man 76

I would be surprised in the Abensberg qualifier if Timo Lahti wasn't in contention for a qualifying place.

As a first time visitor to Ashfield, I have to say that it was an enjoyable evening. The promotion have clearly devoted a lot of time, money, effort and love in bringing the stadium into the 21st Century. Signing the stadium all the way back to the motorway junction made it far easier than expected to find the track. It would be fair to say that the racing got better as the meeting went on, with some cracking races e.g. Iversen v Lambert and Covatti v Aarnio. My impression of the riders; Berge - V. poor. Not interested and comfortably beaten by Bickley in Heat One. Tungate - Three exclusions and one point. Enough said. Andersen - Evidently took a chance on his shoulder, but after struggling in his second heat, he wisely decided to withdraw. Cook - 15 point maximum. Not quite as electric from the gate as I expected, but controlled and super quick when behind or in front. Smektala - Biggest disappointment of the meeting for me. Apparently didn't practice and rode like a novice in his first two heats. Two heat victories and a last - another Polish gating tart? Aspgren - Biggest surprise of the night but a deserved qualifier - comfortably held off Iversen, Lambert and Holder in his first three heats. Aarnio - Battled hard all night, with great races against Covatti, Nicol and Thorsell, but not enough speed to trouble the top scorers. Iversen - Controlled and ruthless. Got better as the meeting progressed - cracking race against Lambert in Heat Fourteen. Nicol - Impressive. Looked quick and took a deserved third to first victory in Heat Eighteen. Moi - Pleasantly surprised. Only one point from his first four rides, but he looked better than expected. Took Iversen from the back in Heat Seventeen before being repassed. Probably needs more meetings either in Sweden or UK to progress. Lambert - Two comfortable heat victories and three second places. Looked quick and deserved to qualify. Niedzwiedz - V. poor. Still surprised he was selected by the Polish federation. Never got to grips with the track. Easily passed by Moi in Heat Three. Covatti - The best of the non-qualifiers in my opinion. Attacked the track and looked quick. Not afraid to mix it - e.g. race against Aarnio. Holder - Not quite enough. His bikes didn't look quick enough - held off Aarnio in Heat Thirteen, but comfortably beaten by Cook and Lambert in Heat Twenty. Riding his brothers bikes as at the SoN? Smetana - Decent UK debut. Went somewhat backward as the meeting went on and the track produced better racing. Thorsell - Disappointing. Gone backwards since I used to regularly see him ride for Wolves. Comfortably passed by Nicol and Aarnio in Heat Eighteen. Biggest positive of the night - having the pleasure to speak to a range of speedway fans over the course of the evening; especially the two elderly Glasgow fans sat next to meet in the grandstand. Genuinely nice people, welcoming, knowledgeable and very tolerant of my over excited five year old!

Once the riders have signed on for the meeting, the GP Qualifier takes precedence. If the riders tried to ride in Poland on Sunday in preference to the GP Qualifier, the FIM could simply suspend their licence, to ensure that they couldn't ride in Poland anyway. Hopefully, it won't come to that. If the weather Gods play fair, we should get an excellent meeting on Saturday.

I suspect that unfortunately I am not alone in not having received the promised refund... A pity really - I only bought a season ticket, as I sponsor a rider who was named in Workington's line-up for the 2019 season. With hindsight, it would have been better to have provided some additional sponsorship to that rider or someone else.

Unfortunately the speedway promotion lost the moral high ground some time ago...over five months ago when the decision was made not to run, those of us who had bought season tickets were assured that our money would be refunded. So far I have received not a single penny of my promised refund... My wife and I have left numerous messages asking when the refund would be forthcoming. Initially, we were told that it would be paid in a couple of weeks once other payments owed the promotion were received, then the message became 'shortly' and eventually those connected to the promotion simply stopped responding. I'm not holding out my breath to suddenly be recompensed and in reality the only likely way I am ever likely to see my money again is to issue legal proceedings against the promotion.

The probable end of speedway at Derwent Park - I was informed that the work was starting at 1pm, with the speedway track being ripped up, to make way for the wider pitch required by Workington Reds to meet FA regulations. No winners in this sorry tale; especially as there is no certainty politically in Allerdale at present. Unlike the rest of the country, where the Tories took a kicking at the council elections, in Allerdale it appears we are left in a state of gridlock, with the council likely to be led by a Tory/Independent coalition. The new leader of the Tories is ex-UKIP, who spent most of his time pre-election decrying the cost of the new stadium. Personally, I think we have seen the end of speedway at Derwent Park, regardless of whether the new Allerdale stadium is built or not.

I can see the merits, in introducing 'qualifying' on Friday, as it adds an extra element to the GP weekend with the benefit of extra television coverage. However, the concept becomes flawed, when riders are unavailable due to Polish League commitments. If the FIM/CCP were that committed to the concept of 'qualifying,' they should have made attendance mandatory with no conflicting league fixtures arranged on that evening. The riders will always opt to ride for their league clubs, due to the terms of their contracts and the relative earnings that can be made at league and GP level.

I think there is an element of truth in what you are saying...for instance, if Speedway of Nations had existed two years ago, Finland could have chosen from Nike Lunna, Jesse Mustonen and Jooa Partanen as an Under 21 rider. Hopefully Timi Salonen develops, but he isn't at their level yet...

However, as it is at the moment, the rule is tokenistic with each Under 21 rider having to only take one ride. I feel that they either have to remove the rule completely, or alternatively make the Under 21 rider take as many rides as the other riders in the team. Of course, if they were to choose the latter, it would make the gap between the 'haves' and 'have not's' even greater. At least by reverting to the old World Pairs format, it would give the smaller nations a better chance of springing an upset and reaching the final, as it would make their pool of talent a little larger. The state of speedway in most countries, at present, is such that it is difficult for most nations concerned to invest and try to develop young talent. in an ideal world that wouldn't be the case. However, outside of Poland, there isn't the money available to do so. Moreover, in most countries you are relying on a network of volunteers, such as club officials in Scandinavia, to keep tracks open, encourage new riders into the sport and try to develop them.

The mandatory Under 21 rule doesn't do the smaller speedway nations any favours, as they are far less likely to have a competitive rider to select. It makes the gulf between the 'haves' and 'have not's' that much wider. It also doesn't do the riders any favours; for instance, think of the time and expense of Finland sending Timi Salonen to the event, for him to have a mechanical failure at the start of Heat One. The French Under 21 rider also looked little better than National League standard. in my opinion, it would be better for each competing country to nominate any three riders of their choice with one rider acting as a reserve. This would formally turn the event back into the World Pairs, which the Speedway of Nations is masquerading as anyway.

They changed the rules for this season, so that the lower ranking team in the KO races has to take a heat advantage (4-2, 5-1) to advance. Your comments don't surprise me though, as few others in the area I was sitting in were aware either. There certainly hasn't been much publicity either of the rule change.

All in all, I thought it was a decent meeting, with enough good racing at times to keep it entertaining. In one regard, it would have been easy to predict in advance who was going to qualify, but for a time I thought the Danes were in trouble with the Latvians and French in the mix. Lebedev was fantastic value for the Latvians, while the French had a solid pair of riders; Berge was extremely unfortunate in Heat Three against GB. The Americans came to the party late in the meeting aided by the points gifted to them by the Madsen/Iversen incident. I wasn't overly impressed with the refereeing. Heat Two was farcical, while I couldn't understand why Iversen wasn't thrown out of the race against Finland, when he appeared to clearly touch the tapes. To give all four riders a warning was odd, as Aarnio didn't appear to move, while Mustonen and Jacobsen only appeared to move after Iversen moved first.

Jesse Mustonen replaces Timo Lahti for Finland. As far as I am aware, it will be Jesse Mustonen's first speedway meeting in Britain.

Nice to know - off to support Tero at Glasgow now!

There is a great deal about this whole sorry situation that doesn't quite add up. I wouldn't claim to have the inside track on what was said/discussed by whom, but I do know that the promotion openly stated that they would be refunding those who purchased season tickets. Has anyone actually received a refund? I know I have not and I have got to the point, where I am seriously considering taking legal advice...

I personally wouldn't actually mind going to the odd meeting at Brough Park, but that isn't currently going to happen, when the money I allocated for watching speedway this year is sitting somewhere in Workington Comets' bank account/has been used by the promotion to pay off debts. Today's latest was that I might be receiving a refund in a 'couple of weeks'...the same line that has been given to my wife the last two times she has made enquiries too...

If the figures quoted in the News & Star article are true, it is evidently clear that without Laura Morgan, Workington speedway would have folded years ago. Like others, I am grateful for the fact that she kept Workington going for so long. The only sour taste in my mouth is the fact that having invested in a season ticket for the 2019 season at Workington, I am still waiting for the promised refund. On two separate occasions, my wife has made contact with the promotion to be assured that 'we will post out the refund next week,' for no refund to be forthcoming. Refund or no refund, I am now faced with the prospect of a two hour drive to see any speedway; in reality, I am all but certainly going to be a fan lost to the sport, or someone who will watch the sport from the periphery.

Joonas Kylmakorpi - one admitedly rather than ten!

Yes - Stuart Robson deserved the well earned round of applause after his final race. I'm glad I managed to shake his hand after the meeting and had the opportunity to thank him for the entertainment he has provided throughout his career.

After braving the showers on the motorbike for this one, I have to be honest and say that it was one of the dullest meetings I can remember in a long time. Not the fault of the Comets riders, who went about their jobs as professionally as they could in the circumstances. For the Diamonds, Tero looked like the only rider who was ever likely to consistently beat any of the Comets riders, while Ashley Morris started well but tailed off towards the end. At least Stuart Robson managed a pass round the outside of Kyle Bickley in his last profesional ride. A pity the missing Diamonds riders seemingly gave no thought to it being Stuart Robson's last professional meeting and the promotion gave little regard to the paying public with the assembled lineup.

Robert Plant grew up in Stourbridge...there's more than a passing possibility that he went to meetings at Dudley Wood in his earlier pre- Led Zeppelin days. I do remember reading an interview with him a few years ago, where he allegedly claimed that if he had known that Dudley Wood was under threat from housing development he would have bought the place. A few years back, there was quite a range of Wolverhampton Wanderers players used to appear at Monmore Green, usually as guests of the promotion, but the only one who could be labelled as a fan was Alex Rae. It has probably been covered elsewhere, but I have definitely seen Paul Scholes and Johnny Marr at Kirky Lane watching Belle Vue. As a footnote, Robert Plant was (possibly still is) a regular at Molineux watching Wolverhampton Wanderers and did attend games at Kidderminster Harriers - a genuinely nice guy.

The size of the rugby pitch has been sufficient for both Workington Town's matches, as well as international games - most recently Scotland v New Zealand. However, it is not nearly a full sized pitch. Even a casual glance shows that the distance between the 40m and 30m lines on both sides of the pitch are not even close to being 10m apart.

Hopefully the track has not already absorbed too much water, as the weather up here in Cumbria at the moment is awful and there will be plenty of extra rain overnight...At least the forecast for Friday is better as the day goes on.

Another Friday night meeting arranged at short notice...no good for me when I don't finish work until 7pm. I just wish that things could be kept simple and meetings arranged on official race nights. I still can't comprehend how we have got to the middle of September and teams are scrambling around to fulfil fixtures that should have been raced months ago.

I can't comment on the events at Brough Park last night, but having been at Derwent Park on Saturday night, there were at best two Diamonds' riders putting in an effort. The rest were seemingly disinterested and going through the motions. To have one rider score nearly half the team total on Saturday night says a lot...