TheReturn

Woffinden’s got this arrogance thing wrong. You can afford to be an arrogant prat when you’re untouchable on track, but not when your sporting performance is declining, and has been for a couple of seasons.

Finally a good three way race for the minor placing and the camera keeps panning away from it and pans to cover Lambert winning rather than stay with the action. Ffs.

I thought that, but if he did the camera footage didn’t show if that was in retaliation from something from Bewley.

I wish the producer would stop switching to helmet cam mid race, save it for post race replays. The angle doesn't help judge or watch the race at all.

True this. Too many dull Hancock type riders in the GP series at the moment.

I always thought he was exciting rather than out of control in those early days. But, hey I am getting on now, so you may be right. One of his first races involved a dust up with Dave Blackburn at the pits gate. I think that's when we started to really like this guy, especially when he made it clear he wanted to stay with us rather than return to Sheffield. I think they had dropped him because of an hand injury in the workshop so he got a chance at Long Eaton and quickly became a fan favourite.

Woffinden ditched this meeting for years, now he's happy to race it. Still, maybe he's preparing for next season when it may be his only chance to race at Cardiff.

Not sure if this was the late 80s or 90s, but Frenchman Thierry Hilaire for Long Eaton. Came in with bit of a fanfare, and at times we were not even sure if he knew how to turn the bike. Don't think he lasted long. I think he rode for another British club after us, with similar results.

Picked my first copy up in a long time from my local supermarket in Derbyshire today and good season preview. Was slightly surprised at how small the font is, although I admit I am getting on a bit now (51).

I am not sure getting in The Sun is something to be proud about..

So by that logic, all the F1 drivers are fake? They don't swear when being interviewed on TV. I am willing to bet they swear behind the scenes though, so that's not being fake, that's being professional I would suggest.

Stay real? Have a word with yourself. If that was the case then every Sky Sports interview post match would be full of expletives, especially this season with the state of VAR. There isn't, those professional footballers check themselves in front of the cameras, anybody with any level of common sense would. Swearing is not 'staying real' it's embarrassing in a professional media press day. As others have said, in the heat of the moment after crashing you forgive them to a degree if emotion gets the better of them when a camera is stuck in their face. But, in that setting yesterday no, and with Woffinden I actually get the impression at times he does it deliberately, which is also not 'staying real' it's pathetic. Now don't get me wrong, I swear all the time. especially at the City Ground, but I check myself when appropriate, i.e. kids around or I am doing media interviews (done a few).... it's not rocket science.

This. I listened to Darren Fletcher (who I remember used to watch Long Eaton) and Phil Morris and then they handed to the gobsh1te, and I had to turn off after a couple of minutes of his arrogance. I knew then he was going to get worse, and reading your comments, that is what happened. Credit where it is due, the event/day is a brilliant step forward and well done Phil for making it a reality. I am sure next seasons will be even better and even more professional. I have hosted events, and I feel ours got better every year because we always tried to learn from what didn't quite work.

.. and a Monster sponsor perhaps?

So as a speedway fan without a club to support, last night did become interesting, and despite the rain and what Tatum kept saying, I thought there were some good racing moments. I didn't see Sheffield pulling it back, and fair play to them. But.... I have always said speedway is ridiculous having play-off's to decide the league title winners. Makes no sense, it makes the entire league season somewhat pointless. With so few teams in the league over half the league qualify, and as it was last night the 3rd/4th place league finishes contested the final. To give speedway some credibility the league season winners should be automatically seeded to the final and get choice of 1st/2nd leg. The 2nd/3rd place teams content a semi-final. And for a slightly improved weather situation the final should be the middle of September.

As a neutral onlooker I don't think it was. It was embarrassing and unprofessional.

From a sporting spectacle a GP at Belle Vue would offer amazing racing, and I would welcome Belle Vue over Cardiff every day of the week. But it's become clear that the GPs are only minimally about the sport these days.

When it becomes more about commercial considerations and less about sporting achievement (in qualifying) then we the fans, have lost.

I hope he does repeat history, but let’s be honest based on his recent form I don’t see him finishing top 6.

Not a surprise, but not sure Woffinden deserved another wildcard. It makes a mockery of the sporting contest where you can be selected because your face fits or because of being a world champion five years ago, rather than because you earned the right to be there based off form over the last 12 months. Wildcards should only ever be reserved for riders who were on target for qualification but injury prevented.

Possibly, but the race off was an empty stadium, so arguably could make it more commercially viable if home fans do go to both events. Especially if they offer tickets for the final at a hugely discounted price when purchased with the race-off (not sure if they do that already), could mean more income than fans just attending the final.

Last night was a good event, good close racing. My only gripe is that the hosts (Poland) should never be seeded straight to the final. They should be made to earn their place in the final, and that means if seeding to the race off (if the hosts have to be seeded somewhere). Poland are too good and would have perhaps won anyway, but feels wrong the hosts go straight to the final, it gives them an unfair advantage.

Disagree. The two man format gives more nations the chance due to more evenly matched top pairs compared to less evenly matched top 4 riders. It also allows for team riding, which should be the point of a team event. Just my opinion.

Bit of a farce competition so far, and seemingly the local crowd not at all interested for the first three meetings as their nation not involved yet. The semi-final's should be hosted in a country where one of the semi-finalists is from, this generates at least a home crowd cheering for three of the four competition meetings, and that added atmosphere only good for TV audience too. That means the semi-final race-off will have to pre-selected and means potentially an half empty stadium but also means, if one nation runs away with it like tonight, it's a pointless meeting. The competition needs to stop seeding the host to the final, which I have always felt makes them an unworthy finalist from a sporting perspective, especially if it is the Poles every other year. If you need to seed the home nation, put them to the race-off which guarantees a good crowd for that and all four finalists have had to earn their final spot. So the final would be the two semi-final winners, plus the top two from the race-off. There is a risk the final will not include the home nation, but perhaps a small risk and even if that happened, hopefully fans would flock to see the best speedway nations in the final anyway.

Got to agree, the drone coverage is awful during a race. By all means show a different angle in the replay after a race, but during the race it doesn't add to coverage it takes away from it.