TheReturn

Did Middlo really just say there are 3 or 4 teams in with a chance tonight?

Indeed they can. But not sure those fans that cheer for other nations have a right to be critical of their own national team when they inevitably fail. It's like 'We want you to do better and improve, but we won't be cheering you on until you do, we will cheer the opposition on'.

Nothing wrong with cheering for your favourite riders, but surely you should primarily supporting your nation? I remember the last ever World Final (94 in Vojens for those that forgot) and I had gone across with some friends from Long Eaton, partly because Jan Staechmann had made the final. I of course gave Jan a big cheer when he came out, but at the same time I was waving the Union Jack flag with pride in the vague hope that it might inspire Loram or Louis onto success that day. Strange day, sitting next to us on that grassy bank at Vojens was Andy Smith, then as the meeting went on, armed police came onto the track because of some issue on the far side where the Polish fans were.

Always been the same. You would go to Coventry in the 80s for the old Overseas Finals and the amount of Midlands based fans waving the stars and stripes was embarrassing.

I would hate it either way, be it for Team GB or as in this case, Team Czech. It's like seeding Brazil straight to the final of the World Cup, with all other nations battling it out for that final space. If they have to be seeded then it should be to the race-off. I like the earlier suggestion of three qualifiers, with the second placed teams going to the play off with the seeded hosts.

On a busy Summers Day like today I was out on my bike, I never planned to watch live, but came back and sat down on the sofa with my recovery drinks with the recording and watched as if it was live.

I still don't understand the rule change of last season to put the SWC hosts direct into the final. Why was it changed? I just feel that hosts in the final have not earned the right, surely if you are going to see the hosts it should be to the semi-final, not direct to the final and then have the top two from he semi proceed to the final.

I was talking to a Polish friend who happened to be in Katowice last week and I mentioned speedway, and she looked it up and sent me this link she found. This video slightly different to other speedway videos, as it shows the day out, the fun, the excitement of a day out at Speedway for a group of Polish fans. Huge crowd too! Fond memories of my away days.

The whole lot other than Kelvin need changing. Chris Louis as long been a Poole suck up when doing interviews, but he bottled it tonight by not asking Ward if he stayed down on purpose. A professional journalist would have asked the question, look at the Tour journalists at Cav yesterday for an example. You then have Pearson again plugging the Speedway Star, which must be against some Ofcom broadcasting rules. For the 1000th time this season he also bangs on about 'how often do you see a different result in a replay'. With the exception of Kelvin and Sophie, the Sky Sports team are repetitive, mundane, boring and poor.

I had the same problem last week, a search for 'BSPA' did not come up on Google.co.uk. although does today. However the a search for 'British Speedway Promoters Association' did come up about 6th in the list last week, but was a link to this insurance page http://www.speedwayg...insurance4.html I suspect the problem is three-fold, firstly the main issue is that the BSPA (and speedway world) are being badly advised on their websites. Secondly, I would hazard a guess the website is not hosted on a UK server. In fact a little search shows it appears to be hosted in the US. Switch to a UK server, and your website will not disappear from Google.co.uk listings. When Google first launched all those years ago I had the same problem, I was hosting my sites overseas (Germany) and my sites appeared fine on google.com but rarely on google.co.uk and when it did very low. Finally, the other issue which will not help is using a non UK domain. Whoever suggested to use .co for all speedway websites is a prize idiot because people don't associate or I suspect, trust, co websites. The domain issue is less important for Google.co.uk listings than hosting on a non-UK server. As for the BSPA website itself.. enough said!

Ref your last line... a forum is about opinions, and debate and I was imply intrigued what your opinion was about the old tactical rule as I had never heard anyone complain about it before.... So don't be so arsey! Now, on to your explanation above the last line, thank you for sharing. Like you I have no problem with a tactical sub ride, my own view is that the system is fairer when the substitute can only score the same amount of points as the original rider, so for me the double tactical sub rule is the unfairer of the two. Perhaps it needed tweaking to make the deficit needed for a tactical sub to 8 points rather than 6 to be a tad fairer or even that only the next two riders with higher averages are allowed to take the substitute ride. But my belief was the old rule was slightly fairer than the existing double points rule, where one race win can be worth 6 points when the original rider could have only scored a maximum of 3.... IMO

But you have not explained why you think it was unfair.

I do agree with you, that clubs that don't play by the rules should not be given 'options' like r/r/guest, but then the problem is the fans suffer, so it's bit of a lose/lose. What, a tac sub for being 6 points behind was unfair? Do you mind if I ask why? or do you mean the previous double points unfair tac sub ride... which I would fully agree with you, unfair and stupid.

Eeer.. nope? You will have to enlighten me.

Is Wednesday night now a permanent fixture for Sky Speedway coverage?

Very good website, far better than majority of speedway websites. Ref the track directory (great idea), might be a good idea to make it a clickable Google Map. Depending which website software you used, this is fairly simply to create.

So you don't like it when people are critical of your mate Pearson, but it is ok for you to refer to a 'babbling' Carter?

Out of interest do the fab stadium venues. like Cardiff actually attract non-speedway fans to the viewing audience and through the gates? As any research looked at this? Are there are any significant gains from using fab stadiums like Cardiff, other than the roofs?

Rubbish. He knew a fair bit. Not my cup of tea, but he seemed to know enough to present a discussion in the studio.

Exactly, you targer your market. I was at the Kerrang! music awards the other week and the room was full of rockstars, all doing Tai impressions with their tattoo's, and the tables were full of freebies from companies targeting that audience Relentless Enery Drink. Pitstop larger to name a couple, you just have to target the right companies.

Gollob as looked like he has lost the hunger and desire (although somehow managed to reach the finals at the weekend). I do think this should be Gollob's last season so we can remember him for the racer he was. I was there at Hackney when Boyce punched him, and I never thought he would be around all these years later.

I think Tai as come across really professional during his GP interviews this season. Boy come of age? Live and let live... Who cares what he looks like, it is how he conducts himself on and off track that is more important.

Sounds good to me. I would love to see the British GP presentation team full time next season, Mr and Mrs N are clearly experts, and the guy leading was a fast learner and seemingly enthusistic without being Pearson OTT.

Yep. according to Pearson, several times. So I guess every time there is a contentious decision, we will now have to put up with fence sitter Pearson using the same phrase 'it's all about opinions'. No way. They tried that a few years ago, and shafted the then National League to save the British League. There was a promise of the top rider sbeing shared around, and I don't recall that happening back then and won't again next time, because how can a smaller Premier League club afford the likes of Holder or Ward, or even compete realistically. One big league stimply does not work. Elite League got itself into a mess, then it needs to get itself out of the mess.

I must admit, I was surprised, but partially I can see why the ref though that Zagar did move across in front of Emil causing the incident. To be honest, hard to say who was at fault, I still think ref's need the option to put all four back where the calls are so marginal. Although if that is allowed, too many refs will bottle out from making obvious calls. I don't think anyone ever doubted this Steve, a first class amazing racer without question. It's the off track stuff, it does take the shine away from his talent. I did have to giggle when he thanks his friends for making him who he is today. Agreed. Although with Sky not bothered about the GPs, I don't think we can moan too much at this. And if anyone disagrees.... as Pearson told us last night, many times, it's all about opinions