Steve Shovlar

Looks like its off. riders vote not to ride. Delay.

Its raining heavily in Prague

Well Middlo will be making up his mind very soon, so who do you think deserves the two wild card places at the British GP? It looks like it's going to be a no win call for Middlo, as whoever he chooses will not go down well incertain quarters. Does he go for youth, and watch as they go out after two rides a quarter of a lap behind the rest, or for experience who should do better but will stop the youngsters getting a taste? Personally I think he should go for the best British riders available, regardless of age. If they are the best at the time they should get the nod. If a youngster misses out, rather than cry foul, it should gee them up and make them all the more determined to get a place on merit the following year. My choices would be Norris and Screen. Both are riding better this year than for a couple of seasons, and could certianly cause a stir at Cardiff. Why no Howe, Neath, Barker, Havvy? David Howe has stagnated and done nothing this year to warrant an inclusion. His injuries may have held him back but I am begining to think the guy will go no further than a second string/third heat leader. Neath has improved this year but is still nowhere near good enough away from Monmore. Once in the team proper he will not be the same scoring machine. Personally I think he has been overrated this year but that's my opinion and most others will disagree. Barker has changed tracks and this obviously this has affected his form. Still a good bet for the WTC though. Havelock almost deserves a place. He has started this year very well but I think he already knows he is not going to get the nod because he is working for Sky that day. So what do others think?

Are you p****d! I don't think one person on here has agreed with you, as with 99.9% of your postings. TR was a very lucky guy tonight and he will be the first to admit it. When will you start supporting speedway as a whole, instead of just Poole. As a football referee I have to block out all biased decisions and lay down the Laws of the game as seen, could you do that Mr Shovlar. With your track record of looking at one team only, I don't think so. I originally started this thread under the heading that Rickardsson should have been out twice, but looking again at the reply it should have been 3 times. he pulled up in front of Crump on the 2nd bend causing Crump to lay it down. Crump knew he had a EF and remounted only for the referee to stop the race. Why? No one made contact. Tony Steele had a mare and was swayed by the TV and upset he would cause, in other words Bottled It. If he is the best ref in the world of speedway, then the standards of sport is not very creditable. What utter crap you are spouting. In the first incident Crump should have been excluded, of that there is no doubt. he fell on his own and I was suprised when the ref didnt chuck the guy out. Of the second incident, TRick was already in front of Gollob. Again the ref got it right. But I am not the only one to think this. The studio guests said the same, and they are speedway professionals! We don't see eye to eye at all Meth Head. I remember you slagging me off a month or three ago. Support speedway as a whole? I do of course, as long as it favours me to do so. Of course Sullivan rides for Poole now but was I supporting him? Was I hell! And as for being drunk, I am virtually tea total. You stick to the meths.

I thought the problem should have been pointed out to the ref straight away. The refs box is directly in line with the tapes so he couldn't see it from where he is. An official should have notified Tony Steele, and a small delay would have recified the problem straight away. Only when the meeting got to the final stages was something done, but the riders knew of the problem much earlier in the meeting when you could see them looking over to the outside when waiting for the tapes to rise. Shame none of them called the ref.

Strange how different people view it. I thought Steele had a top notch meeting as ref and deserved his place as worlds number one referee. I didn't think there were any really tough decisions though. He called it the same as the guests in the studio, so nothing controversial. If you thought Trick should have been excluded for some reason or another that's your perogative. I Just thank god you are not a ref! Perhaps you should take off your biased specs and view it as a neutral rather than a Rickardsson hater. All in all a good GP. Well done to Adams for the win. As for Sullivan, god help us please.

I watched it live and not once did I think TRick ws to blame. At first I thought I must be mistaken as Millard was going on, and when I saw the replay I knew the correct decisions had been made by the ref. After that we found out that Ermolenko and Louis both agreed that all 4 back was the correct and only decision to be made. So my thoughts were completely vindicated and correct. Just a shame he didn't win but gate 4 was a pig and it was lucky he got through to the final given the poor outside. Well done Trick. With a bi more luck it would have been another GP victory. On another note, we clearly saw tonight the difference between Trick and Sullivan. God help all us Pirate fans.

Very good opening GP with lots of good racing. TRick in a class of his own until the dreaded outside got him twice in a row. No way back from there. Well done to Adams though who shot past Crump for a good win. gate three proved the best by miles but Gollob failed to capitalize on it in the final.

NO the crowd was good. Not as packed on the bends as previous years but still pretty full.

I think the ref got all the decisions spot on. So did the studio. Well done to TRick! Semi and Final from the worst gate for a deserved third.

I have been to Bygoszcz several times and the best way so far for me is to fly to Warsaw then hire a car. It takes 3-4 hours to drive, and the roads are not good. But the avantage with a car is that on the day after the GP you can get easily to a league meeting! Then drive back to warsaw on the monday for a flight back to London. the flightimes into Bydgoszcz have never been good. You have to leave like 6 am on the moring after the GP to get a connecting flight back to London.

Difficult to be classed Danish number one when Nicki Pedersen is World Champion. was Andy Smith Britain's best rider three years in a row? Bjarne did brilliant tonight and has set the elite league alight last year after a poor 2003. It has gone virtually unnoticed because of TRick and Lindback grabbing the attention, but Bjarne Pedersen has now shown his form and will do very well in the GP series.

Well done Bjarne! Showing great form and deserved. This time next year he will be the number one Dane.

When I was a young lad Geoff Bouchard and Martin Ashby were two of my favoouite riders. He was riding for Long Eaton before coming over to ride as a second string at Blunsdon in 1973/4 if I remember. Nice guy too.

Posted on Yahoo According to www.masarna.nu both Tomasz and Jacek Gollob are moving from Bydgodczsz to Tarnow for the 2004 season where they will team up with among others Tony Rickardsson.

What an excellent AGM! Some great decisions have been made and I can't wait for the start of the new season! I have always been a fan of the grading system and am more than pleased it is finally coming into the sport. Much fairer, simpler and easier to work than the dreaded points limit. Also fantastic news is no guests! Best thing to happen in years! The sport will always be ridiculed whilst we have the fiasco's of one rider working for two clubs at the same time. looks like that one has finally been sorted and that can only be good news. Now onto the no tac sub rule. Interesting this one. Tac subs have been with the sport for as long as I can remember, and I am suprised that this rule has ben brought in. Whether it will work or not we will have to see, but I can certainly see the benefits of the new rule for armchair fans. it certainly simplifies things. I was talking to Middlo tonight at the Poole meeting, and the way we read is that if a team is 8 points down, the team manager can nominate a rider who is in the race already, and his points will count as double. So that means no rider will miss out and only get three rides. All riders will get four, and two will get the extra outing in heat 15. You can only use this facility twice, plus of course the golden double off 15 metres, providing he has not been used as a tac from the line already. Thirty six meetings to squeeze in should make an excellent and lively season. Looks like Arena are racing on Wednesday nights, Coventry Thursday with Swindon and Ipswich. I have read through the comments so far this evening and its the usual moans and groans after an AGM. Personally I say its nowhere near as bad as the picture many of you are painting. The riders get 4 rides guarenteed, (so no dodgy 3 pointers in the team) and the best two are still out for 5 rides. Good stuff! PS Davey watt has signed for Poole next year, it was announced tonight. So no Watt at Kings Lynn next year.

Interesting news from Eastbourne was that there will be at least two new clubs joining the elite league this winter from the premier. Also the points limit will be thrown out, in favour of a grading system, (and something I have long advocated). Each club will have one grade A rider, Two Grade B, 2 Grade C and Two Grade D's. This is not finalised as some promoters are saying there should be a few more grades to seperate 8.99 raders from 8.01 riders. This will help riders who are missing out on team berths due to having an average 0.01 over. The Tenerife conference next month will discuss this in more detail.

I have just put the semi final 1 crash online. Its a zipped up WMV file, so will play on windows media player. http://www.steveshovlar.com/semfinal1_crash_prague.zip cheers Steve

Well done Scotty! !! great stuff and what a shame that bore Sullivan won it. You could hear a pin drop as he crossed the line. Must be the rider with the least fans and its not suprising. TricK looked awful and from what the cameras showed it wsnt his bike. Obviously not fully recovered and couldn't handle the conditions. However no real damage was done. He falls to third but a win will put him back where he belongs, on top. But great to see a Brit on the rostrum, and finally Scotty is coming of age. Best bit other than watching crump croak on the line. Crump was the best rider all night and battled through off the outside and deserved more. He doesnt know how to act in front of the camera, and his disappointment comes over like a spoilt brat. He needs to take a lesson from Trick, who although had a nightmare, still went around and waved to the crowd as a thank you to them for coming. Cheers Steve Shovlar

Brilliant result for KK! Well done lad!!! Another champ rides for the Pirates!!! Cheers Steve

Well I saw him walk away last week, from his car! Sorry but I take what you say with a pinch of salt. If you can't say who you are, why are we expected to beleive a word you say?

what a load of crap. This is the Shovlar. Keep 'em peeled.

Well guess what? Ole Olsen has been put in charge of preparing next Saturdays race track. The people that prepared it were employed by SVEMO, and they ahve admitted that they got it wrong. Posstlthwaite has now employed Olsen to get it right, and says he can get it "as good as Parken in Denmark". So BSI is not blaming Olsen at all, and is looking yo Ole to put it right, after sacking the SVEMO track crew.

10 minute jury meeting. Looks at the moment that it could be called off :x Unbelievable. worse thing that could possibly happen to BSI, and with speedway on a world stage tonight this could no be worse for the sport.

[quote="tricky dicky" is this the worst track ever seen? yep.