The Cheese

At least we have the new countries they said they'd take the series to. 🙄

Or you could have the leader cleared off in the distance with a great scrap for 2nd being pointless, 4th place giving up early. Just seems to be a change made in the hope that Zmarzlik might miss a few finals to give a closer title race.

Poole in the KOC is no more "mickey mouse" than this season where you had 1 team not entering and 2 given a bye to the semi-finals. It's fairer than giving a random side the bye and with the Holder brothers returning and a rare appearance from Woffinden there it's guaranteed a massive crowd.

I put £10 on them after posting that. Didn't expect them to win but to be at the same odds as Birmingham was crazy.

I've been fortunate enough to watch him race since he was a 15-year old at St Austell and it's fantastic to see him still going strong. The guest stuff always gets brought up but there's a reason why he's generally the rider teams go to and that's because they know he will turn up and give maximum effort whatever the conditions, he plays his part in helping out the rest of the team and of course for the fans he'll provide great entertainment. Even in the dullest meeting you know you will get at least a couple of races with a bit of excitement and at times it feels as though he's keeping the sport afloat by himself. Hopefully he's got plenty of years left in him!

Birmingham CEO Nigel Tolley said: “Everybody tried their hardest, apart from one rider, mentioning no names, but we’ve just got to look to the future now.” I wonder who that could be? 🙂

I'm not usually too critical of the TV coverage but last night, those first few heats especially, tipped me over the edge. It was horrendous and an embarrassment to the sport, you can only hope that nobody was watching for the first time. Track was a farce at the start, it soon became rideable but the entertainment on show was non-existent. Music sounded like it hasn't been changed since the Victorian era. Mechanic in the pits wearing a Redcar Bears shirt, branded attire is a great idea but to be wearing another club's shirt just looks so tinpot. Stuff like that may not be a massive issue alone but it all adds up to make the product seem amateurish. And then the coverage itself from Eurosport. Aside from the usual poor camerawork and wrong graphics, we now have them making a complete mess of the scores. Commentary.. I like Kelvin and the circumstance of him becoming lead commentator was obviously very sad but he's hopeless at that role. He must have been doing this job for over 20 years now and still spends half the time going "umm, er". He must know the rules but seems to forget them, consistently has trouble keeping up with the score and getting that wrong. Same old comments like for Chris Holder it's always "great to see him back in British speedway". Mix it up! Mention he's a Poole legend, started his career at the Isle of Wight or something like that. I also thought it was poor and almost disrespectful that he said he knew little of Luke Harrison. He was known to be riding a few hours before, if that's the case then maybe research a little about him? It's your job to do things like that.

Might be an opportunity for Sam Ermo-leek-o!

For those without Eurosport/Discovery+, Welsh channel S4C will again be showing this so it'll also be available on BBC iPlayer. Starts at 5.30 but if I remember correctly from last year, they will still show all heats and gradually catch up to live coverage.

I'm sure it's not the only reason but the name of the event hardly attracts attention. It's effectively a World Cup final but 'Speedway of Nations' would mean absolutely nothing to anyone who's not already interested.

Well done to GB, Lambert the best rider on the night and Bewley backed him up well after those first two rides.

Looks like this is right. I think they previously have put the earlier rounds on Discovery+ and shown the final on Eurosport but not this time. Listings show that Eurosport 1 have highlights of show jumping and Tour de France, Eurosport 2 highlights of World Superbikes and live Climbing World Cup.

Since the start of 2022 there's only been 1 GP where neither Lambert or Bewley made it to the semi-finals and they're often towards the top after the qualifying heats. But both seem to struggle to get past that point, Lambert has been knocked out in the semi's 12 times with 6 finals (2nd twice, 3rd twice, 4th twice). Bewley also knocked out 12 times in the semi's and just 3 finals albeit he's won them all.

Skybet have the Belle Vue -8 at 5/6 compared to bet365's 4/7.

There's been a few others Eurosport have missed in the last couple of years. I can't think that whatever that was yesterday attracts more viewers but if they don't want to interrupt it, there's no reason why they couldn't show the full coverage of the GP later on in the evening or today. Or even just show all the heats in the hour highlights.

Good meeting, well done to Birmingham on getting that first win. Don't think they are too far away from a decent side, if only they could find a genuine number 1. Thought it was strange not to award the last heat but luckily it didn't make a difference, would have been a cruel way to miss out if Bewley had won that and they then lost the super-heat!

Said last season that Holder should kick on when he finally got that first GP win so hopefully that's the case, he's probably the only one in this line-up who could not only potentially threaten Zmarzlik but actually believes he can beat him. The problem is now finding that consistency, you can't really afford a poor meeting because you know that Zmarzlik will be making the final even when he's having an average night.

Zmarzlik - £300 more Michelsen - £100 more

Thursday 28th

Press conference will be live here from 1pm.

Interesting that several people here have Leicester as one of the favourites but bet365 have them at the same odds as Birmingham! Sheffield 6/4 Ipswich 7/2 Belle Vue 4/1 King's Lynn 13/2 Oxford 8/1 Birmingham 14/1 Leicester 14/1

I think it was postponed 2 or 3 times. Can't remember whether it eventually took place or not.

7 teams from 9 effectively given a bye into the next round yet the holders aren't one of them. Ridiculous.

Looks a good side. Taken the two weaker links out from last season and replaced them with better.

This situation seems to get more odd as time goes on, can't imagine how frustrating it is for Swindon fans knowing there's a perfectly good track and stadium there. Russell saying it wasn't financially viable made no sense. There was no attempt to sell the club, attract new investment or even lower the costs by dropping down to the Championship where at least they'd be guaranteed some big crowds against Oxford and Poole. It was just that's it, we're done. To then team up with Osborne to look for a new site makes it even stranger given his history and reputation, you wouldn't even consider that unless you're a complete mug which I don't think he is.