shortoi

Or even better do what I did - go to the box office less than an hour before the meeting starts: "Two concessions please" "Ok, who are they for? Juniors or seniors or..?" "My grandparents" "Ah ok - thirty-four pounds then please" Got outside and she'd printed me two full-price adult tickets, so I didn't even have to try and blag my way through with concession tickets if asked. Legend. Half-price tickets and brilliant seats. Thanks Lady At The Box Office.

Oh leave it would you! Just congratulate Jason on a well-earned win with good grace, the ref put my pet favourite out too, ya'know! Congratulations Jason, I hope you win plenty more this season as I would love for you to see Pedersen off for the championship this year! Crump and Hancock were a very even match on the night, both rode incredible meetings.

Yes, if he truly means what he said in today's press release it would appear that I stand corrected - but I'm still sceptical. Anyway, I am booing the character. Nicki's speedway character is a scheming, hard racing, all-round bad boy in the eyes of the public, but I did a training school with him in the close season after he got his first World Champ title and had a brilliant time (blooming heck - four years ago was it?!), he was a great guy and very encouraging all round. In fact I still have the signed picture that the track photographer took of me with him up in my room. As a man, I have nothing against him. As a rider, I think his tactics are dubious to say the least.

Cor that doesn't half get on my nerves in rider interviews! Like a flipping dripping tap. I think when I had sky the most I clocked was 37 times in a 1 minute interview Can't remember who the culprit was though. If I knew, I wouldn't be asking!!

Heaven Is A Place On Earth - c'mon Gem. If you were THAT much of an oldie wouldn't you be tucked up in bed with a mug of Ovaltine by now?

Is this thread really necessary? Can't the mods close it, move it to the GP section or merge it with one of the dozens of other Cardiff threads? I highly doubt any new ground is going to be covered, it's all been said, argued, argued back and said again 6 times on all those threads already.

You weren't by any chance somewhere near the top in U36 were you? Or was there more than one group of Poles like that yesterday?

I liked 'I'm a w@nker' and 'The Wizard of Oz' - didn't hear Copenhagen because of the rubbish acoustics where we were sat. Why did you play the Hokey Cokey btw? I wasn't a fan of the music when the riders were lined up at the tapes, Star Wars and all that didn't do it for me and took away from the tension I usually feel when the riders are ready to go rather than adding to it. (Just some constructive criticism.)

Now go and repost that on one of the other three threads dedicated to the did he / didn't he? debate. We don't need ANOTHER Nicki and the ref vs the World thread!

I didn't think Nicki was excluded? Or is 'retiring' / being lapped (technically he was I suppose!) an automatic exclusion?

Was that an issue last night?! Superbart, you clearly didn't have the songs "Crumpie comes from Bristol", "Everyone spells 'Aus' wrong but me" or "Copenhagen and Holstebro are 207 miles apart - they don't teach this in CSE geography, and CSEs don't exist anymore" (honestly, who doesn't have those songs?! ), you characterised the riders instead of giving the precise latitude and longitude of their place of birth. Personally, I think your way had a better effect on the atmosphere! You played to the mood of the crowd very well, but you'll never please everyone!

Superbart - your music choice was fab, congrats! I took a first timer with me and she chuckled away at the song choices all night and we agreed that it really brought an extra oomph to the atmosphere, which was a big part of what she enjoyed. Helped to characterise some of the riders for a newbie too.

Does he get much money from winning the world championship though? I was just fielding a possible theory for his antics, because he sure as hell doesn't ride like he's trying to entertain us. I only say he's in it for the money because his riding smacked of something desperate last night. Jason Crump and Greg Hancock are, IMO, the happy medium between Mr Dirty and Mr Clean. Good, clean riders with just enough of a ruthless streak to get them the glory without the controversy.

Reading down the thread I was forming the same post in my mind, JL. Nail On The Head.

Oh hatcham, thank you for making me giggle today! A bit bias are we? What exactly does he deserve respect for? Crump and Hancock got to the final without dirty tricks and help from the referee. Twice he lays the bike down with minimal contact, slides gently into the air fence and stays down to force a re-run, and then the one time he took a tumble that could possibly have injured him he was up like a shot to save losing his place on the rostrum through exclusion. People say he should be applauded for that, I say he knew that the ref couldn't help him out this time if the race had to be stopped, and he wouldn't be in the re-run if that happened. What did he have to gain by staying down in the final? B*gger all. What did he have to gain by staying down earlier in the meeting? Everything. Of course he would be eager to return to Britain! He doesn't ride for that warm fuzzy glow of entertaining the fans, he'd return to Britain because speedway is his livelihood. He's in it for the money. He cheated his way to the final (perhaps because he's desperate to get into the big-prize-money Super Prix race?!). And to be fair, this jeering is more personal than racism! A racist hates any person of a particular nationality or ethnicity because they are from there. We hate Nicki P because he's a filthy rider with dubious tactics, not because he's Danish. And was he 'hurt and shocked' by these events? Unlikely. He's been booed before, he will be booed again, and he loves it! You can see him playing up to the crowd on camera, he even encourages it and enrages them even more! Nicki is our panto villain... do you ever boo the wicked stepmother in Christmas pantos? Bully. D'ya think?

Alright for those who can afford to do that! Bloody hell, are you a private stripper or something?

I have to agree about the music!! Very amusing. Personal favourites "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you ain't never gonna keep me down..." "Hey, sarrah, sarrah, whatever will be, will be..." Fat Bottomed Girls! What the..? Love it! "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike..." Some excellent song choices, and some rather bizarre ones in the mix too! I was lucky enough to be sat in front of the working big screen, and yes the acoustics were poo! Not only could I not hear who the announcers were announcing, but I wasn't wearing my glasses, thus couldn't read the screen I was looking at for filling in the programme. Too far away.

Track seemed fine to me. Provided some good racing, nice grip around the outside and a good line up the inside. Not perfect perhaps but then what track is? As for the 'if we haven't got it right by now, we never will' comment, you may as well say 'if we can't cure cancer by now, we never will be able to'. Things change, techiques improve etc. The talk about man-made tracks makes me giggle, are other speedway tracks natural phenomena then? Great! More to look forward to!

VERY cheesed off at the exclusion of Leigh Adams. The ref didn't put the lights on until it was obvious that Pedersen was going to stay down, and then instead of calling all four back he excluded Leigh. If Pedersen had got up that wouldn't have been stopped, they were three quarters of the way around the track before the lights came on. I feel sorry for Leigh. Pedersen pulled that stunt twice tonight, both times sliding gently into the air fence with no injury, but staying down, and the one time he really fell off in the final he was up quick as anything! Didn't want to risk an exclusion in that one, did he! IMO Nicki Pedersen cheated his way to the final tonight. I was so hoping he wouldn't get on the podium but Scott was just slightly over-eager in the final. Gutted for him. There was some great racing tonight though, although it was about equal to the number of 'from the gate' heats. I took a newbie with me for company and she says she enjoyed it, though she looked wholly confused through a lot of it. Still, she says she'd go again so the racing couldn't have been too bad! Good on Crump and Hancock, they fought their way to the podium with good form and clean racing entirely on riding ability as opposed to acting ability. It's a shame the same can't be said for all the riders tonight. Was glad to see both riders get up and walk away from the nasty spill in heat 20, though I was sat next to an absolute idiot of a Polish man who was swearing at all the Brits and booed when Harris got up from that crash, he also swore all the way through Land of Hope and Glory, didn't stand up for the national anthems and smoked all over me AND kept reading my programme over my shoulder. Not even discreetly! I paid eight quid for that programme, he can bu**er off and buy his own! Ignorant swine. Fortunately I know quite a lot of Poles so I realise that he's the exception rather than the rule. Still, had a great night, despite only making the decision to go at 4.30pm and not even getting into Cardiff until gone 6.30pm! My friend was extremely unimpressed with Pedersen's antics. She could see what he was up to and it was her first time. She'd have made a better referee! She at least had her glasses on. Am I the only one looking at this with a cynical eye? He was quick to get up when staying down could have cost him a podium place is the way I see it. If he'd stayed down he'd have been excluded for stopping the race and forfeited his podium place. Tonight I saw desperate riding from a man who will do anything for another world title. I haven't been to speedway properly for months and Pedersen hasn't mellowed out in the slightest on-track.

If the family ticket rules permit three adults and one child then that arrangement suits me down to the ground. Cor, who knew that the brain of a genius sits in SCB's head? ... how'd it get there?

I've only just found someone to come to Cardiff with me and would rather not rely on tickets coming through the post at such short notice... does anyone know the policy for buying at the door? Cheers, Az x

Has anyone else seen these yet?! Won't post my first reaction cos I quite like being allowed to be a member on this board.

Nah, I'm 17 and I like Bonnie Tyler. So does my best mate. We got into it after hearing the joint album with Meatloaf... ooh, maybe they can get him next year!

Bummer It was on the joint album they did!