rabbit

Hopefully there will be quite a few travelling fans out there with late afternoon flights back who can still see the meeting, so I do concede the point. Personally I don't mind a morning start (gets me out of having to go shopping for a start) but you do make a good point. I guess we should all know that in the pecking order of world speedway, the Polish league do see themselves as above even the FIM. Can you imagine a morning start had this happened in any other country? The pinnacle event of this competiton shoe-horned into a morning slot. That's what rankles.

Does seem to smack of pacifying the Polish clubs so their meetings can go ahead in the afternoon. I mean, God forbid the Polish league should have to take a back seat.

A pub and a fan club.

But at least we were in this stage of the tournament, which is more of an achievement than the Americans these days...now how many multiples of Britain's population do they have?

Battling performance that saw us right in it for much longer than I thought. I don't buy the 'rider x should've been picked' theory - you can't second guess what would've happened with a different set of riders and if you apply it to our team, you should do the same for the Danes and even the Swedes. Plenty of positives to take forward to next year, and thankfully a team all working together. Just a shame that Lewis never really go the chance to get going tonight...that I think is the difference between us being in the final and sitting here now doing the post-mortem. Forget Nicholls, had Lewis' head not dropped after his dodgy start, we might've picked up those vital couple of extra points. No blame attached to him, it's a team effort, but he'll learn from this and hopefully come back in 2010 a stronger rider at this level as with all the lads. The Danes did it a few years back and everyone took the mickey out of them being 'weak' initially - didn't do them any harm in the intervening years.

Hindsight - always such a wonderful thing. Had Scotty ridden and we still just missed out, wonder what the call would've been instead...should've tried a youngster instead of a struggling rider??

Thought she did fine tonight. She's obviously enjoying doing what she's doing and gets better by the week. Really don't know what some people want.

Someone had posted that they'd heard Troy was in which is what i'd replied to, but it looks like they've deleted their post. Must remember to quote in future so it doesn't make me look like I'm the disbeliever!

I'm told it's on the GP site that Adam is in, so assume it's official.

Slightly harsh on Bridger there BA (Gawd never thought I'd be sticking up for Lewis!) - he's improving and learning. Not every rider can be an Emil and if he can add to his experience and build on it, it has to be a good thing, I'd not discount his learning curve so far simply because he's 'stupid' or hasn't made the GPs. He just needs to listen to the likes of Loram etc who are making themselves available to the team. Remember Rickardsson didn't win his first world title until he was 24 odd... Are we all getting carried away becuase we aren't getting instant success?

Or perhaps it's his way of dealing with the nerves...a reverse pschology action to try to show he's not fazed by the pressure. I think it's a bit harsh to label a young lad as cocky...I've not yet met a teenager with talent who isn't precocious - you have to have belief in yourself to succeed. Just let him mature - the Tai in 5 years time will no doubt be a long way from here. Just look at Lewis, he's slowly losing that streak and turning himself into a decent pro.

Actually, we thought we saw Screenie in the pits there at one stage last night. He was part of the squad to help out Loramski etc with advice for the youngsters...

Poor old Barney; not unexpected, but a shame he'll miss out...just about sums up his awful season. Just hope he can look beyond what must be his own disappointment to offer advice to the team. Danes now tracking an exciting if slightly unpredictable line-up...could the inclusions of the two young guns open up more opportunities for some of our lads to pick up a few more points? Adds another dimension to what is already an exciting prospect of a meeting!

Absolutely brilliant meeting, reminded me why I still love this sport. Big well done to all the teams for making it so, and congrats to the Poles who just had the legs to see off the Aussies. Pushed for who'd I'd rather meeting in the play-off, it'd have to be Australia rather than the home nation so a good result for the team also. Can't believe how churlish some are being. Those who were disappointing were the riders everyone bar none was wanting included - Kennett, Woffinden, but still some people can't give credit where it's due elsewhere. Stand up Danny King for a man-sized performance there last night. Absolutely thrilled for the lad. He's a rider I've rated for a while and it was brilliant to see him make such an impact. We have run with our 'best' teams for the previous years and done diddly, so fair play to Lyon for being strong enough to make his own mark on things. It worked for Denmark when they tracked a young inexperienced team several years back, now look at them. Who is to say the same won't be true of where these guys are in a couple of years time? Rico obviously accepts what was done and why, so it's a shame some fans can't. Stunning racing, best I've seen in a while and the Crump/Zagar race should be shown to anyone who thinks speedway is all about the first turn. The Chapmans might not have that many admirers outside of Norfolk, but you can't knock Buster for that track. Whoever over-ruled Ole Olsen needs a bloody medal. Roll on Thursday, a different team yes, but I think we're up against it against 3 very strong nations. Never say never though... Just hope it's as good as last night's racing.

Which would be fine, but it was abused last time as teams were naming damned good riders at reserve in order to use them in additonal races during the meeting due to dodgy withdrawals. As others have said, there is definitely a need to use reserves, but it has to be done so the facility can't be mis-used.

Wow! What a meeting!! Just finished watching a recording have successfully avoided finding out the result (stayed away from Norbold's posts this time ) - so glad I did. The suspense was great and reminded me why the SWC beats the GPs hands down every year for drama. Big congratulations to the Russkis. Emil seems to have awakened some sort of latent desire in their riding - I've never seen the likes of Roman and even the Gaffer look so confident and consistent on track despite previous flashes of what they could do. A fully deserved progression to the final. Danes and Swedes slightly disappointing overall and makes you wonder if sub-consciously they'd written off the Russians before the start. Lindback seemed well out of it, and the Swedes seem to lack that 5th strong rider - has PK retired from international racing now, as i'd have thought on the world stage he'd have a bit more oomph than Ruud-boy. Danes very unlucky to lose Nicki with no replacement, but then we all know why that reserve rider option was pulled. On the Nicki incident, really nasty crash and even more eye-watering in slow motion. Hope he makes a swift recovery. I've read some of the comments about who was at fault, but in my eyes, Nicki was making a win it or bin it move down the outside, but Laguta seemed to pick up a bit and drift further out - only fractionally, but just enough when added to his move to shut the door on NP. I don't think you can say what might or might not have happened had the hook-up not intervened - that's open to conjecture - perhaps Laguta may have started to turn at that point leaving Nicki enough room, perhaps Nicki might have dumped it anyway - who knows? From an exclusion point of view, I thought it was the right decision, even if there was no intent. Just hard racing with a lot at stake. Bjarne, sadly also lacklustre, but then some of us have been trying to say he's been off-form badly this season to no avail. Perhaps now the penny will start to drop... Don't think Team GB have an easier or harder job now should they end up in the ride-off later this week. If anything, I'd sense more of a chance against the Danes than the Russians who'd probably have fancied their chances at Leszno had they been there. My only hope is that tomorrow's meeting is half as good as last nights!

As I posted last night on the Cardiff meeting thread: Courtesy of the Poole site: Hans Andersen was quick to acknowledge the role that Poole Castle Cover Pirate Daniel Davidsson and Russian Emil Sajfutdinov both played in his achievement of finishing third in the British Grand Prix at Cardiff. Explaining Davidsson's role Andersen explained "On Wednesday night my van was damaged in a crash and I would like to thank Daniel for stepping in and lending me his van for Cardiff, I really appreciated the gesture and having borrowed some equipment to even get to Cardiff I finished the night borrowing a bike from Emil (Sajfutdinov) after my Poole bike seized in my final ride. I only had one spare with me but Emil stepped forward in the semi-final to offer me his bike. I didn't have a great deal of time to make any changes to it to suit me better but it was a fantastic gesture and I am really delighted to have got third place in the end". I heard about this crash on Thursday night, alledgedly involving his mechanic, but it wasn't from someone I know so wasn't prepared to post before without knowing if it was true. If you noticed Hans' pit area it was pretty sparse in the pits with no usual pit board etc so can only wonder if most of his equipment for the meeting was on board the van, particularly if he was riding a league bike in the meeting. Seems like exceptional circumstances in this case.

Courtesy of the Poole site: Hans Andersen was quick to acknowledge the role that Poole Castle Cover Pirate Daniel Davidsson and Russian Emil Sajfutdinov both played in his achievement of finishing third in the British Grand Prix at Cardiff. Explaining Davidsson's role Andersen explained "On Wednesday night my van was damaged in a crash and I would like to thank Daniel for stepping in and lending me his van for Cardiff, I really appreciated the gesture and having borrowed some equipment to even get to Cardiff I finished the night borrowing a bike from Emil (Sajfutdinov) after my Poole bike seized in my final ride. I only had one spare with me but Emil stepped forward in the semi-final to offer me his bike. I didn't have a great deal of time to make any changes to it to suit me better but it was a fantastic gesture and I am really delighted to have got third place in the end". I heard about this crash on Thursday night, alledgedly involving his mechanic but it wasn't from someone I know so wasn't prepared to post before without knowing if it was true. If you noticed Hans' pit area it was pretty sparse in the pits with no usual pit board etc so can only wonder if most of his equipment for the meeting was on board the van, particularly if he was riding a league bike in the meeting. Seems like exceptional circumstances in this case.

Happy travelling BFD, hope you have a great time.

You still out in Aus BFD? Shouldn't you have started swimming by now? There's a cool brewski with your name on it for the 8th July.

Thanks for that. I know he was over in the UK reasonably recently and had some second halfs with a similar team around the country.

See you at Poole!

Tragic news to hear. It didn't sound good from the earlier reports... How cruel this sport can be.

As I said in my earlier post, this event does get better financial backing for the riders. I was told all that was covered but can't remember it all, and wouldn't post half stories. It just seems people are getting all indignant about the lack of the 5th rider, and apportioning blame before knowing the facts. I know from involvement with Bren how difficult it is to juggle all the commitments for these youngsters, more so than for the more senior riders with their full time paid mechanics etc. Easy to say that riders should be dropping anything for a call-up but sometimes the logistics make that unrealistic however much the rider themselves might want to do it. Tigger...believe most riders would've been in Germany for practice yesterday. Perhaps if Mitchell was a late replacement call-up to cover for an injured rider he was given dispensation to miss practice and fly directly out there?

Fair enough...I wasn't sure when Mear had withdrawn. Just playing Devil's advocate here, but it's easy to blame the authorities, but consider perhaps that any riders asked weren't interested in going...these trips don't come cheap to get those bikes and mechanics out there.