rabbit

Does look a good line-up! At least the chance of prima-donna withdrawals from the meeting is limited with these guys.

Thanks Swift Saint...why do I feel I should call you Saint Malcolm? Looks a handy line-up even at this stage. Plenty of entertainers in there for sure and a definite visit to Hoddesdon planned. Would love an open meeting with all the top NL guys down here instead of the Blue Riband, but this will do more than nicely.

A forlorn hope...but wondering if there was any hint of a line-up yet for the NLRC on the 26th at Rye House? The PL have announced theirs, but I haven't seen anything yet about the more interesting event a day earlier? Anyone out there with the skinny on the news?

Let you have that one then...must admit I'm usually only listening with one ear to the commentary, it just sounded suspiciously like a 't' to me. But then I am from Dorset and pronounce 'v's as 'b's so I can't talk.

But then he pronounces Pedersen as Petersen. Think he's a bit confused.

Says all you really need to know about the GP when there's more comments on the start girls assets than the racing. Highlight (if you could call it that) was watching Nicky P blow his nose in his paper towel and then proceed wipe his face with it. Loverly....

Rob's got it - A31 from Poole, onto M27, join the M3, turn off for Newbury up the A34 before joining the M40. Then off at Jct 15 near Warwick onto the A46 - it's dual carriageway or motorway from about 5 miles outside Poole to the TGI Friday's roundabout a mile or so from Brandon. That and Oxford are (were!) always two of the easiest tracks to get to and Coventry is even easier now that the Chieveley road works have been done and it's a seemless journey through where the old roundabout and lights used to be. Give it a try...you'll be surprised!

Three or four? From Dorset? Ashie - you should able to do Coventry in 2 to 2 and a half hours easy from down here. I'd think you're taking the scenic route if you're taking 3-4 hours to get there

As others have said, the best pair did win, having looked a class above through the qualifying heats. Impressed as others have been all season with Craig Cook. Can't wait to see him around the Wimborne Rd track tomorrow. Some nasty looking crashes throughout the evening and hope all riders aren't too battered and bruised today ...bit naughty of Mr Simmonds with his payback comments towards Mark Baseby, we don't need that in the sport. Can't complain about the Buccs performance...second was a fine effort and at one point i thought we'd struggle to make the final until Buzz's untimely exit from the meeting more or less gave us a chance in our last outing - Herne was on top form but just needed to appreciate the concept of team riding there a little more last night. Overall, an entertaining meeting spent in great company and very nice to meet Ancient Mariner. Stll can't decide what the biggest highlight of the evening was...Lucifer Sam in his canary outfit, or Arnie in his shorts.

Looking forward to making the trip over to the Island for this one tomorrow- the line-up looks strong, and how nice not to have to be worrying about which riders will pulling out because of continental commitments! Hope to catch up with a few people there tomorrow, Leigh, Parsloes, Lucifer Sam (might even bring my Oxford pen for old-times sake! ) Certainly going to be a lot warmer than my last visit there, that's for sure... Edited for spelling!

Meeting improved as the track settled, and great to see the mighty Glob on top form. Just a shame the championship seems done and dusted already. Can totally understand peoples' frustrations about the switch to the red button. Would've been seething if we'd been out and recorded it, as hadn't seen this thread prior to the meeting and wouldn't have known a thing about the change. Guess from Sky's point of view, in addition to the commercial considerations people have already posted, there are probably also far more lucrative advertising revenues available from bigger companies for tennis than speedway. A no-brainer for the number crunchers making the decisions sadly.

Nice one guys! Something to finally smile about in this season. Decent meeting, some good racing and it'd have been a brave man to call the result from the 4 teams in the semis.

What's wrong with Stead prompting him to pull out of the meeting?

I liked this! Congrats to Nigel and his wife on their new arrival.

Moley rocks...always gets a cheer in the rabbit household. We reckon he should be up for the BSPA presidency

Dearie me...don't some people get wound up by silly things. As others have said, he's grown up with these guys and was probably just helping out his mates. I just knew as soon as I saw him that some people were going to get all indignant. As long as he gives 100% (or is it 110%) when he's riding for our national team, he can be in the Aussie pits wearing a bleedin' kangaroo suit and singing Waltzing Matilda for all I care!

Yep, great job by the Sky team today. Thought Charlie has done exceptionally well anchoring the meeting - fronting to camera and being a roving reporter, and the Kelvin/Loobie duo commentating were great. I like Nigel P also, but this team definitely worked today. As for Charlie approaching riders, that's what she's told to do...thought she showed professionalism holding back when she could see riders busy/team talking and most seem to give her the time when they can. Anton was obviously struggling with bike issues at the time he said no - it's an important meeting so you can't blame a rider for wanting to sort that stuff first.

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!