HenryW

Might have been a different story if every point counted like it used to. To me it looked like Zmarzlik was content to press without taking any risks.

Laguta 50 Less Madsen 50 More

Members of the squad and a backroom staff member tested positive for the virus. Czech FA wanted to postpone. UEFA said no. Czechia sound like they will now be using a reserve squad and staff on Monday. Edit - Actually the report I read about players testing positive seems wrong. They are just self isolating after being in contact with the staff member who was positive.

Seems like you have made your decision but I thought I'd just add in my agreement with the previous comments. If your Dad has trouble walking any distances then getting a taxi direct from the airport in Bydgoszcz is definitely the best option. Speak to the drivers and agree a price rather than going by the meter, though.

I know lots of people dislike him for some reason (maybe because they can't understand the accent) but I'd love Havvy in there to give some opposite opinions. Am I the only one who thinks Magic is a complete GT that looks just as confused as Laguta when chasing? How many times do you see him fumble it and almost run over a back wheel before working out a passing line?

I'm assuming that they have had a massive number of cancellations due to covid... I'll be well grumpy if we find that we can't get in on Saturday due to overselling.

2 nights in a row I've gone less on the GP winner...People who want to make money might want to follow my hopeless bets Edit - should say that I put real money on Janowski after doing my picks here and last night's failure...so I'm kinda happy

So GM could provide a 550 to a rider and he would take no punishment? Or King could provide a noisy silencer to a rider and he would take no punishment? That would be a dodgy road to go down...

Yep, that sounds like it'll be swept under the carpet. Anlas paid BSI so they can do what they want

Or if it is found that the Anlas tyres are not as homologated, those using them could be 5hit out...Or will that all just be swept under the carpet as they are a series sponsor?

Probably want to get all 16 on track together in one or two very long races as well if the aim is to bring it in line with other motorsports. That would probably be a crazy idea, though, as speedway is fairly unique...which is why having a unique scoring system makes sense as well.

Janowski 50 LESS Iversen 50 MORE

R+R must be feeling proud that his pen and paper are now the equivalent of a supercomputer

Yeah, it's lucky they had this new scoring format or there might have been a lot more focus on the tyre issue It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do for tonight.

Same here. I've worked with a good few Poles in recent years and they might not actually have been fans of the sport (generally weren't, being from non speedway cities), but they certainly knew what the sport was and who Gollob was...I'm not sure that I would believe that someone selling motorcycling badges in Poland would not know the sport...but, hey, someone else's anecdote is as valid as mine, so maybe it's true

1 round on and already my prediction has been blown out of the water.... I'm not sure what is worse...my failure to predict that Czestochowa would be absolute mentalists and screw themselves over, or my failure to predict a week ahead of time that ZG would implode against Wroclaw, despite the fact that I told some friends that Wroclaw was a good value bet at ZG just before the meeting Zielona Gora really look like they are in trouble now...I'm hoping that their new signing, Kulakov, will drag them into the playoffs, but it's a tough task for someone that doesn't have much experience on Ekstraliga tracks...

It's one of those horrible situations for the new media world and how the laws are out of touch with modern times.... I'm not sure if this fits with this instance, but music rights holders have a bunch of automated systems that check for their music being illegally uploaded to sites like YouTube (Google)...If they detect anything they send in an automated takedown request, and if Google ignore it they are liable, so obviously Google act to block the "offending" video rather than face a lawsuit from one of the big media companies. That puts the onus of proving no legal issue on the little uploader, rather than forcing the big media company to prove it has been used incorrectly before it is taken down...Something that really doesn't sit right with me.

Jordan Palin saying on twitter that he has been selected to compete in the World U21 Final. Is this in place of Dan Bewley or am I misreading something?

Madsen - 50 LESS Laguta - 25 LESS

That's actually quite difficult to do. You would need a bunch of timing loops in very close proximity at the start line...Although, thinking about it, that would be far easier for a sport like speedway where everyone lines up together, rather than most motorsports where there is a staggered start. I've had the same thoughts before and I kinda like it and also dislike it at the same time To me, that is more an option if there isn't a technical solution for determining a jump start... I can definitely see the appeal of just letting a potentially false start go and handing out a time penalty at the end of the race, rather than the current situation where a ref pulls back a race and then admits that he got it wrong...

Yeah, exactly...it's not rocket science. It's not like the transponders even need to have any remote activation as the transponders are reporting back to a base. The base just needs to be looped into the starting mechanism so that it knows when the tapes were released and after that it's not difficult to do the calculations... Of course, transponders aren't the answer to everything. I have seen races where the initial transponder result shows a winner, only to be overturned when the photo finish has been examined...At high speed a slight difference in placement of the transponder can make a relatively big difference. The chances of that at the speeds of speedway are probably fairly slim unless there is some very poor placement of transponders....and even in those situations, they would always be much better than some old bloke fumbling with a stopwatch.

I'm surprised Zagar wins on Saturday, but good effort from him.

I'm late to this chat and am intrigued by this comment. Semi-professional leagues? Is that about the UK in the 80s or am I misunderstanding? If it IS, does this mean that riders like Bruce, Erik and Hans have lesser World Titles than modern riders? Despite being a huge fan of Emil, he has less SGP wins than Leigh, so I'm scratching my head at this comment. I'll add a suggestion for best that never won, which I expect will get little love....Jarek Hampel. The boy was a regular near the top of the averages in Poland but, like Tommy K, suffered badly from injuries at the wrong time and missed a few seasons due to an excess of Polish riders already in the series, so no wildcards for him.... Emil had 3 years out of the GP series...2014, 15 and 16. 2014 he had a slightly better average than Tai in the Ekstraliga, but Tai came 4th in the SGP series that year. The only year that Emil missed where Tai won was 2015. Tai was 2nd in the Ekstraliga averages that year while Emil was 12th. Polish league averages obviously don't tell us everything, but I'm not sure that Emil was the best any year where he sat out the GP series. Ekstraliga averages suggest he was at, or close to, his worst those years... I'm really confused about what has been said about tickets for Torun. We have tickets for Saturday and will be trying to buy for Friday too...but I'm really not sure how it will work with the crowd restrictions currently in place....Unless there has been a massive number of cancellations from tour groups from various Nations, like Travel Plus, which has meant that Saturday is around the acceptable 50% limit...

I'm confident that it hasn't. The old man has still got a whole load of points left in him...Just a bad night at the office, and sadly ZG had no backup when he had a rare off night...MJJ and Lindback need to sort themselves out sharpish or ZG will be outside the playoff positions come the end of the regular season. It's fairly irrelevant what the helicopter cost as it was paid by sponsors rather than the club, but it definitely made the difference tonight. Interesting that Chris had a relatively low score for Torun today...Seems that his best bikes might have been headed to his "guest" team rather than his "real" team. Lucky for him that Batchelor was dreadful or the Torun fans might very well have been asking big questions. Don't forget that difference that advances in safety and medical care have made. I am sure a few of those that still keep going later wouldn't be if it wasn't for those two...Some because they suffered injuries that they previously wouldn't have come back from and some because they don't see the same risk as there was in the past. I'm really surprised that no-one has picked up Viktor Kulakov. Zielona Gora could do worse than give him a try. I'm not sure about the rules and whether there is any limit on the number of riders that can be taken from 1 team (the rest of the Torun top 5 are already guesting in the Ekstraliga), or even if Viktor WANTS to try Ekstraliga this year, but he was top of the Liga 1 averages last year and is only just marginally behind Jack Holder at the top this year. He's a tidy little rider and could surely do a job for some Ekstraliga team that has foreign riders not delivering *cough* ZG *cough* Alex did a fine job covering for you. As someone mentioned earlier, it would be great to have you both doing comms together...get some discussion going rather than 1 man trying to fill all the gaps alone.

The new signing, Härtel, hasn't quite delivered the points that they might have been expecting