HenryW

Have I missed something? Has there ever been any suggestion that Craig Cook wouldn't want to race for the UK?

Totally agree that this was NOT a World Pairs Final, and the FIM are certainly on our side in that regard! However, I thought you might have been supporting this new lot, considering how much BSI are against them (just joking, btw) In some ways I am happy to see "marketing" companies getting involved in the sport and trying to push the image forward, but I would rather they were brought into the league systems in each country rather than re-inventing more international competitions...

I thought some of the racing was actually really good, certainly better than what gets served up by the Elite League each week. However, that was completely nullified by the poor quality of the presentation. As has been said elsewhere, there was a complete lack of atmosphere and very little enthusiasm from the commentary team...and that's before we even consider the poor intro to the meeting, missed races at the start and then missing the start of a race (which actually looked like it was really good from the replay clips) after a commercial break. I'm not sure about the rest of Europe, but despite not being a "subscription channel" itself, Eurosport is only available in the UK bundled with other TV packages, i.e. Sky or Virgin, it's not available on freeview (digital terrestrial TV)

Nope, that's not it because the meeting has now started

Not to mention the fact that the speedway hasn't actually started, so there is no rush for them to leave the tennis match...

The British National team is surely the top level of British speedway, so anyone racing for Britain is still giving priority to British speedway.

I'm pretty sure you can use your flash all you want at Cardiff. Given the layout of the stands, a flash from a fan camera isn't likely to be in the sightline of the riders. However, given the distance that you are from the track, using a flash is almost certainly pointless unless you have one amazing flash bulb with you...

Thanks for the extra info Tsunami. In conclusion: 1. The rule for doubling up in the UK states the rider must "give absolute priority to all British Speedway fixtures". 2. There is an agreement with SVEMO that states that original published fixtures have priority over rescheduled fixtures. As it is impossible to meet point 1 whilst contracted to compete in SVEMO events, obviously no rider who has such a contract for SVEMO events is eligible for a double up position in the UK. Couldn't be simpler than that. Thanks for clarifying.

Obviously he is correct with those statements, but I wonder why journalists always feel the need to make that comparison. I've seen it so many times where they compare the pinnacle of car racing, which occurs in the UK once per year, with a league meeting, of which there are hundreds in the UK over the year. A better comparison would be with the SGP if taking speedway's top level or stock car racing if taking car racing's "weekly national events".

Sorry. I still disagree. The rule is absolutely clear and actually uses the word "absolute"... The definition of "absolute" can't be argued. It doesn't matter whether the rider would like to give priority. It doesn't matter if the meeting wasn't originally scheduled. Absolute is absolute... If you can't give absolute priority because of other commitments, you can't give absolute priority... As John Leslie suggested, the option of doubling up is about riders who haven't broken out of UK speedway. It's not legally possible to make it a British rider only rule, but the rule that has been put in place is an attempt to keep it restricted to those not stretching themselves across multiple nations....and regardless of how much Ludvig would like to have been at Berwick, he couldn't be there and as the rules are written he should NOT be allowed to double up. You can say it's harsh on him, but the double up rule was never meant for riders like him, so I don't think it would be harsh to cut him off from that option... That is another thing that has sneeked in outside of the originally published rules and I am completely opposed to that as well... Is it really "common sense" that a rider that has signed for a PL club and is doubling up for an EL club can be forced to miss a PL meeting because of when the fixtures were arranged, despite the fact that the rules say that the PL team has priority?

Sorry, no, I completely disagree. The wording of that rule is clear enough to state that mitigating circumstances don't come into it. The rider WILL give priority to British fixtures. If they can't give that priority then they should NOT have a doubling up position. I agree with what John Leslie said, and I suspect the rules were written in the way they were for the reasons he says.... Doubling up should only be available to riders who are 100% committed to UK speedway, no exceptions. If a rider cannot commit to all fixtures in the UK then they should NOT be able to double up...The rule doesn't have wiggle room.

I haven't noticed anyone else replying, apologies if it's already been answered. This meeting was 100 DKK including a program which works out at about £11.50 I think.

Their internet stream is of a pretty good quality though, and completely free. I watched a few of their meetings on my TV last year through the internet stream and it was a perfectly acceptable quality...Obviously not HD standard, but good enough.

According to the FIM supplementary regulations for the U21 meetings, the track is 25m wide on the corners.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that the work permit rules changed a few years ago. Previously there were fairly strict rules that said that a rider had to meet a certain standard and there was no argument about a yes/no decision, as it was based on averages achieved in top leagues or placings in national/state championships....However, the UK government decided to "tighten" up the requirements for a work permit due to the "Daily Mail" perception that there were too many poorly rated immigrants allowed in to take jobs from natives. Now the judgement of merit is placed in the hands of "expert authorities"....For speedway, the BSPA have the say on whether a rider deserves a work permit....As far as I understand things, any rider who wants a work permit just has to please the BSPA rather than have any specific history of results... Having said that, I have also been led to believe that if any official work permit sponsor is shown to be allowing undeserving work permits then they can lose their right to grant any,,,,After the O'Malley appeal and his subsequent failure, it's surely not too much of a shock that the BSPA might have hesitated when being asked to rubber stamp permits for the same club for two riders that had some limited results back in Australia ...

Surely an EL speedway team can sign as many top riders as they want as well...They just need to ensure that their fielded 7 riders need to fit under the average limit at each meeting....If they wanted to pay others to sit on the "bench", then that is fine with the rules.... As I suggested above, I would disagree with this comment. Surely the average system just dictates the strength of the team put out on track...It doesn't dictate the strength of a retained "squad".... There is surely no restraint of trade if riders are being paid a salary and are asked to sit out a meeting because they can't fit into the point limit for a meeting.... The problem is that speedway riders are generally not offered a guaranteed salary whether they race or not...and if someone is not being paid a salary then surely their "employer" should have no claim over them....

I think that there is a minimum average, it's just that it's 2.50 over there rather than 3.

Not a lot they can do if he wants to race elsewhere. Despite the outdated "asset system" in use in the sport, if a rider wants to move away there ain't a whole lot that a team can do other than let him go...

Without wanting to sound dismissive of that fine advice, it would surely help if the governing bodies didn't keep bumping up the costs for the guys that actually slide the bikes on the track....It's surely hard for the riders to keep their pay requests down when every year they are asked to fork out more money for their equipment while the promoters do *bleep* all to deliver them a venue or surface that they can properly show their skills on....

Not sure about that. I was just making an educated guess. I Thought you were going to tell me that they had messed up and put some other stadium on

Is this a trick question? Surely it's a pic of the venue for Monday's meeting, no?

With the move to four man teams this year every rider met each other once by heat sixteen. The last four races were extras just done by scoring order this year. Edit - and my slow typing on the phone saw this become a duplicate answer

Rounding a little bit for each nation, but.... British population - 62,000,000 Danish population - 5,500,000 Damn those crazy Danes and their tiny population for their lack of love for cricket and rugby and so on....

http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/316648/grzegorz-walasek-triumfatorem-zlatej-prilby

Approximately 50%? Really? I must be missing something, as I think 5 out of the top 15 in the final standings this year raced in the UK Elite League, and only 2 of them made the top 8. 5 out of 15 seems some way short of 50%. Whilst the World Champion did race over here, the next best the UK leagues could offer was 8th.