HenryW

Sorry, maybe should have been more clear. I meant that those who travelled to Gelsenkirchen got no speedway at all from their trip. I know a good few people who wasted a lot of money on that weekend, including at least one who wasn't able to take advantage of the "complimentary ticket" offer due to it being restricted to certain rounds the next season. Regardless, I am still incredulous that you are praising a man who oversaw a "rain off" at an indoor arena

That was indeed a scary moment. Very strange that he chose to carry on in the race having headed across the center. Surely he knew he would be excluded and was putting himself at risk for no reason...Unless he was so blinded that he didn't even realise he had left the track But Chris had to get over to Spain to join the boys on holiday tomorrow. He wouldn't have been happy with a restaging on Sunday Are you really praising Ole? The same Ole who was in charge of the Gelsenkirchen fiasco? I am pretty sure I would have been happier being in Gothenburg for this GP and seeing 16 rain affected heats than being in Gelsenkirchen and getting nothing.

I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but I have some concern about how the decisions would be made... One man's poor surface is another man's great surface...How do you determine what a good surface is? Or more accurately, who makes the final decision on whether a surface is good or bad?

Let's not give them a hard time about that. The series has 15 permanent riders in it...Showing only the top 15 isn't a great sin. I'm sure Artem will get himself on the list earlier than Tai would have done last year... (must take note of this post and delete it if Artem doesn't let his brother wear his kevlars in the next few GPs )

I'm not sure that's unusual in ANY major competitive sports league...When things go wrong, the poor excuses appear to try to deflect from the team's failure...Reference Real Madrid manager José Mourinho in the recent Champions League clashes between his team and Barcelona for a good example of that happening at the top level of sport.

To be fair, Greg's done a lot better tonight than his abysmal performance in Gorzow at the weekend.

Heheh...It's a shame that Liga 1 doesn't get some TV coverage. The Gdansk / Bydgoszcz matches should be good this year. The first one is coming up in the next round of Liga 1 matches and the 2nd meeting is just 3 rounds after that...If I had the spare time, I'd be tempted to take in at least one of those matches.

Whatever the track was like, Darky and THJ proved again that they own Liga 1 this year. 10.57 and 10.48...Not bad averages for the young Gdansk spearhead so far this season.

Kamil is a very, very luck boy if he got away from that crash without injury. It looked a nasty hit on the back and head that he took from the following bike, and from the way he flopped around after the hit, I assume he was probably knocked out immediately. TBH, though, the strange way that he fell and then the two falls for Strzelec in the Gorzow match are maybe emphasising that some of these kids aren't ready to be given Extraliga power bikes. I think the Poles maybe need to reconsider their current rules for reserves.

Assuming you mean Tadeusz Kostro, he crashed in heat 1 but wasn't excluded. Unfortunately he was taken to hospital so unavailable for the restart of the race. Edit - ladyluck beat me to it!

Well, I don't fancy the chances of the Gorzow seating surviving this match if the referee carries on like this.

That's surely heading for a record scoreline. I can't ever remember a team only having 4 points after 8 races before

Yeah, Hans is out injured and will not be racing this weekend... As I mentioned earlier, I missed the fact that Hans had dropped out of the top 3 for Gorzow. When Hans was in the top 3 and injured they were a much stronger team without him than with him, as they could use Nicki and Tomek in the ZZ races as well as Zagar and PUK. Now he is out of the top 3, it makes sense to use Mroczka, so I guess he will be in the team against Falubaz. I'm just hoping that Falubaz can rise to the occasion and deliver a win anyway, but I am not overly confident...It should hopefully be a great match with a close scoreline.

Oh dear...does that mean that Kalle got injured? Hopefully nothing serious as Edinburgh need him to be fit and find some form again....Seems like his scoring in the match today fitted with what he has done for Edinburgh so far this year...If Kalle had done what he should have, Finland would surely have qualified. Wondering if Fish CAN step up to a higher level. I doubted it before despite his good scores in the PL in the UK, but maybe he can do it...Obviously the opposition today wasn't great, but he has done much better today than he did in the SWC qualifier last year. Maybe he IS ready to move on to the next level now...and surely the USA need someone stepping up to take over from Herbie.

Oooh....So Greg has returned to the SWC fold? Not sure if it will be enough to get them through, but it's gotta be better than the 4 man team that they were forced to use last year after his late call-off. Sounds intriguing, but I guess us normal fans wont ever hear the real story... If Germany qualified anyway, do you think Kevin would be invited into the team for the "real competition" or is it something that would keep him out of that too?

And impractical. Was it not investigated previously and deemed impossible inside the only stadium in Monaco viable for speedway?

Not sure if I am just living in a dream world, but I think that riding a speedway bike would still have some appeal to kids today if it was something that was relatively easy to get into and something that their mates were doing... If there were training tracks easily accessible to kids, with a minimal expense to use a bike, I think that it would be a popular thing to do...Which kid doesn't like a bit of competitive sport, and how many kids would enjoy chucking a bike around a track if they had a chance? Given the history of the sport in this country, you really have to ask why we don't have better training facilities for kids...Why do Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Poland and even Russia have better facilities than the UK?

Don't even suggest weather problems in Krsko. Surely the big Gorzow v Zielona Gora derby couldn't be run without the great PePe...

Yeah, the guy currently 2nd in the Lites Eastern division, Dean Wilson, is from Scotland...Or alternatively his hometown is listed as Menifee, California or San Jacinto, California if you look at the official AMA website

Would that be the same Jonasson who was the highest scoring wild card last season with the exception of Kolodziej, and the same Jonasson who has qualified 2nd in line for the SGP this year should there be injuries? Looking at scores so far this season, Grigorij Laguta is the stand out rider who surely deserves a wildcard. I guess he is probably unlikely to receive one due to his Nationality, though.

Ahhh...I had missed the fact that Hans had dropped out of the top 3 in their side. I thought that they had just decided to give Mroczka a run out in their "easy" match at the weekend. Losing the ZZ facility for Hans does weaken them significantly, but will it be enough for Falubaz to take advantage? I certainly hope so

TBH, given the fact that none of the main Poles have stayed away from the Swedish League, it seems that the efforts to retain the old silencers in Poland are doomed to failure. You are certainly correct that the Zielona Gora match at Gorzow should be a cracker. I can't imagine Gorzow using anything other than their strongest team for this derby match, so assume that we can expect to see the return of ZZ for Hans. Extra rides for Gollob, Pedersen, Zagar and Iversen probably makes them stronger than with Hans in the team, never mind Mroczka. Those extra outings for the top men could just be the difference between the two sides...

This weekend sees the final team decided for the SWC rounds. The meeting in Landshut on Saturday will provide the fourth Nation for the round in Vojens. Interestingly, the hosts have left Kevin Wölbert out of their squad, going instead with Smolinski, Hefenbrock, Fächer, Stange and Kroner. I would have thought that Kevin would have been a better option than a couple of the riders in their squad, but maybe it's not a track that he favours... Does anyone know who the USA will be using in the match? I haven't seen anything naming their team yet.

The new silencers don't sound quite as bad as some were making out they would, but when you hear a bike with an old silencer on again there is no doubt it's far louder.

Not sure if any of them would be able to get a work permit for the UK. They certainly wouldn't have been eligible a few years ago, but I'm not sure on the requirements now. They have clearly been relaxed given Ilya Bondarenko's appearance in the Premier League this year. However, all three of the top guys for Ukraine, Loktaev, Cukanow and Kobrin are signed to Polish League teams, and Premier League fixtures don't tend to fit around the Polish Leagues as easily as the Elite League fixtures. That's before considering their involvement in the other European Leagues. They are obviously all in the Ukrainian League and some of them will be making appearances in the Russian League, Swedish League, Danish League, etc.