HenryW

I haven't tried to make sense of these figures....are they the riders that were "the worst" or was there more to it than that? If it was just down to "the worst", I appreciate you making an obvious omission from 2006, despite naming Rico who scored 8 more in the same season

Billy and Bjarne dropped out? I think you need to check your facts. Both failed to qualify when they left the series. Billy was offered a place but chose not to take it, so you can have that one. He had a disaster with sponsors that failed to put up the cash promised. Bjarne you can certainly NOT have. He was kicked after his failure. If he wasn't interested he wouldn't have done the qualifiers after losing his place. Take a look at the income difference for Walasek and Ulamek from 2008 to 2009 and tell me the SGP doesn't pay... The payment from the FIM might not be a big deal, but the additional sponsorship from the TV coverage for those that can get it certainly makes a huge difference...

In case any one else would also like to see Darcy's races that day in Latvia, YouTube now has a video with them all.

Definitely the 2nd round that Darcy won in a run off with Max. Maybe I am being harsh on the track. It wasn't wet, but seemed to be causing some of the riders a bit of trouble. Of course, that could also have been the well documented problems with the new silencers on grippy tracks...

Round two was covered by local TV and the full match was uploaded to rapidshare. Links were given by S.B. on the original U21 World Championship thread. Just to make it easier, I have copied it here. Russian Forum Download Links I haven't checked whether they are still active. If they aren't, let me know and I'll sort something out as I have a copy of the match here (although the track is in a terrible state for most of the match, so not the best entertainment).

Nicki has some very good form around Bydgoszcz in the SGP, so it is possible that he might yet make the cut, but I agree that it's pretty unlikely he'll get into the top 8. Even if he does sneak into the top 8, it can only realistically be at the expense of Holder or Harris, and both of them would get the pick if they missed out. I'm not sure that Emil's selection was just based on his 2 U21 titles. With all due respect to Darcy, Emil's performances in all matches during those 2 years was excellent, and far superior to what Darcy has been delivering. Having said that, Darcy clearly has the temperament for the big occasion, and could probably do a good job in the SGP. It sounds like he is happy to rule himself out for another year, a bit like Chris Holder did, and that is probably a sensible decision. Another year to consolidate on what he has already achieved and start to gain more consistency week in week out, not to mention another year to make sure that his organisation and support system is ready for SGP makes sense. Once again, I agree here. I don't think either one has done enough to warrant a pick. Out of the two, Hans would be the one with the best case. He actually had a fairly solid start to the SGP season and was looking good for a top 8 place, if not really a serious contender, before the crash with Nicki in Sweden, and he has constantly been racing injured since then. With the season that Janusz has had, combined with his poor luck in the SGP Qualifier, where he looked the class of the field before his bike failed, it is really hard to overlook him for a place. If I was involved in the selection process, I would give Janusz a place but on the condition that the Polish rounds next year don't necessarily have Polish wildcards in them...4 Poles is more than enough for the local, fans, so give the wildcard to someone like Darcy when the SGP visits Poland. Hmmmm.....One semi final appearance so far with a lowly 7 point score in that round really doesn't suggest that he is worthy of inclusion again. The already dismissed Hans and AJ both have 5 semi final appearances to their name this season, so it would be outrageous if Tai was given a place ahead of them.... Outside of those that you have mentioned, there really aren't any strong contenders. Lee Richardson could have a case, as yet again he has been the best Brit after Chris Harris. The next few that spring to mind as worthy are Poles; Kasprzak, Miedzinski and Balinski, and none of them have any hope of a pick. Then you have guys like Matej Zagar, Bjarne Pedersen, Greg Laguta, Niels Iversen, etc, who again, have little chance of a selection due to their nationality, if nothing else. Of course, this is assuming that none of the riders who make the top 8 retire from the SGP. Rune has suggested he might walk away a couple of times, so it's not inconceivable that this could be his year to give it up. Similarly, Greg might decide that he has had enough of the SGP despite his improvement towards the end of this year. Just mentioning those guys as potential retirees, it made me think....Has any rider other than Hans Nielsen gained a qualifying place and not taken it up in the following season?

Sadly it doesn't look good for live coverage of the final round of the U21s. The Czech TV site has nothing listed for Saturday that I can see The cameras are going to be there to provide live coverage of the Gold Helmet the next day, so it's a shame they aren't doing the big match the day day before as well...

The rules currently state that the first qualified substitute who is available gets the place. PePe has declared himself unavailable for each round since Torun, but has made himself available for the final round in Bydgoszcz. I don't believe he ever formally advised the FIM that he would be taking no further part in the SGP series this year, just advised them he was unavailable when invited for each round. With his ongoing injury problems, it would appear that he has chosen to put his clubs first in recent months. Now that the league seasons are wrapped up he has accepted the place offered.

I don't think he was interested in doing Cardiff, and obviously Emil was due back for the round after that. The appeal of doing one last GP round Bydgoszcz is obviously too much for him to refuse.

I believe that if there is a tie in the Polish play-offs, the team that finished higher in the table during the regular season gets the win...but not 100% sure about that

Another fantastic performance by Sully to clinch the 3rd place. Torun's manager was clearly vindicated in going with LiGlad today. I wonder what they might have done this season if they had used him more often rather than sticking with Darcy for so long... Not one of the greatest matches for racing, but the scores certainly kept it interesting.

Wikipedia has the scores from the first couple of matches on the page for this years title : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Individual_Speedway_Junior_World_Championship Last time the U21 Final was in Pardubice, Czech TV showed it and streamed it on their website. They still have a good selection of matches that they have previously streamed on there, the most recent being the Longtrack from Marianske Lazne on the 20th. So possibly worth checking their site nearer the time http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/podle-data-vysilani/ EDIT - Just checked and their archive of matches goes back a few years, so if anyone wants to marvel at little Emil winning his 2nd World U21 crown in 2008, you can still do it http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/20847129221-motocyklove-zavody/

Don't let Mateusz, or probably any Bydgoszcz fan, hear you saying that...

Well, if he was doing a bit of MotoX, I guess that some on the BSF would call him an idiot, if the Doyle thread is anything to go by....One can only be thankful that he felt sickly before falling off his bike and busting a shoulder

Not at all. I was surprised he was still being listed earlier this week. I completely expected him to step aside and ensure his fitness for Italy.

And it has now been confirmed that Tomek has succumbed to this flu (or some other unspecified disease) and will not be racing at Zielona Gora tomorrow...Not really the biggest shock of the season Home rider Rafal Dobrucki will replace him in the match.

Falubaz have performed well as a team in the play-offs and deserve their place in the Final. However, I suspect that it wont be a joyful occasion for the fans from the Green Mountains. They were hammered both at home and away in the regular season by Leszno, and there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest that it'll be different in the play-offs.

Yep, it's something that I would like to have clarified. It seems that FIM rules don't allow a race to be "awarded" before 4 laps have been completed by at least the race leader. However, from several incidents over the years it seems that it's acceptable to "award" a race result when someone is wiped out late in the race and the leader has crossed the line before the ref puts on the red lights... I don't know if that IS the case, but it certainly seems to be the way that refs over recent years have interpreted it. The suggestion that the race in Vojens should have been declared as Gollob, Zetterstrom and no other finisher is ridiculous. Nicki was clearly wiped out by Freddie while well clear of Zorro, so either the race has to be run again from the start or Nicki gets "awarded" 2nd. The decision of the ref was surely the right one.

Seriously? Is anyone actually paying £40 for Sky Sports? If they are, then they are surely being ripped, cos as far as I am aware, neither Sky or Virgin charge £40 for the Sky Sports package

I disagree entirely. If Ole had been given a chance to work on that track, it could only have been improved...and that says something!

Sorry, a bit off topic, but....At the moment, there are plenty of speedway matches shown illegally on the internet. I wouldn't expect this to continue if the rights owners see a definite decline in subscriptions for their services. They will start to close down these feeds to ensure that people correctly pay to view these events.

Gotta remember that the owner of Torun has already sent out a warning that unless they win against Wroclaw he will be reconsidering the contract of every rider in the team for 2011... So, there is no guarantee that Holder and Ward will be in the Torun team next year

I think I agree here. The Swedish top league has everyone in there as lower leagues are poor. In Poland, the next league down is still pretty good and attracts some of the better riders to race there.

Ghostwalker very kindly provided this link earlier in the thread which suggests that maybe SportoweFakty have a few errors. This one also lets you filter by Nation, which is nice..or maybe not when it lets you see how poor the Brits are http://www.aktuellspeedway.se/1.0.Jostu/index.php?list=leaguestats&id=1&s=2010

Scott has been dreadful in Sweden this year, and has actually dropped to reserve for his team! Lee Richardson is the top Brit in Sweden.