HenryW

6:40 train home???? You'll be up for a late night in the pubs and clubs then, I presume I will not envy you when I slope off back to my comfortable bed at the Radisson knowing you have the delights of PKP ahead of you!! As for your "beloved beer"...dunno how you can drink that stuff. I'll stick with the Zywiec, thanks!

In answer to your "Whoooo????"...Mattia Carpanese, who races for Montello, and Daniel Tessari of Lonigo. Both raced for Italy in the World Cup this year. Sad to see how low a once great nation has sunk when someone like Bunyan can win their title 3 times in a row. Others that were due to race were : Andrew Aldridge, Andrew Bargh, David Bargh, Kyle Best, Aaron Cronin, Paul Habib, Jason McKay, Mitchell McHardy, Jamie Moohan, Jade Mudgway, Craig Ramsey, Filip Sitera, Lance Stott, Kody Tocher and Darrin Wilson... Andrew Bargh finished fourth in the final, BTW. Certainly doesn't seem to be any reason for this being in the Elite section. The International section would seem to be much more appropriate...

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying that it was a bad decision.... I am bloody thankfully that I don't have to worry about Ryanair for that trip as well... As for the original subject, Poznan, I would be quite happy to take in their meeting on the Sunday after Bydgoszcz if there wasn't anything massive EL-wise in the immediate area....and B52 hasn't bought too many crazy shots after the GP to make me feel ill the next day

Interestingly, the original plan for Rico and I had us travelling to Bydgoszcz to take in the Torun match before heading for the GP in Wroclaw....Somehow we ended up going from the biggest meeting of the day with, no doubt, the most amazing crowd to the smallest meeting of the day with probably just us in attendance....assuming that Krakow are even still running by then!

No point borrowing two sets of kevlars, I would feel obliged to continue my role as Rico's mechanic, so no chance for me to race...I'll be there if you need me Rico, although I would still refuse to get my hands dirty.

So, has it been confirmed that this is the only addition that Rybnik have made to their squad since being elevated to the EL? Things don't look good for a competitive 8th team in the league this year. You just have to hope that Gafurov and Gizatullin can bring their Russian form to the Polish league!

Maybe just better with her spelling, and worked out that "Mr N" didn't fit in too well with the name Chris Jewkes

As discussed with Mateusz on Saturday night, their move to the EL has already got me thinking about a quick trip out to watch them in action at some point this season...It seems like the easiest way to see how Denis gets on against serious opposition.

I think that you are probably spot on with that statement...but so far this forum has only had one side, so it seemed worthwhile providing the other side so that people could decide where the middle ground was As for Ironside's comments....not sure what track you were watching Roo race on when he was with the Monarchs, but I didn't think it was slick!!!

I hope that Lynette doesn't mind me posting this here...obviously I will delete this post if I hear that she was unhappy with the copying of it, but as BritPete says, "There are always two sides..." and the forum was clearly missing one side... From here on, it's all Lynette : Well, it has taken a lot of restraint so far on my behalf to restrain myself from actually blowing a gasket after reading the most slanderous, one-eyed fact-less piece of written verbal garbage in my entire life. - and will firstly clear it with you that Im Rory's mother. As Rory is still in Australia at the present and no doubt he will read this utter tosh, he will certainly be responding personally to this so called pathetic pencil scriber who obviously trying to portray his skills as a professional journalist in this comic strip, after quitting the sport. He certainly has tainted Rory and other riders with such colourful distinguished language in what can only be regarded as bringing the world of professional journalists into disrepute which has obviously been written by a compete amateur with no guts or credentials to actually come face to face with these riders to ascertain factual information. I'm not going to get into a slanging match here with anyone, especially the likes of the 3 people with whom have made such derogatory remarks of such magnitude to bring down and taint our sport of speedway, and in doing so, clearly demonstrating a smear campaign against Rory and others to destroy their careers and credibility. To you RC, out of 16 riders in the field, only one rider was dressed and ready to practice at Gosford - I think his name was RORY SCHLEIN. To you RC, Rory was looking forward to Gosford, a small, wet, muddy and heavy track (Rory's favourites) and where he has had most of his successes having ridden in Scotland most of his British career, so coming up against Todd was a very poor excuse for cancellation. Grow Up! To you RC, if you had the common decency to actually find the time to talk to Rory, something you have been relunctant to do over the years, you might actually get some truth and an honest answer. There are two sides to every story and it is clear this article is full of huge holes at your convenience to sensationalise a very weak excuse for a story. To DT, MP and RC, let me say that it was Mr Ivan Golding, Race Director of the series who in fact CANCELLED the meeting in a "DUTY OF CARE" to the riders. It was not the riders who cancelled the meeting and if the conditions were safe for racing, the meeting would have certainly gone ahead. This was not the case! Also, factual information received that racing could have been done on the Friday after 4pm (after the dogs) but Management declined, so who let who down. I see a very different picture which Im not about to go into. Rain offs are a fact of life, so get on with it. Rory had about 18 rain offs at Belle vue in 2004. We know what it's like, it called weather conditions and not the fault of the riders. I could elaborate further and paint a very different picture of events but will not stoop to the levels you have, to do so. It happened, get a life and get on with it. And yes!, one of Australia's finest cricketers Steve Waugh was in attendance and he actually took time out last year and this year to spend time with Rory chatting over the disappointment to everybody concerned but hey, when it comes down to the facts, he understands, rain, bad light, they walk, in front of many more thousands of paying fans. Dont use Steve Waugh and his family in your piss poor argument for the sympathy vote. It wont work! Just may be someone in the Management area used some "skills" to make a decision in the first place and the predicament wouldnt have occurred but then the riders wouldnt have got the blame and no story. This meeting was called off long before the crowd was advised, so once again the management failed the public in advising the situation, not the riders but they continued to allow the public through the gates. On a final note Mr RC, it has always been a saying in this world, that today's news is tomorrows fish & chip paper but in your case - TODAY'S NEWS IS TOMORROWS RECYCLED TOILET PAPER but rest assured, I wont be wiping my a----- with it because I only use the best! I said before I started to write this reply, that I would never stoop so low to your level of expression but hey, you deserve it and please dont respond to me as you utterly disgust me as a human being for your total lack of respect and wish nothing more to do with you. The riders were right and have nothing hide. There is more to this story than is being portrayed in this callous article. To justify my comments, you only have to ask those spectators in attendance. Ive had phone calls from Brits who followed the series and cant believe the bullrubbish that has been written and are totally disgusted to how someone can write and slander riders in such a way without cause. Finally, to those people who know Rory, what he is about, his dedication, his love for the sport, your colourful descriptive and alleged actions DO NOT ADD UP Rodney! You need to put into place immediately DAMAGE CONTROL what you have done in placing non-factual rubbish throughout the world about Australian speedway and its riders in SRN and you can take full responsibility for that. CONGRATULATIONS, ON A JOB WELL DONE. NOT!

It'll be good to see you back again B52. I trust that you have made more sensible travelling arrangements this time? The Edinburgh contingent is starting to look quite strong for this year's most important GP. Who are the others that you are bringing with you? I'm sure the newcomers won't be disappointed with what is on offer during SGP weekend in Bydgoszcz.... As for the shots...won't you be buying them again after another big win? Get your money on PePe this year, though, rather than Tomek

I don't think is any different from how it used to be. In days gone by, Britain had x places in the FIM qualifying rounds and it was entirely up to the British authorities to decide how those places were filled. They chose to do this through the British Final, but other Nations simply selected the riders they wanted to represent them. I find it strange you say that British Final has become all but meaningless. Do you not think that being crowned our National Champion is worth anything?

I could be wrong, but I believe that the 3 qualifying rounds have a certain number of places allocated for each nation, just as the qualifying rounds had in the "old days". It is up to the individual national federations to nominate the riders that they want to represent them in these meetings. How the federations select these riders is entirely up to them. They can hold qualifying rounds including every possible rider, or they can just nominate who-ever they like...just like it was in the "old days" Personally, I am quite confused as to why these meetings have been introduced again. With all due respect to Tomasz Chrzanowski, his inclusion in the 2005 series proved that BSI were right to bin the qualifiers in the first place...

So...Zielona Gora are being offered first chance at an Extraliga position....but after they have already released their star rider, Nicki Pedersen because they were not allowed to use him in the first division in 2006....Oh dear!!!

In response to the initial suggestion by barrow boy : If a rider wins all 5 of his races and then has an exclusion or engine failure in the semi final, you send him home with 12 points. In the current scoring system he goes home with 15. The losing semi finalists are given their meeting points to encourage them to race for as many points as possible during the 20 heats, rather than just settling for a low qualifying score. I also don't like the suggestion of having semi finals and finals that do not count towards the World Championship. Can you imagine how ridiculous it would look if a ride won every GP round but didn't win the World title? They could maybe consider dropping the winners points from 25 back down to 20 to keep things closer, but really we saw a freak season last year where Tony completely dominated everyone else. That's not likely to happen too often. Basically, I am saying that I think they have things set up pretty well for the current format, but I'd still rather have the old knockout system!

Ooh! Harsh on the taxi driver. In fairness, I think that the choice to take the taxi to Torun was still a good one, despite the rather erratic driving we experienced. We arrived in Torun a good few hours before we would have done if we had waited for the train...

Nice one Papa B! I remember that tray well...and there were only six of us to drink them as well! LW...I have no idea of the content of those little blighters, Rico might be able to assist with that information...he bought them! I do recall that there was a similar tray provided by another Edinburgh native the year before...seems to be a tradition now

Lol...I'd accept Bjarne, but I really don't care for his style...Can we say that I performed like PePe? Usually good at the start, but tend to worry about what's behind me too much, and have a tendancy to fall over every now and then when it's least expected...and most importantly, drops out when it comes to the crunch I worry about what we could see this year if we tell The Doctor that it's a competition that is being scored

As mentioned earlier, the tickets didn't go on sale until very near the date of the event last year. I'm sure that Mateusz, or one of the other Bydgoszcz locals, will post here as soon as they are available this year...just keep an eye on the SGP area of the forum.

Not convinced that he started the PR stunts...at worst you could say that he was asked why he left the club and he gave his reasons. I guess that Czestochowa could maybe just say that they were giving their side as well. One suspects that the "stunts" were, as usual, instigated by the press and both sides would be well advised to walk away now...as you say, very inelegant.

It certainly seems like a damning indictment of Mr Holta that his former club have prepared. As they say, there are always two sides to every story, and I think that it would be interesting to hear Rune's retaliation, but I suspect that this will not be put into the public domain. Some things are better left alone, and Rune would probably be well advised just to walk away with his head held high and forget about the PR stunts that his former club are throwing out.

I think that we can be sure that Rune really wasn't feeling that his life was under threat. As Leliwa stated earlier, he appeared in Czestochowa with the fans after these "threats" surfaced, so probably Rune did just put them down to "keyboard commandos" in Poland. It seems that for some reason Rune has some problems with one other rider, and the Czestochowa promotion decided that they would rather have this other rider in the team this year. Of course, these are the public statements made by Rune....privately, maybe he just finally realised that it was safer to race in the same team as Nicki than against him!

As Grachan says, just click on the race number. Be sure that the race you are selecting has been held. The sites have upcoming events listed as well, but obviously the videos for those aren't available yet. The dates are shown on the left hand side in American format. The top row of race numbers just shows the last lap or two. The lower row shows the whole race. Anyone wanting to watch some live early morning "speedway" action can watch the meetings from Kawaguchi, Iizuka and Hamamatsu tomorrow morning. The event will be running from 10:10 to 16:50 Japanese time at the various tracks, which I think makes it 01:10 to 07:50 in the UK. To access the live transmissions, just go to the track links provided earlier and select the left hand tab at the very top of the page... Edit : forgot to mention, once you are in the "live" page for a track, there are buttons to take you to the other track's live pages so you can easily switch between venues if multiple are running on the same day. The schedule for the next few days is : 5th Jan : Kawaguchi, Iizuka, Hamamatsu 6th Jan : Funabashi 7th Jan - 9th Jan : Funabashi, Sanyou 10th Jan : Sanyou 11th Jan - 13th Jan : Kawaguchi 14th Jan - 18th Jan : Isesaki

Would ZG be offered the place if Gdansk have defaulted, or would the E-Liga just go with one less team? It would seem very unfortunate if ZG got offered the place after letting Nicki leave...

You can see the full race programs for each of the tracks at the following locations : Funabashi Hamamatsu Iizuka Isesaki Kawaguchi Sanyou The meetings are streamed live, and you can bet online, then the races are kept for subsequent viewing for a few weeks.