HenryW

Actually, Smolinski didn't qualify. He finished 10th in the GP Challenge, but was picked as first reserve which would have given him a place when Greg retired...

Indeed. They finally changed their requirements after I'd made that post and also after I'd ordered a test to bring with me

I don't know if he has any involvement in Sweden, but he certainly spent time earlier this year at a kids training camp in Gdansk, giving some advice and coaching alongside Tai Woffinden.

Yeah, if it is ties on aggregate Wroclaw win. But surely still the chance of a 5-0 or am I missing something?

Edinburgh have just arranged Championship play off meetings on the Friday and Sunday. I presume that has forced their withdrawal.

I thought Jason Crump was supposed to be in this team. Has he had to withdraw for some reason?

There are still a good number of riders that race in the UK who also race in other leagues around Europe. Sure, there aren't many doing Ekstraliga and UK, but Polish lower leagues and the Swedish and Danish leagues still have a good few racing over here.

Frederik Jakobsen definitely leaving Gniezno to take on a bigger challenge, which presumably means a step up to Ekstraliga. He had offers for this year but turned them down. Wonder where he'll end up?

People are saying that proper race tracks should be used, but based on other meetings I have seen from there, Daugavpils IS a proper race track. I have never seen it in such an awful condition as it was this weekend. The league meetings this year have had far better conditions. I know that many years ago I was moaning about the dull racing at a GP in Daugavpils that had just happened. I was told by a former rider who had been there that when they arrived at the track on the Friday morning it looked brilliant and they were expecting a great GP...then the BSI team got to work on the track. Did the same thing happen this weekend??

Unless you are flying to an airport in Scotland. Seems like the Scottish Government are retaining that test

Ukraine choosing to leave their top man out of their last race was certainly interesting. It was almost like they wanted to help Latvia get through

I think you might have got a bit carried away with a love of Hungary or some nostalgia there... Zoltan Adorjan made it to the World Final three times, 1985, 1989 and 1990. His best finish was 14th (15th and 16th for the other 2). Sandor Tihanyi made it to the World Final once, in 1988. He finished 15th. I think Antal Kocso is the Hungarian that has actually had the best World Final result so far with his 11th in 1988, but I'm not convinced by my memory there, so wait to be told about some better Hungarian... However, the mid to late 80s seemed like a good time for Hungarian speedway. As a nation on the other side of the "iron curtain" they had comparatively good access to "Western" equipment and seemed to have good support in their home Nation...then the "iron curtain" fell and the financial situation in Hungary collapsed. In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, Jozsef Tabaka seemed like the best prospect from Hungary since Robbie Nagy, but sadly he didn't quite make it.

SoN is Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th October.

Dan finished ahead of Robert in both the SEC series and the GP challenge this year, so I'm not sure if it's fair to say he is well behind, unless you just mean in terms of GP experience.

I agree with you about Zmarzlik, and TRick being the previous genius. Nothing against Artem, but I'd rather watch Bartek than Artem...Much respect to Artem that he has upped his level this year, though! As for Tai...He's just not quite there at the moment, but I'm not sure that you can really bash his "nation"...He almost certainly wouldn't have at least one of his World titles without being "from" that nation.

And this is where the sport in the UK has completely lost the plot and made itself look stupid. Guests, guests, guests... A member of the local rivals team helps as a guest. What an absolute joke. How can you expect fans to have any true passion for their team when it includes a member of their biggest rivals? Even more crazy when there is a member of the Monarchs team from this season sitting doing nothing that could have filled that place instead of a Tiger! And that's before we even get into the doubling up here and racing in other leagues abroad, which sees pretty much every team have "rival" riders that are team mates somewhere else...It takes so much away from the competitive team element. Is it really still a team sport at this point? Or just a bunch of individuals pulling on a random race suit/jacket each night?

Dragging up an old thread to ask a question that I asked in some team threads earlier in the year but never saw an answer... Does anyone know what the visa rules are for riders that are from EU nations now? I had another search online but couldn't find details for this year...What experience/ability does an EU rider require to get a visa to race in the UK leagues now?

I'm sure he'll probably do a pretty good job over here but calling him one of the top riders in Liga 1 seems a bit over the top. He's 5th in his team's averages (a team that didn't make the play offs) and 39th in the league averages.

In the Championship you can use a 3* rising star to replace a missing 1*, as long as you had space to fit a 3* in your original team declaration. Several teams have taken advantage of this during the year. Obviously, this being speedway, it doesn't mean that rules will be the same in the higher league.

Charlie Venegas is still racing in the USA, aged 54. He was around a 5 and a half point man last time he raced here a few years back in 97. Surely must have improved with all the extra experience since then Or there's Bart Bast who is the same age. He was only a 5 point man last time he was over in 89...but that's even more years of experience since his last UK spell so possibly an absolute bargain average

Torun seem to be getting mentioned a fair bit in relation to Dudek as well, but surely Grudziadz have to be getting involved in trying to sign the likes of Dudek or Sayfutdinov...unless they are happy just being in Ekstraliga and battling to avoid relegation again. Surely Grudziadz won't settle for Bjerre again after this season?

Aren't they already doing it? And have been doing it for years. A good example is the young Russians that they have taken in and helped develop...Sayfutdinov, Laguta, Kulakov, Tarasenko, amongst others. The young Danes and Swedes go to Poland as soon as they are a good enough standard for the lower leagues. You'll have seen far more young Danes starting in Polish leagues than British leagues in recent years. Luke Becker got his European start in Poland because he was refused a work permit for the UK. Similar for Lidsey, Gilmore, McGuiness, Rew, Bowes, etc from Australia.

Yes. They have allowed their security certificate to expire...a fairly basic and embarrassing thing to mess up.

I could be wrong, but I thought both of them had just turned 20 this month, so would still be eligible for the Junior positions next year.

Possibly a bit harsh, as Rob has said on twitter that he wasn't offered a place.