arnieg

My best translation is "Support" or "Apprentice" Riders Training Championship There were nine rounds at four tracks (Rawicz, Ostrow, Gniezno, Grudziadz) and Adrian Gala topped the scorecharts with Bartosz Smektala second. Dominik Kubera at only 15 rode in three rounds. Incidentally Smektala (who turned 16 towards the end of the season) was the biggest improver in the world this year according to Dolgin's rankings (see other thread in this section)

Are you sure? Latvia are weaker than Lokomotiv Daugavpils (basically the weakest three Latvians replaced by Schlein, Kylmakorpi and another) who are weaker than Doyle, Harris, Nicholls, Ljung, Bridger, Sowka, Gala (their collective Polish League 1 averages from last year are more than six points greater than those of Lokomotiv Daugavpils) who are (marginally) weaker than Woffinden, Harris, Nicholls, King, Bridger, Stead, Cook which looks remarkably close to 2014 Team GB's best line-up Agree wholeheartedly

A bit of an exaggeration given that Latvia only have six professional speedway riders (three of whom are pretty underwhelming performers in Polish League One). Latvia's seventh best rider is probably Dave Krumis, a 16 year old kid who would probably be National League reserve standard. Latvia would be stronger in second/third heat leader positions and have performed incredibly well given their limited resources, but I do think you are over-egging your argument.

Don't be so negative Would you not agree that it represents considerable progress on 2011 when Team GB finished behind Germany in the European Under 19 Semi Final. I too would be very disappointed if we didn't enter the under 21 World Team Cup. And we really ought to be entering riders in the World and European under 21 competitions. Not competing in the Onesport Pairs is a statement to the world that we've given up, but the FIM-Europe Pairs is a bit of a mickey mouse event, but maybe we should use it to get younger riders more continental experience.

And not tears of joy. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic

Er...! They did And they did quite well coming just three points behind an Australian team featuring Nick Morris and Max Fricke http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/wjtc14.htm Of last year's team only Garrity will no longer be eligible.

Happened at Reading for the World Cup Final in 2006. The (normally closed) back straight stand was reopened with dedicated stewarding and a strict capacity limit

So at 26 you are young enough for the 'fast track' but too old to double up between NL & PL!

Surely the Czech Premier League is their 'second' division, usually referred to as "1 Liga" I took the various news stories on speedwaya-z to mean that the Czech Extraliga would be expanding from three to four teams (with Mseno the returning club) and that Liga One (contested by 5 teams over 10 four team tournament meetings in 2014) would be replaced by a series of individual meetings with a team element introduced by aggregating the top scoring riders from each team. Czech speedway is another country that is seeing a marked reduction in the number of riders (most evident in their under 21 championship which how features several foreign riders).

A very difficult watch I have no doubt the speedway community will rally round and that the testimonial will be a tremendous success All the best to Ricky and his family

Thank you for the clarification. That seems like a reasonable proposal (seems like a case of Chinese whispers - we read different things into the headline proposal and ended up debating something different!)

So what happens if the visiting number one is taken ill en route and the home team can't or won't provide a number 8?

But it is precisely because people fail to ask such basic questions that we end up with so many unworkable rules. Any new rule needs to stand three basic tests: 1) what is it intended to achieve? 2) how does the rule change meet that objective? 3) what are the unintended consequences? I know the answer to number one, but this proposal falls miserably short on the other two.

So what happens if a team turns up with no number 8? Do we get to see three 3 rider races? How many times will Lane Cuppit travel 100+ miles, change into his leathers, watch the meeting and then get changed again without having turned a wheel?

One thing is perfectly clear... ...that everything is as clear as mud. I think the BSPA owe us a statement.

Congratulations - an excellent signing. Like David Howe, Lewis Bridger, Savalas Clouting... were compared to Mike Lee! But seriously even though he has only ridden the odd speedway meeting (South Australian Championship three years ago being the most recent I could find) he should turn out to be the real deal. That said when I saw him as a 13 year-old (when he was already being hyped as a future world champion) I was more impressed by a younger rider - whatever happened to Max Fricke?

There was a thread in May (on Newcastle team changes) where it was pointed out that MPT would come back to the PL on his old average of 4.92

for further analysis of the yougov sample see http://www.speedwayp...com/Zebra.shtml

for further analysis of the yougov sample see http://www.speedwayplus.com/Zebra.shtml

Well why didn't you sign him if he was such a steal on that average. The rule that gives Toft a 4.92 average is clear, unambiguous and has been in place for some years. ... whereas Brady Kurtz's average should clearly have been 7.00 - no matter what the voices from Somerset say.

Are you sure? I don't think Kenny Bjerre rode in the Danish Superliga last year, but he rode in GP qualifying rounds on a Danish licence and was seeded to Danish Championship final.

I think that speedway's problems are too deep rooted too be solved by a bit of renumbering

Male over sixty working class see: youGov profiler

Fairly sure Richard is still with us.The "Speedway in memoriam" site erroneously reported him as having died but that was corrected.

But not as good a job as the aardvarks!!