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Mr P will be along soon to explain that Hans Nielsen would have won all ten! He's not far off too be honest, and it is a credible outcome but I'm sure one or two would have escaped him. 85 - 90 Nielsen every time but I am sure that Gundersen would have pipped him somewhere along the line. If everything went to form Gundo would have been second 4 years in a row (and would have been heading for 2nd in 89 ahead of Shawn Moran or Kelvin Tatum before his career ending accident). I think Moran would have been 2nd in 1990 (assuming he wasn't stripped of his position through over-indulgence in cough medicine) 91 Nielsen again with Jonsson second (Jonsson was second to Nielsen in Polish averages and topped Swedish averages with Nielsen second) 92 Per Jonsson in his prime had the tools to beat Nielsen 93 Sam Ermolenko had a fantastic year - he was just superb, as well as topping British averages by some distance he also topped Polish averages with Nielsen 2nd. 94 Would have been back to Nielsen, but Jonsson might have been leading before his accident (Per topped Polish and British averages that season)

This discussion appears to have restarted in the darcy ward thread! The meat of the thread starts at post 56 (lucifersam) and is concisely summarised at post 274 (waitheaces1)

Discussed at length here http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=50265&p=1594656

Masochist!

My word - even more complicated than I'd imagined. and having tried to reconstruct meetings from Rosebank videos on Youtube I can appreciate what a mighty effort that must have been. Much appreciated

Ask me again in 20 years - if Darcy is still in the GPs (assuming that BSI's inability to run a piss up in a brewery hasn't killied them off), and competing for the world title then I might accept that you're claim has some credence.

Philip, Can I suggest a phrase containing the words: holes digging and stop. You appear to be oblivious to how much ill will you are generating. To suggest we need our hand holding while travelling in the EU is somewhat insulting, and to belittle the frustration felt by a group of fans who can and probably do contribute a substantial amount to British speedway by way of sponsorship is foolish.

If he knew about his parents break-up several weeks before, then perhaps the bad news he heard on Saturday was something new? Such as his local bar back in Aus going bust and closing.

He's young with no previous, and we are not talking Balco (organised steroids abuse in baseball) here, and quite possibly inadvertant. I'd have thought a one year ban sufficient.

When I was a youngster fatalaties occured at the rate of more than one a year - and that's just on British tracks. In the last 20 years there has been just poor David Nix. Some things are clearly better now.

It also begs the question of how many riders per race. 12 points from 3 rounds for Bunyan suggests a (4,4,4) score. So was it a 20 rider field with each round consisting of 4 heats of 5 riders. If so were there 5 riders in semi finals? That would at least make sense of the list of 10 riders qualifying for the semis. But we are still left with the mismatch in their identities

And can I thank you for a very comprehensive and useful guide to the possible outcomes.

Post 19 seems to be fair comment. The fixture pile-up situation (and remember it hasn't been a particularly wet summer) is an entirely predictable outcome of more and more riders doubling up and teams being reluctant to re-arrange fixtures with key riders missing. Promoters get slated for agreeing to fixtures when they have riders missing, they get slated for not finding a suitable date - they can't win. BUT they agreed last winter to the explosion of doubling (and tripling) up that has contributed to this. (There are other factors such as the calling off of matches on the strength of slightly iffy forecasts, and a proliferation of situations where guests are not allowed for absent riders [more of an EL problem])

Particularly galling as the introductory remarks promised us that the crucial clash would take place in heat 4. Is it really that difficult to avoid knowing the result? I found no problem.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtxUIDmPdhcXcENIU3hWUHZ3QjhSV2NoZzV1TGpfT3c&hl=ru#gid=0 There used to be a thread on a Ukranian(?) speedway forum with all the underlying detail, but that seems to have vanished. There are weaknesses, for example the over-rating of Americans who don't race in Europe, and a few odd mistakes (Daniel Gappmaier is Austrian not Australian and Jesper Soegaard appears twice [at 235 and 433]). Personally I wouldn't leave retired riders in for as long as he does, and nor would I include 80cc riders, but that is his choice. It is a great work of love and I always find it interesting to look at.

And back to speedway: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=77385

For comparison Dolgin's current (@ 5 August) top 22 is: 1 Greg Hancock USA 4524 2 Niels K Iversen Denmark 4424 3 Tai Woffinden Great Britain 4322 4 Darcy Ward Australia 4293 5 Piotr Protasewicz Poland 4275 6 Grigorij Laguta Russia 4267 7 Nicki Pedersen Denmark 4242 8 Janusz Kolodziej Poland 4199 9 Jaroslaw Hampel Poland 4176 10 Emil Sajfutdinov Russia 4154 11 Matej Zagar Slovenia 4050 12 Martin Vaculik Slovakia 4007 13 Jason Doyle Australia 3984 14 Krzysztof Kasprzak Poland 3951 15 Artem Laguta Russia 3947 16 Piotr Pawlicki jr. Poland 3907 17 Billy Hamill USA 3891 18 Peter Kildemand Denmark 3874 19 Patryk Dudek Poland 3838 20 Thomas H. Jonasson Sweden 3830 21 Tomasz Gollob Poland 3829 22 Chris Holder Australia 3815 Of the missing riders: Andersen (35), Loktaev (51), Zmarzlik (25), Janowski (27) and Scott Nicholls is the next Brit in his rankings too...at no 40!

From 'Tears and Glory' - 2002 chapter: Gaming International set about making a few superficial improvements to keep the stadium going. These included a new turnstile area and new floodlights. However, Gaming International's most noticeable change sparked the 'great food rebellion'. In June, security guards strictly enforced a new policy that spectators could not bring any food or drink into any area of the stadium. Dave Wright wrote in the Reading Evening Post: “Even a woman carrying sweets for team mascot Roary to distribute among the kids during the meeting was stopped. She was allowed to take them in but was warned by the guard he may not be so lenient next week. In all my 20 years of following the sport I have never known Racers fans to be so uptight as they are this week”. Threats of demonstrations, boycotts, and sponsorship withdrawal soon resulted in a climb-down.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/poland-terrorised-by-bullingdon-bikers-9649244.html So what did Boris think? PS Looks like Lioness was right!

Good point re under 21/ under 19, but under 15/16 should be on small tracks. I was in Grudziadz yesterday and they have an 80cc track on the centre green. I first saw Max Fricke 4/5 years ago on a similar track at Mildura. All the Swedes and Danes start that way too, so too do the Yanks. On the lesser powered machines, smaller tracks are better at introducing youngsters to cornering skills and getting them use to close racing.

Don't forget - USA: Manzares, Ruml, ??? and..... Hancock:-)

Have bumped into Scott Nicholls and Phil Morris among others in Bydgoszcz - no great surprises there, but..... BORIS JOHNSON wtf!!!!!!!!

Has a pair ever scored a small 5-1? They all seem to be big on the telly :-)

A few random observations: A great night's racing - Bydgoszcz's reputation as one of the world's best racing tracks remains in tact. Hancock - just awesome Scorecards - I'm sure they are all better than the official programme which had no space for race times Crowd - very definitely some papering going on. Of those who paid a sizeable proportion were not Poles. Cheap seats were £5, £8 for a 2nd bend seat. Most heard phrase of the day:"I'm never flying Ryan air again" Berntzson and Krcmar both impressed Really great battle until that incident, but why is everybody so certain about it. Sometimes it is a difficult call to make - had I been in the refs seat I'm not sure which way I'd have gone.