arnieg

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.

The best I could find was this http://macgors.freehostia.com/Oreti080214/Oreti080214.html which gives the Semi Final results as: Ist Semi: Bunyan, Mason, MacRae, Finch 2nd Semi: Tregonning, Aldridge, Tocher, Hayes But in para 2 it lists the top 8 riders, and then goes on to list ten (!!) riders - the 8 in the Semis plus Brady Mudgway, Ryan Terry-Daley. I'm guessing they just missed out on the semis - but who knows reporting from NZ seems very sketchy.

11 from six rides last month, same as team mate Jason Doyle. He lost two out of three against Hans Andersen. Think it's his only appearance there in last five years.

Just started 2 rain, light at the moment but sky looks very threatening Now stopped

Can we correct this myth. Let's compare the bottom team in the Elite League - Leicester - with a typical Danish team: Munkebo (chosen because it is mid-table with a very stable line-up) At 1: Jason Doyle v Hans Andersen - good match, Doyle has a higher average than Andersen in Sweden, GB and Poland, but it's close in all three so let's say a tie At 2: Mads Korneliusssen v Kenni Larsen - pretty equal (Larsen has the higher average in Poland, but Mads wins in Sweden and Denmark) At 3: Krzys Buczkowski v Morten Risager - do I need to answer this one? At 4: Simon Stead v Kasper Lykke Nielsen - Stead out averages KLN by 3 points a match in the PL At 5: Nikolai Klindt v Jesper Scharff - 8.5 Klindt v 2.8 for Scharff in the DSL Conclusion: there are a lot of things better about the DSL, but team strengths isn't one of them. The Danes, like the Brits are way behind the big two leagues.

I'd second the suggestion of the Golden Helmet weekend in Pardubice

unofficially (and I have been known to make the odd mistake (!)) 4 Valve: 1 Gary O'Hare 15 2 Dean Felton 14 3 Tim Mount 13 4 Dave Harvey 12 5 Lee Coleman 11 When Gary and Dean met, Gary touched the tapes, went off 10metres and passed Deanno on the line Laydowns 1 Rob Hollingworth 15 2 Paul Stone 13 3 Glyn Edwards 13 4 Mick Ridgway 10 5 Gary Ball 10 An EF while leading on the final lap cost James Bowles 3 points that would have given him 12 pts and 4th place. 2 valve 1 Chris Mackett 13 2 Ian Barney 12 3 Steve Cook 12 4 Derrick Keyes 10 Barney missed his first ride due to bike problems. Closest he came to dropping a point was when Graham Knowler led him for 3 laps before falling as Barney went under him. (note - no run-offs, I have assumed ties ranked by countback)

Spectacular displays of lightening behind bends 1 & 2, but we just got away with it. Saw two EL meetings last week, but Dean Felton v Gary O'Hare was better than any of the races in those two meetings. A good day out.

Planned to make my Lydd debut today - but forecast looks rather unpromising. Hope the rain stays away

I think you are confused. Surely a thread titled best track in England should be in the PL section! If you are suggesting that a poor night's racing at Lynn makes the racing at Beaumont Park more acceptable then you are sadly deluded. And I think there are already several other threads where the subject is under discusssion........ ad nauseum. Insulting people who disagree with you does not constitute an argument.

attendances in 2013 Elitserien: -----------------average---tot Ikaros Smederna 3,808 ---34,270 Dackarna 3,596--- 28,771 Indianerna 3,517--- 28,139 Piraterna 3,262--- 29,360 Elit Vetlanda 3,162--- 31,620 Västervik 2,590 ---20,717 Hammarby 1,934--- 13,539 Vargarna 1,738--- 12,165 and for 2014 to date: -----------------average---tot Rospiggarna--- 3,211--- 16,056 Elit Vetlanda-- 2,886--- 14,432 Ikaros Smederna-- 2,785--- 13,925 Indianerna--- 2,643--- 13,217 Piraterna--- 2,612--- 7,835 Dackarna--- 2,591--- 10,362 Västervik--- 1,954--- 11,726 Vargarna--- 1,681--- 10,086 Some very large falls (although some may be reduced by higher crowds for play-offs once they are factored in*) - so maybe they won't be able to afford to field teams of the current strengths for much longer * This can be quite significant Smederna's average crowd last year excluding play-offs was a 'mere' 3,029

Yep that's the one - it's the only 0-0 I've witnessed

I'm sure that Birmingham's record will be deleted in the next day or two (sad face), but a more interesting question is what happens to GSAs. I would imagine that they will remain unchanged as there would be just too many problems in revising them - but it would be nice to know.

So if Birmingham's bond with the BSPA is insufficient to pay off amounts owed to riders will the Brummies outstanding share of SKY money go to: 1) pay remaining sums outstanding to 'speedway creditors' or 2) be shared out amongst other nine EL clubs?

Off the top of my head I can think of four other times: 1969 - Reading v Plymouth 1970 or 71 Rochdale v Workington (or was it Workington v Rochdale?) 1991 - Coventry v Middlesbrough 2009 - Coventry v Peterboro

There have been at least 4 nil-nil heats since 1965. I saw one of them: Cov v Middlesbrough heat 2 circa 1991

But what about Gary Glitter?

Big difference from 20 years ago is that EL clubs no longer have weekly meetings - just 18 (14 last year) league matches. As a consequence if riders aren't riding abroad they must race in PL in order to get enough meetings. If doubling up is abolished or severely curtailed there could only be a handful of Brits in the EL. And the number of guests has been shocking this year. We need to return to the situation where two riders cover a double up spot. I'd also go back to one d/u per team in order to match supply and demand for d/u places.

Danger this could be decided by joker!

As I read it It looks like Kyle was disqualified. If so then the best three riders in the meeting came 6th, 7th and 8th!!

from sportowefakty: 1. Fredrik Lindgren (Szwecja) (3,3,3,2,3) 14+3+3 2. Mads Korneliussen (Dania) (2,2,3,3,1) 11+2+2 3. Morten Risager (Dania) (2,3,3,3,3) 14+2+1 4. Jonas Davidsson (Szwecja) (3,2,3,3,2) 13+3+0 5. Henrik Moller (Dania) (2,3,2,3,t) 10+1 6. Eric Andersson (Szwecja) (1,3,2,2,2) 10+1 7. Tobias Messing, (Szwecja) (1,1,2,2,3) 9+0 ­ rezerwowy 8. Tero Aarnio (Finlandia) (3,1,1,0,3) 8+0 9. Niklas Fridell (Szwecja) (3,2,1,0,2) 8 10. Rene Lehtinen (Finlandia) (1,1,2,1,1) 6 11. Rune Sola (Norwegia) (2,0,1,2,0) 5 12. Rune Knudsen (Dania) (1,0,1,1,2) 5 13. Lars Hansen (Dania) (0,2,0,1,1) 4 14. Petri Koskela (Finlandia) (0,0,0,1,1) 2 15. Joni Keskinen (Finlandia) (0,1,0,0,0) 1 16. Aarni Heikkila (Finlandia) (t,0,w,­,­) 0 17. Joni Kitala (Finlandia) (­,­,­,0,0) 0

Now back to the television programme. I don't dislike him, but I'm not a great fan of Tai (and I really hate the 'ear rings'), but I really thought he came over well. The programme itself was excellent, I feared we'd be in for lots of racing clips with Mr Shouty going all orgasmic, but instead we had a beautifully paced haunting soundtrack that captured the sense of boredom and repetition that travelling round Europe entails. Highlights were the childhood clips, the contributions from Sue and the letter from Rob that became a tattoo. The programme engaged me emotionally in a way I didn't expect (my eyes watered twice)-fantastic, congratulations to all involved in its production and thumbs up Tai! PS It's even improved my view of Peter Adams - he lives in a cat friendly house so he can't be all bad

Devon Demons 56 1. Tim Webster, 1,3,3,3,2=12 2. Matt Bates, 3,3,2+,fx,2+=10+2 3. Danny Stoneman, 2+,1,1,3,0=7+1 4. James Shanes, 3,3,3,3,3,15 Full Max 5. R/R.(MB 3, TW 3, JS 3, DS 0=9) 6. Richard Andrews, 3.2+,1,2+=8 7. Tyler Govier, 1,f,3,fx=4 Scunthorpe Stags 28 1. Steve Jones, 2,0,2,1=5 2. Aaron Mogridge, fx,2,1+,f^=3+1 3. Danno Verge, 1,1,1,2=5 4. Ryan MacDonald,fx,0,0,f=0 5. Sam Chapman, 2,1,4^,3=10 6. Jack Hall, 2,1+,f,fx=3+1 7. Reece Downes,f,0,2,n=2 This match was more competitive than I anticipated, particularly after the decent effort the Demons had put in against Cradley (some of the points that appear gifted looking at the Cradley scorechart were well won on track before the Cradley riders fell - eg heat 9 where Shanes easily had the beating of Starke and Perry) For Devon, James Shanes' poor gating proved less of a handicap than in the Cradley match and his comfortable maximum included the matches two fastest times. He also passed Mogridge (on a TR) to win heat 11 from the back. Stags riders led both the first two races. Aaron Mogridge (a real chip off the old block) was competetive and would be a great asset to any side once he gains the knack of staying on for four laps. Reece Downes led heat 2 before taking a nasty fall that affected his competitiveness for the rest of the match. However it was Sam Chapman who finally provided the Stags with a race winner, a fast starter he looked much better than the last time I saw him. Jack Hall (a completely new name to me) and Danno Verge also gave it their all and both provided opposition for the Devon tailenders. Verge was a victim of one of the worst refereeing decisions I've seen for years. Verge held off Danny Stoneman for three hard fought laps when Ryan MacDonald fell at the back and the race was stopped. The race result: Shanes, Stoneman, Verge!!! Had that race been awarded correctly Scunny would have opened up the match with five heats without conceding a 5-1. Despite their continued beatings team spirit seems good and I hope their brave project succeeds.

I was merely rebutting your statement that no other sports would have unbalanced fixture lists. I have in fact cited all five major American sports. (In US culture 'major sport' has a well understood meaning: baseball, American football, (ice) Hockey and Basketball. Some would add Soccer as MLS attendances are similar to the NBA. Incidentally lacrosse is the number six team sport in the States.) You seem to be introducing the arguments about weather and stadium availability at a rather late stage, and they don't alter the fact that your original posting was wrong. BTW I have been to a rained-off baseball match (at New Camden Yard in Baltimore). We saw five of the nine innings before it p*ssed down. And what they do in mlb is come back (two months later in this case) and play the remaining four innings even though the teams are different! Imagine what speedway fans would say if the BSPA proposed that after being rained-off after six races the match should be continued three months later with changed line-ups? No idea - I have no interest in cricket

I suggest you go and look at archive copies of the national newspapers from any part of the twentieth century before 1993 - they all seem to take cricket quite seriously (and First class county cricket consisted of 17 counties from 1921 to 1993 - considerably more than 8) Basketball (from Wikipedia): During the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 each home and away. A team faces opponents in its own division four times a year (16 games). Each team plays six of the teams from the other two divisions in its conference four times (24 games), and the remaining four teams three times (12 games). Finally, each team plays all the teams in the other conference twice apiece (30 games). This asymmetrical structure means the strength of schedule will vary between teams (but not as significantly as the NFL or MLB). Over five seasons, each team will have played 80 games against their division (20 games against each opponent, 10 at home, 10 on the road), 180 games against the rest of their conference (18 games against each opponent, 9 at home, 9 on the road), and 150 games against the other conference (10 games against each team, 5 at home, 5 on the road). Ice Hockey (also from wiki): In the regular season, each team plays 82 games: 41 games each of home and road. Eastern teams play 30 games in its own geographic division— four or five against each one of their seven other divisional opponents—and 24 games against the eight remaining non-divisional intra-conference opponents—three games against every team in the other division of its conference. Western teams play 28 or 29 games in its own geographic division-four or five against each one of their six other divisional opponents-and 21 or 22 games against the seven remaining non-divisional intra-conference opponents-three games against every team in the other division of its conference, with one cross-division intra-conference match-up occurring in four games (these are the teams that play only 28 intra-division games in a given season, in 2013–14 those teams are Colorado and San Jose). All teams play every team in the other conference twice-home and road. Soccer (wiki): Major League Soccer's regular season runs from March to October with its 19 teams playing 34 games in an unbalanced schedule That's a pretty full list of major US sports - all having asymmetric schedules