Bavarian

Grigory may come into the Russian team for the race-off and the final at Vojens. Just wait and see.

The referee should simply immediatelyput the two minutes on for the re-start, then there would not be any unneccessary delays after an unsatisfactory start.

It has to do with his result in last year's German Championship. Bartz was well placed in the German Final at Brokstedt last year. 1. Kai Huckenbeck 15 (3,3,3,3,3) 2. Martin Smolinski 14 (2,3,3,3,3) 3. Tobias Kroner 12 (3,2,2,2,3) 4. Kevin Wölbert 10 (1,3,3,1,2) 5. Matthias Schultz 10 (2,2,2,2,2) 6. Robert Lambert 9 (2,1,2,3,1) 7. Matthias Bartz 8 (0,3,ex,2,3) 8. Max Dilger 8 (3,1,1,3,d) 9. Christian Hefenbrock 8 (1,2,3,2,ex) 10. René Deddens 5 (3,2,d,ex,ex) 11. Matthias Kröger 5 (1,ex,1,1,2) ...

This meeting was also for the 2015 A.D.A.C. German Golden Helmet, won by Kylmäkorpi in the top scorers final.

WE all know that the Speedway Best Pairs Cup is not an official FIM or FIM Europe event, but, hey every other competing nation treats it serious and has agreed to send a true representative trio of top riders. This alone gives the competiton some credibility, at least it did until GB entered the game and spoilt the occasion, and then call it a Mickey Mouse Event. This is what makes me angry. I have nothing agains Rory Schlein, but as an Australian he can not ride for GB. I have every respect for USA withdrawing from the Esbjerg round instead of drafting in a foreign guest. One Sport would not have allowed a guest rider anyway, and were only forced to accep Schlein as it was a last minute change when Woffy withdrew. There are so many British speedway riders around, and with Scotty Nicholls willing to ride, I can have no sympathy with the decision to use Rory Schlein. I still take speedway serious as a sport, and I want to see serious speedway events. The SEC and SBPC with pan-European live tv Coverage on Europsport is a credfit for the Sport, unless such stupid things like an Aussie riding for GB happens, which robs this event of all its credibility. Thank YOU British Speedway !

How strange that the BSPA can refuse Scott Nicolls to ride for GB at Esbjerg, and employ a foreign guest to fill the vacany. This is nothing short of a scandal. Make no mistake, British speedway has presented itself exptremely poor in this SBPC meeting at Esbjerg, and thanks to the live tv coverage on EUROSPORT a lot of people all over the world became aware of this.

There were no problems for and with the other foreign riders, only the two Brits told us about the horror they experienced in Argentina. I believe there is a lot of truth in what Ariel writes.

Can Germany then also use a foreign guest in this SBPC next year, just like TeamGB did this time? I'd like to see Zagar or Vaculik, or some of the Polish aces riding together with Martin Smolinski for Germany.

It is taken serious on the Continent. It is regarded as the "unofficial" World Pairs Championship. Teams are true representative selectins of their respective countries, except the British pair last night, which has really spoilt the credibility of this event by including an Aussie in the British team. The USA had the dignity to withdraw from the Esbjerg round since there was no other American rider available to partner Greg Hancock on this occasion. They did not even think about employing a guest rider. Great Britain accepted to replace the Americans and arrived with a foreign rider. It's a disgrace, and if I were OneSport I wouldn't invite GB back next year. Let's rather have the Czechs, Latvia or Finland in the SBPC serie, but don't let the BSPA spoil the occasion again and make a mockery of this international pairs competition.

Landshut was rain affected, too. The start of this SWC qualifyer was delayed by one-and-a-half hours for track remedy work. Zagar and Sayfutdinov were not keen to ride on a very deep track, so the track workers scraped a lot of the wet top layer of the track surface off. Racing was eventually o.k, though not overly spectacular, but, yes, it was a better meeting than what I saw on tv of the pairs event in Denmark. Biggest talking point was the lack of a reserve rider in the SWC - both Germany and Slovenia were beaten by losing one of their riders to injury early on in this meeting.

I agree with the above 100% - I'd love to see this happen - these would be great competitions for future speedway

SWC is a 4-T-T, the World League should be Team vs Team Australia could use British tracks for their home meetings (isn't Poole their spiritual home from home in the UK anyway?) The "Rest of the World" team has plenty of options for their hoem meetings. They could very well rotate with one meeting each in Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland, Italy, etc

The FIM should make this World Speedway League a competition for national teams meeting each other in a round-robin-tournament (team vs team meetings à la league or test matches). No problems about who rides for which country then. The top six national teams (Poland, Denmark, Australia, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain) plus a Rest of the World team would give most of the top riders a team to ride for. Three home and three away meetigns for each team, plus an end-of-season Grand Final (or a home and away final over two legs). This would be what I'd regard as a real WORLD SPEEDWAY LEAGUE, not the current Mickey Mouse club competition !

Great match between Poland and Denmark - and a last heat decider - I love these international speedway test matches - please let's have more of the kind.

But don't forget that Poole Pirates (Matt Ford) were instrumental in getting this Mickey mouse competition invented. They, along with some guys in Sweden, were behind it from the start. Now they realise they can not run it at their own track, they can not win it with tehir own team, and all of a sudden they do not want it anymore.

Not so. They all WANT to ride for Russia and for the MFR (Russian Motorsports Federation), but they don't want to ride for peanuts. OneSport pays more money in the 'unofficial' SBPC, than what the riders can earn from riding in the BSI/IMG organized official SWC. Laguta only tried to get a Latvian passpart a few years ago, as it would have made it easier for him to travel across Europe. I think Emil got a Polish passport for that purpose. None of them want to give up their Russian citizenship.

why would that be?

Thanks for this info, Jacek

Where can I find the final offical league table of the 2014-15 New Zealand League? I think that in the New Zealand League they have bonus points for losing a match with six (or less) points difference, and also for the winning team for scoring six or more maximum heat wins (5-1s) in a match, is that right? One other question - I wonder why Sean Mason was missing most of the meetings this season? Was he injured?

What is the situation with Bradley Wilson-Dean? I thought he rides for the Eagles this year. Why isn't he mentioned?

Patryk Dudek already has #69

Absolutely agree with that. For team events points should only be awarded for beating opposition riders, not your own team mates. Heat results would be 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2, and it would not matter at all if a rider finishes ahead or behind his team mate, and bonus points are not needed anymore.

I remember those England v Germany test matches at u16 level. I attended a couple of them, at Landshut and Abensberg. They were of great benefit for the English and German lads, and they were quite entertaining and competitive matches. Why can't we have them once more?

The Argentinean speedway season went well, but the attendances for the meetings at Bahia Blanca were not quite as good as it should have been. No doubt, the two British lads have spoilt the party for the Argentinean promoters. They had advertised the two British riders, and the fans were looking forward to see tehm in action, and were of course disappointed when Barker and Worrall did not show.