Parsloes 1928 nearly

Hmm, I didn't go as far as saying GB would win (with my record on predictions that would be the ultimate jinx.. ) but are you seriously suggesting that of these four teams you think that our side have no chance... The Poles would be a shoo-in on home shale but RH may well be a completely different proposition for them. As for Sweden and the Danes do you honestly think that across the whole quintet they are THAT much stronger than the hosts..? And you appear to be dismissing the inherent home advantage with so many RH specialists in our side.. I tend to agree Kyle COULD be out of his depth but Bridger, Woffinden and Haines won't be... Put it this way, can you honestly conceive of any time when we'll have a better chance of winning this than this Sunday..?!!

My goodness, just four days to a World Cup Final being staged in this country with a - surely, unless this is me cursing it... - more than good chance of Team GB being successful, and virtually no interest on the subject of the BSF.. In an attempt to ramp up some interest and coz no-one's done it in full to date, here are what I understand to be the full team line-ups: SWEDEN 1 Simon Gustafsson © 2 Dennis Andersson 3 Ludvig Lindgren 4 Kim Nilsson 5 Linus Sundstrom DENMARK 1 Michael Jepsen Jensen 2 Rene Bach 3 Patrick Hougaard © 4 Lasse Bjerre 5 Peter Kildemand GREAT BRITAIN 1 Tai Woffinden © 2 Kyle Hughes 3 Josh Auty 4 Joe Haines 5 Lewis Bridger POLAND [Holders] 1 Maciej Janowski 2 Patryk Dudek 3 Artur Mroczka © 4 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 5 Dawid Lampart So come on then folks, how do we all see this one going... Am I right to believe our home quintet have a chance..?!

Cheers Rob - will try and do so. Only sorry couldn't have been there in the flesh (and holding a frothing beer bought by you!!) but those tiles won't grout themselves you know!!! You're too young (it saddens me to admit!) to remember when second halves involving the main meeting riders were VERY competitive... Two stand out in my memory... One was at Foxhall Heath two nights before the 1975 World Final when Tiger Louis beat Ivan Mauger in the second half final to send the Witches crowd into a frenzy. He repeated the trick against Ivan in the run off for third at Wembley two nights later! And then there was the opening meeting at White City the next year when Tommy Jansson pipped the up to then unbeaten Gordon Kennett in a thriller in the second half. A brilliant race... And poignant as Tommy was dead within six weeks and for me it was the last race I saw him ride... But come on folks, enough of that maudlin stuff, what about those daft names for second halves..?!

If I were you Malcolm, I'd organise a local protest against Boston Disrict Council by throwing all their tea into the harbour... It's worked before!!!!

Weren't those 'proper' second halves of yesteryear (as well as being superb value for money!) the source of some brilliant names for competitions..?! Whatever made anyone at Crayford think that 'Kestrels Ketch' was a good name..? "Ketch"..? What as in "ketchup"..?!! Looking thru' old progs I'm bound to find a few more gems but in the search for the daftest name of an old second half event, let's get going with: from Hackney: The Horton Griffiths Travel Service Cash Bonus Bonanza; and from Crayford: Manns Olympic Appeal (Tooke Arms, Millwall)

Excellent news! Good luck to you & Kelvin for this, Sarah... Anything I can do to help out just ask!! THREE potential sites in the Tamworth area..: that's impressive and bodes well.. One site - things can go wrong (and usually do..): three sites make life a bit easier...

It must be getting mighty close for 4th. place between the Buccs, the Cobras and Plymouth now...!! I guess the Cobras away match at Poole is going to be nigh on decisive...

Hmm, well I don't care where Gollob was born either but I still want him to be champion... And BTW, your comment was , er, rather illogical... The whole point of terming someone the greatest rider NEVER to be World Champion is, er, because they've NEVER been World Champion. Ergo, to date they, er, haven't won it...! What Gollob has done, though is to have been on the rostrum in the world championship far more times than anyone else who's not actually secured top spot, so over many years he has run close.. Yes, you can argue if you want, that coming up short before says something but injuries and misfortune have played at least an equal part. And with all due respect, when one sees that once Mark Loram was GP champion and think how much better Gollob is and always has been than Mark, I think for justice to prevail it is indeed time for that Polish champion, eh!!!

Excellent news! I guess neither David nor I being east London-based really dared to dream that Lakeside was in the frame - certainly IS close to London... well to us in East London anyhow!!!

How mean-spirited is that..?! I for one most certainly WANT there to be a Polish champion...! And not just any Polish champion but without question the greatest rider never to be World Champ, Tomasz Gollob esq.!!

Hmm, well I was kinda hoping that was a reference to Lydd... Near is a relative term in our sport as you know!!!

Excellent performance by Harris - well done... A great effort to try and pass Hancock on the last bend in the Final but Greg's not the sort to let that happen and he moved out to shut him off... Er, what's that you say..? Cardiff 2007..?! Hmm, well I think we'll need to leave it to Greg's memoirs to explain why he DIDN'T do likewise on that ocassion don't you..?!!

Have a muffin for me!!! Or is that actually against the law in Herts!!

That's good - I shall invest in a copy of that I think!! Are we sure that the gates open at mid-day... I'd heard it might be 11am - which though early might be sensible, all things considered as there's surely gonna be a mega big crowd for that..

Hmm, well for gawd's sake don't ask me...: we don't want to see King's Lynn close down too...!!

Hmm, knowing you David, if it was really Hell you'd enjoy it as long as there was a Speedway meeting on somewhere in the midsts of the firery inferno... And I don't believe you've seen Jens Beelzebub ride yet have you so that'd be another plus!! Slangerup always conjures up in my mind an image of a grim northern (Danish) industrial city surrounded by slag heaps...! I'm probably totally wrong As long as it's not full of Danish slags of the other variety...: your wife would kill ya!!!

Bet old 'Halifax' wasn't wearing his shorts this time..?! Thjough if he was, you might've been grateful for the heavy mist!!!!

He is. Most seem to think he'll plump for Road Racing/Moto GP and seek to emulate Casey Stoner. I guess selfishly we'd hope that instead he chooses Speedway and Crumpie as the man to match... It's amazing how similar young Arthur's career is so far to that of Stoner, BTW. Like Sissis, Stoner won numerous titles in a range of disciplines BEFORE reaching his teens: FIVE national titles in dirt track racing (what the Aussies call Flattrack or Short Track) and at Long Track at the age of 12; over 40 titles in those two disciplines and 70 State titles before he reached the age of 15! I've no record of if Stoner ever tried out Speedway (you'd imagine with his background that he might well have..); but as we know young Arthur certainly has, with three national championships already at Under 16 level...!! Of course over here we had a talented young Road Racer (who represented the UK in the FIM Youth Gold Cup) as well as being a moto-x and Super-moto champion who turned to Speedway (talking of Lewis Bridger of course...) so you never know with Arthur too... BTW, asked the question before but is there any current bar to him riding for a NL club here..? Seems strange that no-one's snapped him up..?

Ah right, SORRY..! Didn't realise my bloody inbox was full... Anyhow sorted now so you should be able to PM me...! D.

Interesting development following the news that Polish club Torun's rearranged play-off meeting has meant the scrapping of Wednesday's Pirates meeting. This from the Poole web-site: Ford's only hope of getting a fixture on for Wednesday is if an agreement can be reached with one or other of the Bournemouth Buccaneers' opponents - King's Lynn or Rye House - after the postponement of the planned double header earlier today. "We will know more about whether that is at all feasible on Monday" said Ford, "but it is something of a long shot. All I can do is urge our fans to stay in touch with the website and local media over the next 24 hours or so". However just checked the weather forecast for Wednesday for Poole and ATM it is VERY bad: Met Office say heavy rain ALL day and evening.. Well, it IS peak holiday season so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.. Seems a bit fruitless now IMHO to pull out the stops to try and rearrange a fixture for Weds. I understand that Weds 8/9 and 15/9 though, are blank dates so far at Wimborne Rd.: opportunities then perhaps to hold these two NL matches a little earlier...?

Actually never sat down once!! Wasn't sure which chair the boy Golding uses (am guessing the most sturdy..! ) so wasn't gonna take the risk...!!

That's good news... You probably won't remember but I first met the two of you when I was announcer at Sittingbourne and you turned up and got Oli a last-minute place in a meeting there. A meeting Oli came VERY close to winning.. I've followed his career with interest since and it's been great to see how well he's progressed at Mildenhall these past two seasons (well season and a half is more accurate I guess..) I can certainly confirm that you were an absolute gentleman then and as a father myself of three teens/early 20s I too would be VERY angry if one of mine had been treated like Oliver has been...

Tell me about it - I've been in there all afternoon: from 1pm to 5.30pm is a long old haul!!!

I agree and surely with the way certain teams are changing line-ups and with riders falling by the wayside, isn't it at all possible that a team in the NL may yet come in for Oli for the remainder of this season..? Or are you implying Paul, that due to the lost money (or which I agree you've every right to be extremely aggrieved about... )competing in league Speedway again this year for Oli won't be possible..??

Ah but I bet the weather was better in KL today than anything you experienced down under..??!!