Undercover Elephant

Just watched the GP on the Sky+ and echo the same comments regarding Nicki P. Fantastic rides all night. Deserved to win the Final, and I enjoyed the cheeky dig at Nigel Pearson and Kelvin Tatum in his post race interview with Steve Brandon (which the entire Marketa Stadium would have heard. Showed the pair of them, and Sky where to stick it, in regards to the bias shown towards Jason Crump recently. I hope now that Nicki goes on to win the series and become 3 time WC. By far the best rider out there again this year on a consistent basis.

Quite the opposite. That my friend is how to generate some genuine heat amongst the two riders which could quite possibly attract more viewers on Sky. Drumming it up as much as possible is what gets bums on seats. Look no further than to a chap called Dave Simms who is the announcers and GM for the Sheffield Steelers Ice Hockey team. He has spent the best part of 12 years riling up rival Nottingham Panthers fans into a frenzy, writing and commenting in outspoken ways which makes the blood boil, you name it, he's said it! My point is that with people like this in a sport, it's what make fans go to watch. Adding a little controversy never hurt anyone and speedway is no different. I'm sure newer fans to S/W will tune in tonight to see if anything happens involving Scott and Hans. It's Sky's job to drum up tention amonsgt the riders, it's what gets the audience watching over and over again!

I paid £25 to watch 2 days of fantastic Stock Car action at Northampton last week featuring the Brisca F1 and F2 + Rebels Excellent value for a weekend ticket with plenty of action. If BSI want to price themselves out of attracting extra customers at there events, may I suggest a more appropriate pricing plan for future events such as this. To pay £25 to see (on paper) a competetive match involving the teams in the race off, only to watch IMO a two team meeting can be dis-heartening to some, if not many supporters. I believe with an appropriate fixed price for (a family sport) more customers would feel that they receive value for money. In this case I don't. I only live 20 minutes away and to think that BSI could have had a group of at least 8-9 of us to watch this event (twice) Race-off and Final, think of how much money you would have made from our custom? Lower the price to a more respectable sum and the place would have been packed. (£18 tops IMO at Reading) Out of interest, for those that were there, how many people were in attendence?

Reading..... Do you have to purchase tickets for the Race Off and Final in advance or can you buy them on the night?

Agreed there mate. Personally I think Midlo should stay and start to rebuild now for the future. We should be getting right behind him because I think he has the credentials to try and get the best out of the riders. At the end of the day, he has no control over the riders once on track or their equipment!

Well said Rico, you guys have done us proud and battled on through to the end.

Did anyone actually see the Poles tampering with Nicki, Scott and Tony's equipment prior to the meeting?!! Well done Poland.........buying the title from your federation's hand-outs on new equipment and enlisting a Norweigan.....whatever next? GB sign up Greg Hancock for 2006 World Cup!

Does anyone remember Lew Stripp?

Loram in for Joe Screen. Middlo just cannot afford to risk Screen in Poland. Stead and Harris would be the first names on my team but what do I know!

You best driver down there was close to me on the grid in our semi at Arena!

I'm sure you'll be truly missed - Not. You're probably a Mildenhall supporter or something anyways and would never have the opportunity to see him. Get over it, put another record on. Not a Mildo fan but do race the F2's there. Bit of a tight track though. Bangers are better round there though!

Flaming hell mate I hope nothing bad happens in your life or you'll be suicidal. All riders risk life and limb everytime they race so if you can't appreciate that and you're going to have a pop at Hans for something so petty then stay at home. Try telling that to Scott Nicholls, Mark Loram, Lee Richardson, David Norris, Gary Havelock, Joe Screen, Neil Middleditch and fans alike who pay to watch these riders risk their lives on a daily basis........and then have our hopes and dreams crushed by a liar and a crook like Hans. Tell me if those riders have forgotton about it. I bet your house that Floppy hasn't. I may be starting to come around to the idea about moving on and not because a minority of people on hear have mentioned that. Just listening to Hans give his reasons post race on what happened in the last heat jsut makes me want to puke. I enjoyed watching the like on Scotty race for the Witches but as some have said already, as long as Hans Anderssen is racing in the UK for the Whiches or any other team in the future, I will not pay my money to watch him.

Well Said Totally Agree With You "Oh how quickly the so called Team GB fans forget! Shelby,it's not the team GB fans that are forgetting.I for one will never forget or forgive,thats my perogative.It's just the Ipswich fans and Andersen sucker uppers coming out of the woodwork now it's quietening down and he's won something.They couldn't be seen anywhere after the world cup final.Disappointed in one or two others on this forum who like to call a spade a spade,where are they now ? all the bigshots,maybe's busy looking at other stuff to stir up as per usual. As said before to someone else who seems to excel at holding grudges, its called moving on in life, i'm not sure how old you are but I have been to, and seen enough sporting disasters / disappointments to make me all rather immune to it. No doubt you will claim that as defeatist but I am a successful in business and also have enjoyed a successful sporting career of my own, therefore watching other sports i do for enjoyment and don't take it SO to heart if my team / my country don't win. besides when there are wars in the world and problems galore in the rest of the country i tend NOT to get all pig headed and out of my pram over sport! Thats my perogative! Far TOO many other things in life to concentrate on, as i said at the time a few pints on a sunny day the day after the world cup i'd got over it, and after seeing a lot of the complete drivel written on here i had a good old laugh. Blunt enough for you? Thats the trouble, people are entitled to come on hear and moan about Hans but all you do-gooders are short in the brain when it came to the WC. It will take some people longer than others to forgive Hans. If I want to have a pop at him I will.

You're talking sh£$e son. Ronnie Russell as New team manager.......you're nuts! When he can count an Elite League Championship on his fingers then you are free to come on here and push him for team manager. Until then, Bite Me! As for saying Neil is like Sven. I take offense to that comment in regards to Sven is nothing but a sleazy, lying, cheating S.O.B and Middlo is not in the slightest like that Swedish t%$t. I am more than happy for Middlo to continue..............

Well said Mad 3:16. Read through some of the rubbish on here and quite frankly it's just not worth replying to.But i notice some of the people having a go at team GB, or the ref, or saying sour grapes etc support other countries.I bet none of them actually come from THAT country.They are the type of people that give this country a losing mentality, the mentality they speak so often about.Go away Glory Hunters.I have about as much respect for you as Hans 'Sh**house' Andersen. Your post pretty much sums up my thoughts and feelings about last night at Poole. Sour Grapes just doesn't cut it with me to be honest and I don't have nout to say to those types of people who post comments like that. It seems like these people have been watching too much Pardon The Interuption with Cornheiser and Wilbon to know how to get a reaction out of people on hear! Quite frankly I couldn't give a rats Ass what has been said from the Danish camp in relation to the incident. I know what I saw with my own eyes on TV and Andersen knew EXACTLY what he was doing out there in the last heat and he had the nerve to BLATENTLY LIE on TV and gave a pathetic excuse on what he did out there. All i'll say is pay-backs a bit$h and hope he gets what is coming to him down at Eastbourne on Monday night.

Hmm - So why isn't everybody having a pop at Hans Andersen as well then - similar moves - similar results? Is it because he isn't Nicki Pedersen? If it had been any other rider would all this fuss have been made? Maybe not but Nicki has a history of similar racing style and his aggressive riding reared it's ugly head again on Saturday along with his attitude. Look how he reacted to his exclusion earlier in the meeting. The man should be suspended for one GP for whatt he did to Greg, it was a disgrace. By the way, Nigel Wagstaff didn't know about any of this until someone kindly told him at Northampton International Raceway also on Sat. When told who the rider was that did it, he was left fuming.

Just my opinion here but why would Sky Sports not use Julia Bradbury for the Elite League. She is by far the most professional in her presentation in interviews with riders and seemed to strike up a very good rapour with most riders. No disrespect to Sophie Blake but what does she really know about Speedway apart from looking glamorous!! Have you noticed her questions to riders every week are all the same. I suppose the only good thing is tha she's a lot better that Jane Amoreibi!! It's a shame that Channel 4 has not continued with their product from the last couple of seasons. I quite enjoyed some of their footage which you didn't see on Sky. Come on Sky, bring on board Julia Bradbury for the GP'S.

1st - Nicki Pedersen 2nd - Jason Crump 3rd - Greg Hancock 4th - Tony Rickardsson

Hancock drifted slightly wider than Crump on the last bend for Crump to just pip Greg into the Final. In the second semi, Tony clearly clipped Gollob going into turn 2 on the opening lap and Tony Steele let all four riders back in. In my opinion that is twice this evening that this has happend with Rickardsson and twice the ref has put all four back in. He should have been excluded in my opinion. Jesper falls on the last lap whilst in second place to let Gollob through for the lead with Tony coming home in second place. Tony is a lucky man!