Grachan

So it will be with the Russian drivers in Poland - Speedway fans The Polish site Sportowefakty has published information that Russian citizens who have not competed for Poland on a Polish license before will be stopped from driving in the league. At present, Artem Laguta, who is a Polish citizen, has applied to drive on a Polish license, if the new information is correct, it would not matter that he receives a Polish license. Emil Sayfutdinov is also a Polish citizen, but none of them will start if the information is correct. A driver who, on the other hand, is allowed to drive according to the new rules is Gleb Chugunov. This is because Gleb has on previous occasions driven for the Polish national team. In order for a driver who has not driven on a Polish license before to be allowed to change, the Polish Federation requires that they renounce their Russian citizenship.

A good line-up. I'd pay to stream it if it was available.

I can see both sides of the argument really. I don't think it is clear-cut either way in terms of individuals riding as themselves and not representing the country. Is it down to political allegiances too? Russia are waging a war and giving misinformation to their own people to justify it. Did the USA and the UK not do the same when they invaded Iraq? Should Greg Hancock and Scott Nicholls have been kicked out of the Grand Prix in 2003? Where does one draw the line? I'm in regular contact with a Russian guy who lives in the USA as part of my job. I don't have a problem with that.

There are a lot of tennis tournaments going on at the moment and it's interesting to see some of the developments. Ukranian player Elina Svitolina pulled out of the Monterrey Open. She was drawn to play a Russian player and said she will not play any Russian or Belarusian unless they played as stateless. The organisers agreed that her opponent, Anastasia Potapova, will play as a neutral player and representing no country. Svitolina has been very outspoken on this. If this solution is good enough for her then it should be good enough for everyone else.

Another piece of relevant text is: "If not possible for "organisational or legal reasons"".

The IOC is now calling for a ban on all Russians from World sport. IOC calls for ban on Russians from world sport (gulf-times.com)

I'm not sure that they are actually Emil. There is no blue tick to confirm it as real, whereas Tai Woffinden's account has that. They could be fan accounts. Edit - they could be real if you look at some of the people following the Emilsayfutdinov89, account (eg Kelvin Tatum, Jason Crump, Alun Rossiter, Jason Doyle, Darcy Ward, Natilie Quirk).

I missed this earlier. If this is the real Emil then I see no reason why anyone should be against him competing.

That's pretty much where I stand too Danil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are still playing in tennis tournaments. Both have spoken out against the war and Rublev, in particular, has been quite high profile about it. He wrote an anti-war message on a camera lens after a match last week and also played in a doubles match with a Ukranian partner. I don't see the positions of Laguta or Sayfudinov being any any different. They are riding as individuals, although some sort of comment on how they feel about the situation in Ukraine might not go amiss.

I would think that for a non-speedway fan it would be difficult to keep up with who was who in a race without commentary. I certainly wouldn't know half the time.

I remember listening to a tennis commentary on the radio. They try to describe the shot, and by the time they've half explained it the other person has returned so they have to cut themselves off and start describing the other shot. It's hilarious.

I think Jonathan Pierce started all the shouty commentary we get today. I remember, at one time, he was seen as something of a comedy value novelty with his excessive way, but now just blends in with all the others. You need commentary for speedway. I, for one, want to know who is who as I don't fill in a race card when it's on television. And on televised sport it adds something for me. Nigel and Kelvin do a reasonable job in my opinion. The best sport for "non-commentary" is probably tennis. You don't get it during the rallies really, but they then discuss things during the gaps.

If you go to the Discovery+ site on a web browser, click on your account and "Manage your account", then press "cancel". I have done this as I'm not sure what is happening next year. Also, if they are showing speedway next year then it is easy to re-subscribe. If they do another £29.99 deal (or similar) for the Australian Open again then it is probably easy to re-join on another email. I can get it on my main TV but not on other TVs as I have Now TV USB sticks which don't get Discovery+. I'm thinking of getting a Roku stick, although at the moment I do have a rather good excuse to say that I need to watch the big telly in the front room!

I was very dubious about Discovery+ but I'm quite impressed with it. I got it for the 29.99 annual deal and watched the Australian Open with it. I was able to select whichever match I wanted and watch either Live or from the beginning. Plus there is live Eurosport on there and some film and documentaries for good measure. It also has all last season's live Speedway from Eurosport on there to watch again. I'd definitely choose it over just having Eurosport.

I remember a Marathon (or possibly Mars) advert that was filmed at a meeting at Wimbledon. There was also a Durex advert which had a Speedway rider in a Durex race jacket and the words: "Crowd Stopper" emblazoned across it. I can't remember who the rider was though.

With Swindon not riding, and with Oxford in the Championship, this might be good for me. I would prefer it, however, if clubs did their own streaming on a pay-per-view basis so that it's easy to pick and choose matches with all revenue going directly to the clubs.

Mine too. I think Sandor was the only Heathen who seemed prepared to give it a go and ended up having about 5 rides before they pulled out.

I just signed up on the 29.99 option. Originally I was going to watch through Amazon as it makes it easier to watch on every tv for me, even though it costs a bit more. I signed up for a month for the Australian Open Tennis as a trial, but the match selection for the tennis is so poor that I've gone for the Discover App It still works out cheaper over a year as I've only wasted one month on Amazon.

Still a lot of stuff coming down and nothing going up, but hopefully this is a good sign.

Much as I loved Martin Ashby, I'm surprised to see him put above Simmons and Louis, who both made a World Final rostrum.

It depends which Batch turns up I guess. Last time Doyle and Bachelor were in a side together they were first and second in the Premiership averages and league title winners.

Don't underestimate the effect that riding with Doyle could have on Bachelor. You might be getting "Good Batch" next year.

A good solid team. A lot also depends on Nielsen, who always seems to look good and then get injured. If he can avoid injury he could do well. Great to see Toby back in the UK too.

I've had two Asian wives. Both have given birth. Neither died and both had the exact same care as anyone else. In fact, my first wife probably had more because she insisted on having a single room with a shower because that's what she would have had in her own country and she got exactly that. I also feel that there will never be racial equality as long as the term BAME is being bandied about, because it separates people from white people by it's very definition. I actually find the term BAME to be an (albeit unintentional) insult to anyone it refers to. Do you think that if a novice black kid turned up at, say, Belle Vue and went round the track like the new Michael Lee that nobody would want to sign him because of his skin colour? Personally, I reckon every team would want to snap him up straight away based on his ability .

My memory of Ken McKinlay was always as a Compo-type figure in a bobble hat riding for Scunthope. I remember being very surprised when I found out how good he had been earlier in his career.