Grachan

I felt they should have done that years ago. The one thing Swindon has in its favour, I feel, is a proactive promotion who will probably do that if they cannot re-open, but it would have been better to have it all ready to go now. Maybe there is the possibility of making a speedway track by Foxhill Motocross track? Is it financially viable to build speedway stadium these days though? I do wonder how many people will go to Oxford, too, if they re-open.

I don't particularly remember Per Jonsson being a team rider at Reading, but one way I would never describe him is "gate and go". My best memories of Per Jonsson are watching him stalk a race leader for three and a half laps and then going past them on the final bend. He even did this to Jimmy Nilsen in a World Final. Dave Mullet's big partnership at Reading, from memory, was with Jeremy Doncaster. Those two became something of a 5-1 pairing for the racers - at Smallmead at least. John Davis was a brilliant team man at Swindon, but maybe he was amore mature then than he was at Reading.

Martin Dugard won a GP as a wildcard once.

Muller and Szczakiel are not valid examples though, as had the final been held in another country then in both cases they would not have been riding there regularly. With the GP all the riders ride in Poland and, in most cases, are probably based there too, just as people like Mauger, Olsen and Penhall were based in the UK when they won here in order to ride in the league here.

It was PC, and I reckon he would have gone through those rounds even if they'd been in Poland, and that's without being a regular in the country. He did, after all, win the final so there's no reason why he shouldn't. Speedway was much more a global sport in those days though. At the moment it's a Polish one, with Sweden and Britain as bit players. (Possibly Russia too? Not sure how popular it is there.)

Whilst it is strange to have all these meetings in Poland, it is worth remembering that Poland is probably the only country in the World these days where speedway actually means anything. Also, all the top riders ride there. So I don't think having so many rounds in Poland devalues it in terms of whether or not the rider who wins is a legitimate champion. I think all the riders in the GP ride in Poland. I went to 5 world finals in England - 3 were won by a Dane, one by an American and one by a Swede. None of them English, but all rode for English teams at the time. The one time I saw an English rider win a World Final was in Poland.

Seriously? You think World of Sport highlights a week after the actually meeting is better than being able to watch a live Grand Prix from Poland on a Saturday night? You can't please everyone I guess!

I remember a track like that many times at Reading, although Oxford and Swindon were also prone to the odd dustbowl too. You'd need a shower when you got home!

I always enjoyed watching those but I have absolutely no memory of who won any of them. They were a nice Easter weekend of entertainment though, although, at that time, I regularly went to all 3 tracks so had an interest in all the teams.

I was thinking the same thing, although maybe not 25 points as that would be too much in my opinion. I'd say 20 points for winning the meeting - which couldn't be bettered but could be equalled - and then use individual points for the others.

Pretty sure Troy is now a British citizen. I'm sure remember seeing a picture of him displaying his British passport.

Speaking of Love Island, a certain Rasmus Jensen took part in the Danish version of the show. Probably fully booked up already, but would be a good signing.

Found it now. You need to select "other sports" to get Eurosport 1 or 2.

Ok. I'll have a look if I get to log on again. I have it on my tv and couldn't see any toggle or anything but, then again, I wasn't looking for one.

I noticed that. I use Eurosport player and Eurosport 2 wasn't listed and neither was the match shown on the menu - which was all olympics. I found it by searching "speedway". Eurosport has always been a bit amateurish. Speedway actually does pretty well out of them in that they are actually doing their own broadcast. Normally they just stick on a feed of something. This was always a downgrade from BT Sport.

The racing last night reminded me of how Swindon became before they shortened it. Four riders going round equispaced for four laps in many races.

Are you sure it's not Jurgen Klinsmann?

That's when I used to go. Yes, it was really good. I reckon Scud Smith would liven things up! ☺

I used to go to Sheffield regularly and the racing was excellent. I was just thinking I'm sure it used to be better than this. Maybe it will improve later.

You could, for team building, leave out fractions. It does, perhaps, leave some riders exposed. You could, for example, have all riders from 6.50 to 7.49 rated as a 7.00 riders, but is that fair on riders who average 6.50? Perhaps base in on 0.50 of a point. So 6.75 to 7.24 become 7.00. Riders from 6.25 to 6.74 become 6.50. This would be for team building only. They would still retain a proper average for team positions. In case you haven't guessed, I actually quite enjoy the fractions of a point! But it can cause problems in team building where riders miss out by the smallest of margins. Then again, it's open to manipulation, but what isn't? So, for example, Belle Vue: Kurtz 7.5 Bewley 7.0, Wright 6.0, S. Worrall 5.5, R. Worrall 5.0, Etheridge 5.0 Kings Lynn: Jorgensen 6.5, Riss 6.0, Lawson 6.0, Heeps 6.0, Kerr, 6.0, Wells 4.0

Why would you scrap studio analysis? Surely more ineresting than tractors grading the track.

I agree, which is what made the commentary on Eurosport all the more essential. It was explained clearly at, first of all, Madsen had to win his last heat to still be in with a chance of winning the title. Then, if Michelsen won his final heat he was guaranteed the championship, but he came second. So, it needed Madsen to win the final and Michelsen to come last for there to be a run off. Michelsen needed just 1 point to win, so offered little resistance to Madsen's challenge without it. I would say that the meeting would not even have been half as interesting without having all this explained in the final few races.

Neither did the director by the looks of things, as they seemed to show Leon Madsen looking not particularly overjoyed at winning the meeting for quite a while.

Enjoyed the meeting, and must say it was enhanced thoroughly by David Rowe's brilliant commentary and constant breakdown of the figures, points and how they affected the outcome. I don't know who put on the production, but I was amazed that it gave no indication of the championship standings on the graphics, and I can see from comments on here that people who, presumably, didn't have that commentary, weren't sure what was happening because of it.

I nearly mentioned the maximum in Mike Keen's Testimonial. I remember Mike Keen going onto the second bend with a hosepipe and watering the track in the midst of a rain storm!