Grachan

King knew Moran was on his inside and was concentrating on Moran. Gundersen came from nowhere. It's as simple as that.

There's one with Ole Olsen around the same time, too, where you can literally see him waving a couple of Danes past on the last lap.

Just watch the race. There is no way they are chucking that race. Moran gets a flyer, nearly breaking tapes. Why do that if he's been paid off? King goes round Gundersen on the second bend. Why? Gundersen was a great starter. All they had to do was let him gate and Gundersen would have been gone. Watch the race. Forget Gundersen and watch King and Moran. They are flat out racing each other. If you met a guy who was in the pits and he said they were paid off he was probably told it by Sam Ermolenko!

Just had a look here: 1985 - Speedway Individual World Final - Bradford (Great Britain) - Erik Gundersen (Denmark) - YouTube Hans Neilsen uses a similar line in heat 10 to pass Jan Andersson (36:30). I remember at the time I very much wanted Neilsen to win and when Erik passed King and Moran I got the hump because he was just copying Hans! The Gundersen race is at 1:03:00. First of all, King passes Gundersen early in the race. Why would he do that if he was chucking the race for Erik to win? It looks to me like King moves in because he is trying to pass Moran and wants to clamp him down, which gives Erik a clear run round the outside. Any idea that King threw the race looks like nonsense to me. I reckon Sam just got the hump because it gave him less chance of winning.

My own memory of Gundersen's pass was that Hans Neilsen had done a similar move in a previous race and Erik had tried the same move and it worked perfectly, just as it had for Hans.

I'm not condoning illegal immigrants, but I'm sure that any who are picked up would be held in holding centres for at least a couple of weeks to ensure they are covid free. As for sending them back to Europe, we can no longer transfer migrant back to France as we have left the EU so are no longer signed up to something called "Dublin III", which allowed asylum seekers to be returned to the EU member state where they came from. Apparently. Not that I recall many being sent back before we left the EU either. Migrant crossings: What happens to migrants who reach the UK? - BBC News

Had to google that. Thandie Newton is actually Thandiwe Newton. And, yes, she's pretty well known.

I've seen wider parking spaces for women in Germany. Maybe they should have them for pensioners too.

I seem to remember that when I started going in 1974, Peter Craven still held a track record somewhere. Not sure where it was now. Maybe Oxford? Or Coventry?

Brilliant. I've been trying (and struggling) to get enthusiasm for Sheffield, as my "second" team with Swindon pulling out. With Steady, Batch and now Adam there I might even make a trip up to watch the Tigers this year. Now, where's my Sheffield Tigers polo shirt? I'm sure I've still got it somewhere.

That may well be the case. All I'm saying is that blaming crowd levels on the percentage of ethnic minorities in the city doesn't make sense. I remember going to a Bradford v Swindon match in what was probably the late 1980s and was pretty much stood alone on the back straight.

This argument doesn't stand up at all, even if speedway didn't attract non-white people. If Bradford has a population of 530,00 and 67.44% of the population are white, that still leaves around 360,000 white people in Bradford. That's more than the entire populations of Poole and Swindon combined.

Alternatively, you only need to finish in the top four so could possibly afford to have a number one missing for a couple of meetings during the season - particularly in a 6 team league. Swings and roundabouts, I guess. It depends when you lose a rider.

Pretty similar to what they did in about 1977 or 1978, but it was only done for one season. It came up with some big scores, with riders like Finn Thomsen and Henny Kroeze getting 21 points, but it was certainly better option than guests. I think they did it that the rider above the missing rider in the averages can have one R/R ride, and everyone else can have up to 3 R/r rides. THen, I think, you were allowed a guest if you had 2 riders missing. When Swindon won the league in 1967 they lost Barry Briggs for about a month following a crash in Germany and had to use their number 8 in his place. They still came top despite that. There is too much of an obsession with equality thee days.

To be honest, I'm kind of resigned to the strength of the league this year after seeing so many riders opt out of their own accord. For example, I was concerned that Adam Ellis might not get a team, only to later discover he had opted out of the UK himself anyway. It now looks like the points limit wasn't as daft as I first thought, although I'm not sure about the number 7 rule - particularly as riders such as Anders Rowe already have a proper team slot anyway. I think that Covid and the Polish rules have effectively finished off top flight speedway in this country.

Surprised to see Anders Rowe signed as he is the type of rider I would have expected to be classed as a "rising star". Good to see him get a team though.

If you are going to stream live interviews during a meeting then surely it's best to put them up on a big screen so that everyone can see them as part of the experience. A stadium full of people wearing headphones and staring at a phone is not going to attract people to speedway. It just makes it less interesting for those who are not doing it.

Spot on. Even my own kids pretty said the same thing. Why would you want a speedway app? You go to speedway if you're in to speedway.

I decided to ask my 20 year old daughter about whether a phone app would attract young people to speedway. She looked at me, screwed up her face, and said: "Why would you have a phone app for speedway?" So I questioned whether or not a phone app might attract young people. She reckons not. Her opinion is you go to speedway because you like speedway not to look at a phone app. Why would anyone go to speedway to look at a phone app, she asked. My teenage son likes speedway and goes sometimes. I asked him about a phone app before when it was suggested. Pretty much the same reaction from him. He'll go because he likes it. A phone app makes no difference. My own opinion - a stadium full of people looking a phone apps would be a silent stadium. Young people are very specific about what social media they use. Even the wrong sort of social media - even though they all do the same thing - is a definite no-no.

If you want to make a football comparison, then the closest to Speedway would probably be the National Conference league, which attracts crowds of around a thousand. The only admission price I could find was St Albans, who charge £18.

Good to see Batch sorted out at Sheffield. He should go well round Owlerton.

Clearly some people think that having a top league of 6 teams at this strength is a good thing. Hopefully there are enough to keep the sport going.

I haven't said we need World Championship standard riders, although I made the point earlier. Bringing in these riders doesn't increase crowds. However, getting rid of them lowers crowd levels. Somerset signed Jason Doyle but it meant little to non-speedway fan. If Swindon, for example, had been forced to get rid of him then their crowds would have dropped. I think you need a strong level of team in the top tier, especially if that league has just 6 teams in it. It needs something to make it an appealing league. I don't even think we need GP riders necessarily. Just good, solid top tier sides. A top league with a points limit of the one they have come up with will lose supporters. I can see very small crowds coming out if the league runs this year. By all means have a league of this strength, but don't sell it as the top league.

Reducing costs reduces crowds. It always has done.

Who are the others? I've no idea who has signed for whom at the moment. Just hoping that Adam Ellis gets a team place somewhere under this ridiculous points limit.