Grachan

Yeah, it seems to be that kind of sport where is doesn't attract widespread coverage even at its most popular.

I would imagine that Speedway's popularity in Poland is similar to how it was in England in the 1970's. Nationwide coverage on World of Sport, second most popular spectator sport in the country, front page of the Daily Mirror when Peter Collins won the World title. But still you would find many people who had no idea what it was.

I mentioned to a Polish friend of mine that I'd been to speedway the previous evening and she said: "Really? Speedway is really popular in Poland. Where was that? I didn't know they had it here."

Because 2nd place would have been enough to make KK the winner of the meeting. It used to happen in one-off World finals. Many riders (eg Mauger, Collins, Penhall) settled for a second in their final ride to ensure winning the meeting and not take any unneccesary risk. Even a third would have guaranteed a GP place. Instead he found himself excluded and at risk of not qualifying. That's why he could have settled for second.

Zagar gets KK through.

He had the beating of 3 of the main contenders there only to get wiped out by a rider who could have settled for 2nd place.

What the hell!! Hope Adam is ok after that.

Plus only the top 6 in the GP qualify for next year.

Yeah, it's painful. Normally I don't watch the feeds, but I'm interested in this so I'm trying but it's not easy. A couple of times I've been just about ready to give up and one of them has come back but I'm not sure I'll get o the end.

Very hard to keep up with who is who. Does anyone have a link to some sort of score card? We have been spoilt by BT with the way they keep the riders and helmet colours up on screen.

Do you know what that stands for? You have just been extremely rude.

I was actually quoting directly from the government's Life in the UK handbook when I put Rugby. So you can't blame the damn BSF for it.

Apart from the obvious top 3 of Football, Cricket and Rugby the lists seem to vary greatly with no real statistical evidence. I guess they have been mainly guessed by different people.

I think you should lay off the "autism" stuff. It's not big. It's not clever. And it might offend an awful lot of people. And having an interest in numbers and figures doesn't automatically make someone Rain Man.

Agree on all three point, but particularly the second one. There is too much emphasis now on positive test numbers, but these are wholly dependent on who decides to have a test and gives no indication on how serious the case is. The figures we need to know are how many people get it serious enough to have to go into hospital and how many die. Without that it is just another virus.

This is the official list of sports, taken directly from the "Life in the UK Test" official handbook for all the dodgy foreigners who want to live permanently in the UK and take all our jobs but claim all our benefits too. Cricket Football Rugby Horse Racing Golf Tennis Water Sports (bit general that) Motor Sports (and that. I guess that covers speedway although in the notes it's all about F1) Skiing (Yup. Skiing)

I saw a couple of lists that have Netball third or fourth too, which I find strange. That one has rounders. I guess it must mean as a participation sport. All the lists do seem very subjective.

This, from 2019, has speedway fifth, which seems a bit optimistic but it's good to see it recognised. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-popular-sports-in-the-united-kingdom.html I found another that had Speedway 7th. Others don't include it at all. It is the certainly something of a cult sport.

It is.

I doubt it too. He showed last year and with his scoring this year that he is clearly still improving.

Probably true. However, if Mark Loram had won a one-off final I'm sure many people would have said that he wouldn't have won under the Grand Prix system.

Although, if the end of last season was his peak and he rides like that in this meeting he may well qualify.

Interesting comments looking through that old thread, such as how Colston was slave trader but nobody objects to him in Bristol and how nobody minds there being a sports team in the USA called "The Redskins". Both those issues have come to light lately.

As people say, Ivan and Hans would probably have dominated in a Grand Prix series when at their peak. To expect them to win every year is probably still pushing things a bit htough. Erik Gundersen certainly had the World Championship mentality. And riders like Olsen, Collins and, as stated, Michanek were definitely worthy World Champions. Also, if ther had been a Grand Prix in place in the 1970s, Tommy Jansson wouldn't have been riding in a World Championship qualifier on 20 May 1976.

It's all good experience for him. From what I saw last year he is the most likely British rider around at the moment outside the big two to make it to international standard.