Grachan

The GB team didn't finish first in the final. The first team to finish was Russia. Agree with the warnings. Thought that was too harsh.

Did they? Looked to me like Laguta was going flat out for the win until Tai passed him.

Surely a referee who is a probationer and has sole control of a meeting has finished his training and should, therefore, know the rules? Or am I wrong there?

I always enjoy my wife's comments when watching speedway. She's a non-fan but watches sometimes and gets into it. In this meeting she was cheering for 'the little boy', and just kept laughing whenever he rode well. Because he's "a little boy".

I think the better way would have been that in the event of a 3-3, the top scoring side are the winners. Not just because GB were top scorers, but to make more value of those 40-odd races beforehand. So the second top scoring side would need a 4-2 to win. Talking of that final, I was disappointed at the end, and commented on here that we might have won if Tai had slowed the race, but when you see Tai's comments, they make sense. Basically, we went into that race with a winning mentality - to go and win the heat and, thus, go in and attack the race. Race positively. I can see the validity in that, even though it never worked (mainly because the Russians had a very strong pair and it was unlikely either of them would finish last). In the end, Robert Lambert was very close to passing Emil at the end of the race, but never, so the tactic never worked. But they went into the race with the mindset to go out and take the race, and the main reason they never was because Russia were on a 5-1 on the first lap so GB became every man for himself.

I set up to record on You View, but when I put the tv on at 8 it wasn't recording and I watched live from heat 5 onwards.

If Jason Doyle became a British Citizen (which he may do in the future as he has a British wife) then there's no reason he shouldn't ride as British. For me, if Rory Schlein is a British Citizen then I don't see why he shouldn't ride in the British Final, as long as it is the only national final he competes in. If it is jut down to licensing then I don't think he should.

Which would have ruled out Mark Loram in the past and Adam Ellis now.

I don't know if he has, but if he has taken out British Citizenship then he is a Brit.

Do they have to make the winner of this meeting the GP wildcard? They don't do it every year. Can they just go with Lambert anyway, even if he doesn't win?

By having Lambert at reserve you could effectively use him at will and have, in Cook, a GP rider as back up. It made sense for him to be reserve if he was eligible.

Tennis?

Laguta never slowed to let Tai past, I'm sure, but, as soon as Tai goes past him you can see that he immediately looked round to see where Emil was.

I think you are missing the point. People aren't saying it would have neccesarily got Lambert through, they are saying that it was, in the situation, worth a try because, even if Emil had then got past Tai, it made no difference. And, imagine if Laguta had seen Tai doing that and decided to also drop back to try and help Emil. What a race we would have had! I think the main reason people were disappointed is because they thought Tai might do thst. Had it been Australia, for example, I don't think anyone would have expected Doyle to try to get his partner through as he had shown no such inclinations in other races. On reflection, I think the plan in the final was for Robert Lambert to gate and for Tai to support him to go for the win, but the whole thing went out the window when the Russians both gated ahead so we were playing catch up with no plan B. In retrospect it's probably harsh to criticise Tai, who was in a position he wasn't expecting and had to make a snap decision to go after the Russians.

Football World Cup coming up, where a team can finish top of it's league and lose the final to a team that finished below it.

You do realise that GB scored more points than Russia, right? That's not a complaint. I just felt it was an indication of which team did better in the qualifying heats. Bonus points are only relevant if it is a tie. It wasn't a tie. One thing that was interesting in the final, watching it again. At the exact moment Tai is coming round Laguta, Laguta looks behind to see where Emil is, and makes a half hearted effort to slow down a bit. But he hadn't looked before then. Both teams went for the heat win in the final rather than go for second and third. Personally I was hoping for a more tactical race, which would have been fascinating to watch, but we were always up against it considering Russia's second day form. This, perhaps, is another flaw. GB were the form team on day one and Russia on day two. The form team on day two has a better chance of wining, therefore, even if they don't win the heats over all. In the end, it was a good competition. I enjoyed it. But they must have been disappointed with the crowd, which would have filled the stadium were it a World Cup final. Tai and Robert both came out of it with a lot of credit. Tai looks like he could be a 3 time World Champion, and Robert Lamberts looks ready to step up to the big time. His race with Janowski proved it, and he was so close to passing Emil in the final. I just wish we'd seen a more tactical last race. Whether that was down to the manager or the riders, I guess we'll never know.

So Woffy deliberately made sure GB lost the final to ensure Rosco didn't win the tournament? Is that your theory?

Will you stand by that opinion if it turns out that Rosco instructed Tai to go all out for the win, Rob?

It's just a legitimate tactical discussion.

All the more reason for Tai to let Laguta go and try to block Emil. Lambert was all over Emil at the end. With a bit of help he could have got past. In any other race there would be no point Tai hanging back and getting passed by Emil, but in a one off final they may as well have risked giving away a 5-1 to give Rob a chance.

Hate to say it, but if Tai had hung back we would have won that.

If you look at the translated article, there is a dash where there should be speech marks. This is consistent throughout the whole article. Cieslak just speaks from... "I will not talk about the track....."

And there was me thinking Wales was part of Great Britain. Cieslak said nothing about the track in the article. Phil Morris' name was subtly mentioned in the article by the journalist who wrote it, to tempt readers into thinking the track might have been set up for GB, without actually saying it.

What a performance by Woffinden! That must go down as possibly the greatest performance of all time by a British rider. Stunning. Of course, Sod's law says that this is the meeting that goes ovrr 2 days and all comes down to a final, sonthere's a long way to go yet. Lambert was brilliant too, and his gating was top draw, making things a lot easier. I really enjoyed the meeting, but it's no World Cup. What a shame they can't at least call it a World Championship. The size of the crowd, even in Poland, must tell them something.

Correct. And very entertaining it would be too. I'm not sure what your problem is really. Many riders in the past have tried to slow a race to get their partner through. It's a tactic. What's the problem?