lucifer sam

How Szczakiel performed at Wembley is immaterial. The World Final was about who was the best rider on the day - and he was the best rider on the day in Katowice. He gained every one of his 13 points fair and square, and wasn't involved in any controversial incidents (Mauger's fall in the run-off was completely of his own making). Szczakiel deserved to win the meeting. If Plech had been in the run-off and won, the highly controversial events of the fixed Heat 16 would have been the big story. And it would have given the Sunday People even more ammunition come 1984. It's just as well things shaped out as they did. All the best Rob

It is a public meeting at Chequers Quarry. Q&A session with leader of City Council Bob Price. 7th January at 7pm. All the best Rob

Ref could not give it to Plech... big hole in the rules at the time, which meant once a race had finished, positions had to be awarded in the order that (non-excluded) riders had finished. FIM rules changed after this - the race still had to finish before it could be awarded, but ref could award positions at time of incident. Technically, the referee was correct, although he had put on the red lights, Plech would have got a re-run. Lanning probably unhappy about Heat 16, when Jancarz moved aside to let Plech gain an extra point. Just as well that Szczakiel won the meeting - a rider who didn't receive any favours from anyone else. He beat Mauger twice and was a deserving winner. All the best Rob

Dekks, you been on the Christmas wine early or summat? You're making no sense. All the best Rob

Dekks, have you confused Nicki Pedersen for Ryan Fisher? Here's a clue for you. One of those two is a multi-World Champ; the other is a never-will-be. All the best Rob

Norbold, no Arne Pander? All the best Rob

Because otherwise when we die out, speedway dies out. Very interesting to read the thoughts of Grachan's 12-year-old. I think the fascination of working how to fill the programme was something that really helped drag me in around the age of 7 or 8. In football, unless the player is a striker, it's quite hard to monitor how an individual player compares to the rest of his team. In speedway, every rider gets a result in every race. More should be done to appeal to the inner nerd that lies inside most young lads. All the best Rob Yes, trying to second guess the team managers. And sometimes you were convinced actually, e.g. John Tremblin, got that wrong - I could have done the tacticals better than that!! All the best Rob

And don't forget Hannah Cockroft, despite the BBC's attempts to ignore Paralympic Sport. All the best Rob

"Would of"? No, he never "would of" Sid. Would have, maybe. Olsen was a fantastic rider at his peak, no doubt, but Mauger - apart from at Wembley - tended to have his measure. Olsen's record away from Wembley: one win, one third (both in Gothenburg). Never finished on the rostrum in Poland. Mauger was a real force in every country - two titles in GB, two titles in Sweden, two titles in Poland. Mauger would have won over 12 rounds most years. All the best Rob

Ivan's great season was '75 rather than '76. There was no one rider massively ahead in 1976, although PC won both the Inter-Continental Final and the World Final. It was in 1977 when PC was injured, just before the World Final. Ran over a drain cover at Belle Vue, He finished second in Gothenburg, in agony with his leg. Before that, he was on awesome form. All the best Rob

Mauger won have been hard to stop from 1968 to 1975, although Olsen might have just about achieved it in 1972, and Michanek had an exceptional season in 1973. Around 1976, it would have become a bit more open, PC was flying by then and Olsen also had some very good years. And then Lee came along and would have been a very serious contender in 1979. IMO I think Ivan would have won around 7 to 9 titles. All the best Rob

Yet both Starman and TWK have flouted forum rules with bigoted comments and foul-mouthed outbursts and yet are still posting on here. All the best Rob

What strikes me as very odd was the massive decline in Lewis Hamilton's vote from 12 months ago. Winning a third world title is a better achievement than winning a second and moves him into the ranks of the all-time greats. How odd that he received a mere fraction of the votes he did 12 months ago. Nothing to do with the BBC's announcement the following day that they are dropping F1, I suppose? A cynic would suggest that someone is making up the voting figures. All the best Rob

I think the only club with that level of financial resources would be Glasgow. They didn't want to move up for 2016 - I'm not sure beyond that. All the best Rob

I'm going to reserve my prediction for when all 13 teams are complete. At the moment, Glasgow, Workington, Scunthorpe and Sheffield seem to have the most room for improvement within the averages of their seven riders. We'll see what Edinburgh and Newcastle look like when we have a full 1-7. All the best Rob

Yeah, Nicki totally dominated in 2007 and 2008 - completely deserved. He was fortunate that Crump lost points to engine failures in 2003 - Crumpie was not a rider who had sub-standard machinery, he just had e/fs at the wrong time. Especially the one in the semi in Slovenia, which put Crump out of the final and Nicki into it. Huge swing of points there. But Nicki still had to go out there and get the points, and kept his cool in the decider in Norway. And maybe the luck went the other way in 2012. With one single refereeing decision being made another way, Nicki might have nicked it from Chris Holder at the death. All the best Rob

Not so sure. Fundin seemed to be the more consistent - their respective World Final records certainly suggest that. Between '56 and '63, I think Fundin would have ruled the roost, although I think Briggo may have forced the issue one year and come through - 1958? Briggo, Knutsson, Plechanov and Fundin would have all been trading blows in '64 and '65, while Briggo probably was ahead in '66 and '67, although there is the matter of Briggo's performance in the 1966 WTC FInal (1 point!!), so would he have scored enough points from the Polish GPs? And then Mauger is supreme from '68 to '75. I reckon Briggo would have won somewhere between 2 and 5 Grand Prix championships. All the best Rob

Maybe I should have included 5 pre-war riders instead of just the two (Wilkinson and Parker). Yeah, OK then, add three more riders to next in line: Vic Huxley, Jack Milne and Tom Farndon. All the best Rob

My top ten would vary day-to-day. Today I'm going for: 1. Ove Fundin 2. Ivan Mauger 3. Hans Nielsen 4. Bruce Penhall 5. Erik Gundersen 6. Tony Rickardsson 7. Peter Craven 8. Barry Briggs 9. Ronnie Moore 10. Vic Duggan Next in line... Jack Young, Ole Olsen, Jason Crump, Nicki Pedersen, Bluey Wilkinson, Bjorn Knutson, Peter Collins, Anders Michanek, Jan O Pedersen, Jack Parker, Greg Hancock, Sam Ermolenko, Per Jonsson, Graham Warren and Tai Woffinden. I've probably left someone out. All the best Rob

Sam Ermolenko always seems to get under-rated. Not quite sure why. Do people remember the fading rider of 1997-2005, rather the superstar of 1985 to 1996? He was the nearest challenger to threatening the Danish domination of the late 80s, and remarkably a serious injury only seemed to spur him on even more. There's no doubt he was the best rider in the world in 1993. Yes, he had a bit of luck on the day, when Frank Ebdon bizarrely didn't spot he shed a chain at the start of the re-run in Heat 15 and gave him another go in the re-re-run. But you often needed a little bit of luck to win a one-off World Final. To me, where Sam proved himself a deserving winner was the World Team Cup Final a couple of weeks later, when he beat Hans Nielsen in a last-heat decider at Coventry. Sam was a fully deserving World Champ. In the ranks of recent one-time winners from around that era, I'd rate him just slightly behind Jan O Pedersen, about level with Per Jonsson, but ahead of Gary Havelock, Billy Hamill and Mark Loram. And Shawn Moran? Come on Sid, there's no comparison there. Moran was ridiculously talented, but Sam Ermolenko was the biggest achiever of the two, without doubt. All the best Rob

Knudsen made a hash of the corner, and drifted too wide. It gave Nielsen the gap he needed. You've then got Nielsen (in front) on the inside half of the track, and Knudsen (now behind) on the outside. Knudsen then turns back in (as you say, he had room to continue on his line), and hits Nielsen's back wheel with his front wheel; Knudsen comes down, Nielsen briefly loses control as a result of being hit; the unfortunate Castagna catches TK's bike. I assume you're also watching the Danish (or German?) coverage - it's far superior to the video of the final, which doesn't capture it well at all. The 1993 final is different - Nielsen picks up a bit of drive and goes into Ermolenko's line. But in 1986, it was Knudsen who changed line to cause the contact. He made a mistake, and tried to correct it too late. All the best Rob

That would make sense. Does anyone have the result of the 1957 European Final? All the best Rob So Forsberg replaced the injured Nygren in the final, pushing Westerburg up to reserve. The 1957 final consisted of: defending champion Ove Fundin (seeded to final), top 5 from European Final, top 5 each from two British semi-finals. Crutcher and Geran finished sixth in the two British semi-finals and I assume they would have replaced any injured rider from "their" semi-finals. So three reserves, but the two reserves on the day were the 'locals' rather than the non-UK based European rider. Has a certain logic to it. All the best Rob

I'd probably pick Jan O slightly above the other two for a similar reason - we always seemed to be riding against Cradley, so I saw a lot of him. Jan O was the one rider who could beat Hans from the back around Cowley - well apart from Carl Blackbird, but that was a one-night only event. From around 1988 onwards, Jan O became Hans' toughest opponent at domestic level. I thought Jan O was a brilliant rider - the amount of speed he could generate, even around the smaller tracks, was simply breath-taking. I feel he would have also been World Champion in 1990, but for the freak off-track injury that ruled him out of the final. All the best Rob

Yes. And it made him all the more determined to win the following year. The difference between, say Hans Nielsen or Jason Crump, and for example Tommy Knudsen or Kenny Carter, is that Hans and Crumpie took bitter disappointment and came back all the stronger from it. Having lost out narrowly twice, Hans Nielsen had the mental toughness to go into a head-to-head showdown with Jan O Pedersen in Heat 20 in 1986, where he could have missed out yet again, and this time make sure he came out the winner. All the best Rob

What a bunch of sour grapes. Muller was far and away the best rider on the day, which is what counted in a World Final. He fully deserved the title. All the best Rob