uk_martin

Stick to pirating and pasting instead of writing freehand... The truth is that he IS confirmed. The full story is here - http://www.birminghambrummies.co/news.php?extend.1467

As a "neutral" I thought that considering the circumstances tonight saw a good evening's entertainment. It had been raining all day so to see the track in such a condition was little short of a miracle. Top marks to the track staff. Well done to all the riders and to Denmark for winning. The cream rose to the top in the end. Shame that there were so many unsold seats in the stadium. Having been to Gorzow last year I was expecting a sell-out, but it was not to be. One final thank you goes again to the stadium staff. Sweden has had just ss wet a summer as England and even after 24 hours of rain, unlike at Silverstone, the soft standing car parks were perfectly fit for purpose. That's 2 thoroughly enjoyable SWC events in the last 2 years. Roll on Prague next year.

All the talk about playing a tactical game goes out the window when a chain breaks or a clutch burns out. I think you have to go for "Virgo-Taktik" - i.e. "Score as many points as you can". Another example of "keeping it simple, stupid"!

Has anyone seen the official line-ups yet? When did Team GB become "England"? Do I need to dash out quickly and buy new flags to take with me tomorrow?

Thanks for the information. We'll be driving from Gothenburg Airport in the late morning / afternoon on Thursday, and keeping fingers crossed ;-) Our first route will be to the hotel maybe via lunch by the lake in Jonkoping and a detour to go past Mariannelund before coming back towards Hultsfred and then the second route will be from the hotel to the track. We can but give it all a go and allow ourselves as much time as possible.

I know Scandanavia is an expensive place, but it that typical of the difference in the cost of all bike parts in Denmark? It must cost these young guys a fortune to get started in the sport before they have the luxury of sponsors to help out with the expenses. And yet the conveyor belt of promising young Danes keeps churning them out...

Seems that the runners and riders are: (GB first and then the rest in order of how many contenders they have) GB K Newman Poland K. Gomolski P. Pawlicki T. Musielak B. Zmarzlik L. Sowka Denmark N. Porsing M. Michelsen R. Jensen Czech O. Smetana E. Krcmar V. Milik Ukraine K. Tcukanov V. Tejgel (Res) Latvia A. Lebedevs Hungary R. Benko Sweden O. Berntzon Russia V. Kulakov (Res) Best of luck to Kyle. On a Polish track, and with 5 Polish riders in the field, however, I suspect he will need all the luck he can get.

Acording to http://speedway.org/...2012/index.html 1. B Zmarzlik - 15pts 2. L Sowka - 12pts 3. N Porsing - 11pts 4. M. Michelsen - 11pts 5. O. Berntzon - 11pts 6. R Jensen - 11pts 7. F. Engman - 8pts 8. K. L. Nielsen - 7pts 9. N. B. Jacobsen - 6pts 10. T Jorgensen - 6pts 11. J Thorsell - 4pts 12. A. MORRIS - 4pts 13. K Nissen - 3pts 14. A Mochner - 3pts 15. J.B.Andersen - 2pts 16. E Grondal - 2pts 17. V. Palovaara - 2pts 18. N. Hesse - 0pts Fascinating - 2 Poles, 13 Scandanavians, 2 Germans and a sole Brit...and the 2 Poles come 1st and 2nd...

So why is it then that for the SWC one manufacturer can produce all the race suits, and the riders have to wear them, but when EL teams get their race suits done, individual riders insist on getting their pet (sponsored?) manufacturer to do their own suits, resulting in very noticable differences in what should appear to be a "uniform" appearance?

Looking forward to supporting Team GB in Sweden on Thursday and I think that they will get through in Kings Lynn as long as they don't make a mess of things and end up having to decide the last qualifying place against Germany in a Penalty Shoot-Out.

I stand corrected. I had in my mind that Gorzow was 360m, but you're right. Mind you, Gdansk looked a bit tighter than Gorzow, to me at least (on telly last week) which gave me the impression that it was smaller.

Are you sure? I think I've seen scorecards where Adrian Cyfer of Stal Gorzow has only had one ride. I may be wrong and I wish I could know where to find an archive of score cards to check on this. But back to the point...Zmarzlik was outstanding last week in the SGP on his own track, last Saturday, then on Sunday, he was utterly mediocre away in Gdansk, and today, 10 (paid 11) from 4 rides on his home track, with Emil Saturdayjob being the only Polonia Big-Dosh rider to beat him. Funnily enough, Gdansk is rather smaller than Gorzow, kind of lending credance to the thought that BZ needs to get out more and gain experience on a wider number of tracks and environments, else he could end up a one-track-pony.

IF you've got his number you can ring bluejam up. He was in Gdansk this afternoon to watch Tarnow getting beaten. Seems that Bogdanovs rode a blinder, and that Tarnow were effectively a 3-man team for the day.

Poor old Google Translate. Now and again in an effort to serve us well, it throws up a couple of howlers. Usually, it's where names are translated straight into English when of course, the software isn't aware that it's a name at all. Here's a couple that amused me... Adrian Digits = Adrian Cyfer (Stal Gorzow) David Leopard = Dawid Lampart Joseph Snuff = Josef Tabaka What have you found that Google Translate has come up with that has made you smile?

Don't over-egg that one. Don't forget that in Poland at least, this "getting a chance in the big league" could mean one solitary outing in Bieg 1 only. How many British riders would want to, or be able to afford to ride in a reserve berth in an EL team and only get an ride in the reserves race?

Top post! Well said. Depends on where his schooling is. As I alluded to before, if he sticks to the Ekstraliga Akademie of Zuzel, then his development will be slower than if he goes to the University of the Big Wide World. I mentioned about the Swedish, Danish and British leagues, A winter in Australia wouldn't hurt him either.

Who would have thought, back in the days of Peter Collins, Michael Lee, Kenny Carter etc etc, that British riders would fail, where riders from such powerhouses of world speedway such as Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia and Germany would get their qualifiers through?

Too bad that they didn't hear you...Tomasz Gollob, Gregorz Walasek etc Zmarzlik has shown that he has some raw talent. He has a great teacher in Gollob too, however I wonder how blinkered his education will be? MJJ is getting to experience tracks in the Danish, British, Swedish and Polish leagues, whereas BZ has had 3 Swedish meetings and a handfull of FIM qualifying events away from Poland. BZ's performance in Sweden shows his lack of experience on smaller more technical tracks too. http://www.speedwayresults.com/rider.php?name=Bartosz&surname=Zmarzlik&type=Swedish%20Alsvenskan&season=2012 I hope that once his schooldays are over, he too can get to learn a bit more about tracks less than 360m in length and hopefully a British team will be blessed with his presence in the near future.

Well done to the Birmingham Brummies 2011 Heat 1 pairing of "KK" & "Officer Dibble". Who'd have forecasted Officer Dibble would win in Divisov, and what will the Belle Vue faithful think when he only gets 5 or 6 in his next league meeting after this? lol

I just hope to goodness that this meeting is set in stone, in the fixtures, else sadly, it is not inconceivable that this meeting ends up biting the dust. If someone, with their commercial head on, decides that the needs of the team outweigh the needs of the one, especially in this "professional era" when the wants and desires of advertisers and sponsors outweigh all else, and with the number of rain-offs that need rearranging coming close to exceeding the number of dates available in the calendar, then this meeting could well be binned. Personally I think it would be such a shame to see this meeting being cancelled, but then I'm just a speedway and Jason Lyons fan, and what do fans matter these days?

Actually yes! Now that he's with a properly managed Polish team that won't ban him from racing in the UK, I think he could have been a better #1 for us that Barnyard Pedersen has been so far. Would still like to see Tomasz Gollob in the Jason Lyons farewell though!

Delighted at the signing of Piotr Protasiewicz. I'm sure that it won't be the last of the "old pals" that will find their way over for this meeting, and I'm hoping that it won't be the only Polish rider either. (no prizes for guessing who lots of people would like to see grace the Perry Barr shale for this event) Really looking forward to this event more than ever now.

Why doesn't Matt Ford do another raid on the Unibax Torun riding staff, and give Emil Pulczynski a try? At least there is the option that if Emil was ever unavailable, his identical twin brother Kamil could step in and no-one would know the difference. Not that I'm saying that Matt Ford would stoop so low as to try that sort of trick of course.

Au contraire monsieur Jacques. If GD has given BP the "hairdryer treatment" then he's gone up in my estimation. About time BP started performing like a #1. If he needed a few home truths telling, then so be it. If BP wants treating with more respect then he'd better start earning it.

Is attending practise compulsary? If so, that will scupper the 14th as well as the 15th for the PL guys.