uk_martin

Life's not too bad for the travelling fans either. Return airfare to & from Poznan was about £56, return train fare from Poznan to & from Gorzow is under £10 and admission to the stadium for under £13. It's cheaper to go to Gorzow (v Zielona Gora) than it used to be to fuel-up a car and watch the Brummies away at Edinburgh or Glasgow. Keep an eye open for a Union Jack flying in the crowd somewhere...

When I was in Torun last September, I stayed a night in a hotel that appeared to have a Polish Cable TV station that was showing Polish 1st Division speedway (Gdansk v someone- sorry I can't remember lol). I saw a highlights programme, late at night, so maybe they do, or maybe don't do live broadcasts, I don't know. Does anyone have any more information about this channel (sorry, too much alcohol to remember names of TV stations, that late at night lol) and whether there are online streams to it?

Anyone who is into Satellite TV, and is looking at upgrading their receiver may wish to have a look at this - http://www.azbox.com...registos&id2=14 Not only does it receive TV by satellite, but it does YouTube (like those TiVO boxes do) and also IPTV. Hopefully what that will mean is that if you input the IP address of the online feed, the Satellite receiver will show Kanal Sport like it was any other TV station, right onto your television.

Excellent!!! The sport is going truly international I wonder how long before we get more Indian teams competing in the Polish leagues.

Seems that DK4 retain the SGP series for the benefit of Danish viewers.

When they do the highlights packages they are sometimes on TVP1, which is also in HD, but I've not yet seen a live league meeting in HD yet. BTW, I was watching the SGP on UK Sky on Saturday, Do Canal+ still provide SGP coverage in Poland? Was well impressed with their coverage of it last year, and they have launched a HD channel since then,

Any idea when TVP Sport will broadcast iin HD like the main TVP station does? The standard definition satellite station is pretty good, but being able to see/record in HD would be so much better.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, the accident happened in the Birmingham v Newcastle National League fixture at the Bordesley Green track. I think I've been told about this accident, although I wasn't there at the time. Scroll down to "Issue 3" here - http://www.retro-speedway.com/page.php?14 - and maybe buy the magazine! There are also other threads on here discussing Joe Owen - e.g. http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...showtopic=40567

Sheffield and Poole can happily manage without a mid winter meeting. One gets the impression that the NYC and the (post Grand Prix) Welsh Open are two key meetings that ensure tha financial stability of Newport. Take one of its key "earners" away from it and you could lose Newport from the sport. Don't think anyone would want that would they?

If that's his style then he must be related to that young lady who was walking around in the lowest cut top ever worn on a freezing cold January afternoon (in the northern hemisphere, anyway). No amount of draught exclusion could have protected her belly button, I'm sure! I'm with HeyJude on this one, just to witness the bikes, get a whiff of the speedway aroma, and to hear those engines again was enough, and it beats what was on telly! And as for the track, I think that the staff did an excellent job in the circumstances. I'd seen it in a worse state on a couple of occasions in the last couple of summers.

Yes, in Hopwood's case the figures don't quite tell how bad the performance was, He fell twice in his first ride, remounting after the first tumble only to come a cropper half a lap later. And no, he was left way behind at the gate and was well off the pace all the time that he wasn't well off his bike. However, (very) young British "Talent", was on display aplenty. Only problem was that mixing kids who look like they are still strangers to a speedway bike, with the Iversens, Boxall's and Doolans of the world, doesn't make for competitive racing. It also peeves a lot of people who, with reruns included, had to endure over 30 races in cryogenic conditions, because the novices kept on falling off, causing race stoppages. Not that all fallers were novices as Messrs Roynon and Mills will admit to, but on the whole it was the kids wot did it. However there are plenty of people who would support riders like Hopwood, Tom Young, James White Williams and Daniel Henderson being given their chance...maybe they could do a good job in the Rye House team that is crying out for 3 more riders? Come to that, I wonder if former Rockets skipper, Brent Werner could have ridden his way to a new Silver-plated contract?

I think you will find that the SCB forbids the referees from ever appearing on a forum like this to give their reasons. Rugger! I'd love to see what McGregor's report says. Will he be big enough to carry the can or will he coat himself in teflon and blame someone else? One thing's for sure, the issue is now too well known to be not mentioned at all.

"Obviously not read" eh? Well that's the one report that says that there was "an" extinguisher there. There are others who say that there wasn't one there. (posts 107, 108, 111, 116, 123, etc) Maybe there was "an" extinguisher, but was it the right type? Was it water, CO2, foam or powder? If the wrong one for a fuel fire was there, then not using it was the right thing to do, which then begs the question, of where the right extinguisher was? Perhaps the situation is best explained by the track staff who are on here, as those of us who where not there can only ask the questions, and not pre-suppose the answers. Going back to my original point though, the question that I posed was what Jim McGregor's report is likely to say of the incident, and who he will put the blame onto?

Seems that as neither ML or myself were there, we need an eye witness account to help out, as some previous posts seem to offer conflicting accounts of events. ML seems to have read that there was an extinguisher there, whereas I read otherwise. I don't blame ML for being in disbelief that there shouldn't be a fire extinguisher at the start gate, which perhaps only illustrates the seriousness of the blunder, if that's what it was. So... Can someone who was there please clarify...was there a fire extinguisher at the starting gate / podium? Out of interest, how was the fire put out in the end?

First time of reading that I thought that it may actually have been a defence of Jim McGregor, but then I thought, No! Can't be! Not from a speedway fan who's witnessed him in action. First rule of first aid is "never become a casualty yourself". Now this isn't first aid as such, but "first point of help" maybe. Without fire extinguishers, what else could anyone do that wouldn't endanger themselves? Dunno, wasn't there, but we did have something similar at Perry Barr earlier in the 2009 season, so I can picture what went on. (We did have a fire extinguisher to hand though) Bear in mind what someone else said that you can't always see flames that come from burning methanol. So whose job was it to take the fire extinguishers to the starting gate? Slapped wrists! Who was that person's supervisor? Clip around the ear hole! Who was the person looking directly at the starting grid from a point facing directly opposite, all meeting long, who didn't notice their absence? Who was is "supreme control of the meeting"? Kick up the backside, and an invitation to take early retirement!

Didn't Jerran Hart ride for Newport before joining Newcastle? I wonder if there is some "previous" that lies behind all this animosity?

I take those points, however, the buck stops at the top, in my opinion, as per 13.7 - "At a Meeting all Officials are subject to the authority of the Referee..." and 14.9 - "The MEETING REFEREE exercises supreme control of a Meeting..." Yes I can see McGregor giving the Clerk of the Course a flea in his ear, but when it comes to the report of what went on, it's the referee that controls the meeting....

Maybe Wanna ought to invite Jerran Hart to his 21st birthday party too...by the way, how many years down the line is it 'til Wanna's 21st?

I like it.. ...I was wondering though, if there was ever such a meeting, would he have any friends who would turn up or take part in it, or would the whole speedway world be there just to make sure that he does retire and leaves the sport alone? Anyway, it also brought another thought to mind. Referees submit reports to the SCB after every meeting, commenting on stuff like the state of the track, health and safety provisions etc etc... I wonder who is going to take the blame for the lack of fire extinguishers at the start line? Will McGregor tie his own noose, as at the end of the day, the buck stops with him on the day, or will he put the blame on the Scunthorpe organisation? Would love to get a copy of that report and see what it says.

Political correctness left "lagging" behind yet again!

Seeing Jim McGregor being mentioned in despatches again and seeing the obvious pain that the fans felt for his decision making, kind of makes me feel that there is something worse than being house-bound with a stinking cold.

Of course Darcy was a sore loser...he had a bad back, remember?

As far as I know, there is only one track, which is of training track quality, which was built by a couple of Brit ex-pat riders, near to the town of Murcia. I've not heard any news of it for a couple of years so I don't know if it is still running or if it became someone's "folly". There was an ex-Leicester fan who tried to run a "Speedway Bar" in Bennydorm, but that venture I believe was short lived. I don't think that the hot, dry, sandy, (Rye-House-esque?) conditions suit track preparation in the south of Spain. It would be interesting to see if that telly broadcast was a one-off or if they do speedway regularly on telly over there. Mind you, there will be a lot of MotoGP snobbery to get over for speedway to really take off in that country.

We can take Tomasz Piszcz out of that line up now I guess...

Excellent- everyone's underestimating the Brummies...that's how I like it.