MattK

Interesting. If the hosts will be seeded directly to the finals, it now makes no sense at all having the race-off and finals in the same location.

Surely the current host nation/city/stadium have to bid for the rights?

They'd also have to start seeding riders straight through to the finals, as can you imagine a world final at Wembley with no British riders. It would be half empty.

Sounds like a desperate attempt to avoid the commercial catastrophe of hosts not qualifying for the finals. 4 riders instead of 5, meh.

Eight. Poland, UK, Poland, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Poland, Australia, Poland, back to UK

The majority of riders do already ride in Poland, Sweden and Denmark.

Crump alone can't be far off £1k a point, meaning that his wage bill could be around £15,000 per meeting.

DMBC?

I bet it wouldn't have been half as popular if the team was called the Wolverhampton Wolf Cubs or the Birmingham Baby Brummies, though would it? Either way it was a very clever idea to resurrect the Heathen name. As for Newport (both big and little teams), I am at a loss to explain their lack of local support. A cracking little stadium and a good track for racing. I have always enjoyed my albeit very cold trips for the NY classic. And let's be honest, there can't be that much else to do in Newport, can there?

I think these two sum it up. Running a NL team will not attract any new supporters, unless you have a clever marketing ploy (like calling your team Dudley), therefore you are totally reliant on your core supporters going to two meetings a week, a habit that clearly could get very expensive. The worst case scenario is if your supporters choose to only attend NL meetings, rather than the main team, which by the sounds of it Newport may also have suffered with.

Let's face it, countries like Austria, Holland, Hungary, Croatia, Norway and NZ would not be able to find two world class riders any more than they can currently find five.

I don't really see how the additional of more minor nations to the preliminary rounds will enhance the SWC - it is all about the final week and the eight major qualifying teams. However, the idea of the World Pairs is very appealing. The format would need to be tweaked, the Elite Pairs format doesn't work for me, but BSI seem to be the masters of extracting the utmost excitement from a competition, so I would be interested to see them give it a go. Maybe another week could be set aside for this competition(!).

If BSI are really on the ball they could start promoting the world U21 to get it on TV and what not, so that casual viewers are more familiar with the quality of the young riders coming through the system.

You've still go the current crop of younger GP stars such as Hampel, Kolodziej, Jonsson, Sayfutdinov, Bjerre, Holder, Lindgren plus exciting fringe riders such as Lindback and Zagar, followed by a crop of youngsters including Ward, Janowski, the Pawlicki brothers, Vaculik, M Jespen Jensen, Dudek, Andersson, THJ, Woffinden and even Batchelor. I'd say the GP looks pretty healthy.

Interesting to read the comments about a well prepared track that served up some excellent heats. From an untrained eye (mine) it looked like the same track that we have had all season at Swindon and that certain Swindon supporters have been so critical of. The meeting itself was thoroughly enjoyable, the biggest crowd I've seen at Swindon since the 2009 play-off final, I'd say around 3,000. Nicholls was very unlucky having lead the final for 3.99 laps, but you can't argue with Schlein's determination. A worthy winner.

There are plenty of decent tracks that are not a PITA to get to. Coventry, Wolverhampton or Heaven forbid even Swindon for example. It would also be nice to share it around, so that some of the benefits of the SWC could be felt by other clubs. However, for all I know King's Lynn might be the only British track interested in hosting a round, which kind of makes all my arguments redundant.

What is this obsession with King's Lynn? There are other tracks in the UK.

That was a terrible move by Walasek. A rider of his experience should know better.

You could say that about any rider though. I want to see the 15 best riders in the GP and frankly Bomber, regardless of his nationality, isn't one of them.

I always tune in to watch Bomber half a lap behind everyone else. Although I'm not normal, I don't go in for all this jingoistic flag waving nonsense you see at Cardiff every time a British rider scores a point. I much prefer to support my home club Swindon riders (ironically a Brit this year). Frankly, on merit, no British rider deserves to be in the GPs in 2012 - and it wouldn't me if BSI try out a year without a permanent British competitor.

For me, there are no riders who obviously deserve a wildcard for 2012. I wonder if BSI will take a different approach and maybe nominate the top three riders from this year's World U21s?

No, you can pick any three you like, but the chances of them actually qualifying are pretty minimal.

Antonio Lindbäck Grzegorz Walasek Matej Zagar

Sayfutdinov obviously.

Can a rider be banned for persistent dangerous riding?