MattK

Have a look here for some excellent Russian speedway action. Anyone for any more links?

Maybe if 2007 is Leigh's last year in the GPs, then it means he might be prepared to take a bigger hand in the running of Swindon.

Either I'm paying faaaarrrrr too much for my holiday, or you know something that no one else does.

Good news for Leigh

Is it? Are you sure? On what basis are you making this claim? Look at the Polish League team line-ups. Then look at the results and see the riders who miss matches. Adams, Pedersen, Andersen et al all miss matches for their Polish clubs. How many matches has Leigh Adams missed at Swindon this season? I've said it once and I'll say it again, we are actually spolit in the Elite League as we have most of the top riders in the world racing here on a weekly basis. Yes, most of these riders have overseas commitments, but the evidence suggests that most riders also prioritise Elite League commitments above all other leagues.

I have to agree with Scott. I think we are actually spoilt for choice in the Elite League. Almost ever team has at least one GP rider and you get to see the cream of world speedway visiting your home track twice a season. How many other sports can claim that? Certainly not, football, cricket, rugby... I'm sure if you ask top riders why the commute from England to Sweden to Poland and back again on a weekly basis, they'll tell you, it's not because they enjoy airline food!

You're forgetting is the logistics of a Euro League. It's not like Champions League football, where all you need to do is shepard 22 men and a kitbag onto a private plane. How are riders expected to move bikes, equipment etc around Europe for a single meeting? It wouldn't be cost effective to have a full setup in each country for one meeting a month, compared to the 4 or 5 meetings a month that they ride now in Poland, Sweden AND GB. And what about the "attractiveness" of such a competition. For the football Champions League the attractiveness is getting to see players that don't compete in the Premiership, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Zidane etc. This isn't the case in speedway. Already the best riders in the world come to Swindon twice a season with only a very few exceptions. Where's the attractiveness of watching Swindon against a Polish team full of unheard of Polish riders?

But no one's offered a solution to the most obvious question - how do you get around the situation of a rider racing for three different teams?

So aren't we back to square one? We want a competition which all countries will take seriously We want all riders to be available to race Surely this all points to a taking a week out of club competition and having yearly SWC?

How would that work, with the same riders competing for three different teams?

...Chrzanowski, as in Tomasz Chrzanowski. I've heard about a dozen different ways of saying it in the last fornight. The most popular seems to be Shan-owski. Is this correct?

Here's the full result for anyone interested: Full result: 1. Tomasz Gollob 13 2. Wieslaw Jagus 12 3. Seba Ulamek 11 4. Jaroslaw Hampel 10 5. Krzysztof Jablonski 10 6. Rafal Dobrucki 9 7. Piotr Protasiewicz 8 8. Jacek Rempala 8 9. Damian Balinski 8 10. Tomasz Jedrzejak 8 11. Jacek Gollob 6 12. Jacek Krzyzaniak 6 13. Zbigniew Suchecki 4 14. Tomasz Chrzanowski 3 15. Adam Skornicki 3 16. Krzysztof Slabon 1

But the 6 Nations has full coverage on the BBC. That's why it's popular. Even tennis is popular when the BBC show it non-stop on two channels for a fortnight during Wimbledon. Don't underestimate the power of TV to make a sport look more popular than it really is.

Does anyone have the full result for this?

An 8 man GB team? Jeez, I think even you and I would get a ride!

The other benefit of have a SWC every year is that it can move round, geographically, and will come to England with relative frequency. If SWC was every 4 years then we'd likely see it held in this country once every 8 or 12 years.

Let's call test matches what they really are - friendlies. One of the biggest problems cricket and rugby face on the world stage is that their respective World Cups are only every four years and without any form of qualifying they have to fill the inbetween years with something. Given the choice between watching the Speedway World Cup Final every year - or the SWC being every 4 years and the years inbetween being filled with pointless friendly matches - I'd choose SWC every year, every time. With all due respect, other than Aus, Denmark and maybe Sweden, what countries are there to have "Test Matches" against?

The match with the Poles was abandoned due to technical difficulties! There is a server running V1 Polish tracks at: 81.96.83.113

Don't worry too much Hazzman. It's simply teething problems and too many people getting involved. Once teams are decided and Captains nominated then everythng will run smoothly as there will onnly be one person organising each race, rather than 6 people all trying to have their say at the same time!

Does anybody know "how" these team events work. How many riders per race, hwo do you know when it's your turn etc?

Oh yes you are!

There's more carnage in this thread than in a 12 rider race round Rye House!

I'm sure there will be at least 7people on tonight who will form a friendly team. I'll do my best, but with it being Friday night and all, my gf might want some attention!

mikowhy - can you create a GB Forum on your Polish site and we can all use that?

Do you think, if we ask the moderators nicely, they'll set us up a forum to discuss STS, rather than having everything in one massive thread? Does anyone know (or is) a moderator?