MattK

Why not have a 5 man team and then a 6th "wild" rider? The 5 team members all have five programmed rides each and then the 6th rider can take up to five rides at any point in the meeting in place of his team-mates. Effectively you'd put your best rider at #6 and then they can take rides either tactically or to cover injuries.

As the "informed" Swindon fan on Thursday told me "the rider in front can do anything he likes". Looks like he's been proves wrong twice.

Would be grateful if you could check this for me - as I was thinking of attending too.

Once again, the voice of reason puts it all into context.

Doesn't he ride for Hungary?

His column is called "FootballNation" which might give you a hint that his article is somewhat tongue in cheek.

I have to that overall we had an excellent day. The atmosphere was amazing, if you could bottle it up and bring it back to club meetings then speedway would be thriving in this country. The racing - The best I've seen at Cardiff. The track looked smooth and consistent and the riders appear to appreciate that. Good to see riders moving off the white line as early as heat 1! Nicholls/Sayfutdinov - Handbags at ten paces. Nothing more. One might say that Nicholls, as the older and more experienced rider, should have taken the moral high ground and not got involved. Jason Crump - A worthy winner. Looked very good indeed and I'd be more than happy to see him go on and win the championship. The crowd - The crowd was definitely down on last year. We were sat on the apex of the first and second bends, which were excellent seats and very busy, but other areas which were almost full last year looked as if they had plenty of space. The referee - I think all three first bend exclusions were harsh and if it were a club match then I am confident it would have been all four back in every instance. However, if the refs have been advised that they must exclude someone, then I feel they must favour the rider who holds their line and exclude the rider who moves across - in that case the first two decisions were wrong and only the last one was right. The presentation - Excellent as ever. We had no problems hearing the results and times. The music however was shocking. The only time a song from this decade was played was during the firework display at the end. As always the event was impeccably organised. There was a massive queue for the park and ride bus on the way home, but there was a constant stream of buses turning up and it only took ten minutes or so to get everyone on their way home. I do hope promoters look at Cardiff and try and take the best bits back to their home clubs. The GPs prove it's not hard to add some sparkle to speedway so that it appears more F1 and less spit 'n' sawdust.

I thought the sound quality was excellent on the apex of the 1 and 2nd bends - the only problem was the choice of music which was a cross between an under 5's disco and a 65th wedding anniversary. There is absolutely no need to Agadoo or Hi Ho Silver Lining. Ever.

We arrived at the stadium just after quarter to five. Sounds like it was perfect timing

First person to post a screen capture of Nicholls on the floor crying like a baby whilst Sayfutdinov spanks his ass, wins a prize.

Excellent write-up (as ever). Will be interesting to see how Travis goes for Rospiggarna.

Well, I have to say that was an excellent meeting and all credit to Harris for winning the final. I do feel a bit sorry for Richardson, as he looked good all evening. Brilliant meeting though.

Bradford Ace - sounds like it's not installed. If I go Start > All Programs, I have a Sopcast icon

Can't seem to get either of the Sopcast links to work. Is it just me?

I see this got the second highest ratings on Motors TV for the week ending 12 April: Motors TV w/e 12 Apr 2009 2. USA NATIONAL SPEEDWAY 2008 (Fri 23:02) 16,000

What's Motors TV and how do I get it?

I don't understand why someone like Five doesn't come in for British speedway. I think it would fit their profile well. Imagine having speedway on proper telly

The main problem with a round-up programme is that you need cameras at every meeting - it wouldn't be cost effective.

Shorely Trav McGowan?

Agreed. The atmosphere where I was sat (bottom tier just as you come off the second bend) was immense. And on the bottom tier each section get a TV screen so you can watch the replays etc.

How did the crowd today compare to a regular league match?

I love these threads were people put forward their very valid ideas for the SGP and SWC yet you always get the rose-tinted dinosaurs crawling out from where they hide (presumably a cave) to diktat the virtues of the one-off World Final. Personally I think the SGP is excellent. I have watched my highlights DVD and the racing is as good as any of the one-off Finals but with 11 rounds you get a far better variety of tracks and conditions. Frankly as has been said before, no modern sport has a "one-off" world championship, from F1 to football and everything in between. As for Joe's initial suggest, I'd like to see something done with the British Championship where it is run over a weekend with qualifying rounds on the Friday and Saturday and the final on the Sunday. With the right facilities, camping etc it could become a proper speedway weekender allowing fans to see a whole spectrum of riders in the space of a few days.

I can't see anyone challenging Nicki Pedersen unfortunately. He was just so consistant in 2008 and I see no reason why he won't be the same in 2009.

The Prophet Rosco warned about seeking richest from the East. Looks like he was right.

Any indication of cost?