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Excellent post: remember when WORLD title used to be UNCERTAIN & the winner had to PERFORM on the day? I'd go further: if the Wolves fans can't be bothered with the British Final 'cos Tai didn't QUALIFY (thus making Monmore Green a little bit more of a "neutral" venue for the event), have the Semis elsewhere - I'm sure Thursday's field would have pulled in a crowd at (say) Scunthorpe & have the Final at Sheffield. It also puts a Super7 event at a neutral venue.

I presume the use of apostrophes (what - no "quotation marks"?) is supposed to sugest sarcasm. All it displays is a lack of knowledge of, and disrespect for, the huge improvements that have been made in all aspect of Speedway in Berwick, & in the track in particular. With the exception of a couple of weeks, the track has been universally praised by all manner of riders on their visits to the "new" Berwick. Still, what do they know, compared to your knowledge of track surfaces & performance. I don't suppose Sam Ermolenko wil be "pootling" round but your absence from the event will ensure a better view for at least one of those who does attend. The promotion will already be aware that they can't please all the people all the time, so let's hope they concentrate on satisfying those that matter & leave those who "don't want to see" in their own little keyboard worlds.

The organisation committee took the quite brilliant step of soliciting the services of more top line riders than required, as the field was assembled before the fixtures were finalised - and before all the riders had team places. That should ensure that because of fixture clashes then unknown there'd be plenty of suitable replacements. Chris Schramm wasn't a Comet when he was first announced. From the original lineup of 25, Messrs Bunyan & Havelock will be in action at Stoke v Redcar & Messrs Schramm & Compton will be in the ludicrously titled 40th Anniversary* thing in Cumbria (*it would appear that the years 1982 - 1998 inclusive all count!). Which make the original planning of Makovsky's meeting all the more astute.

Well done, Rob Lyon! OK, it's not a team to win - this year. What would have been achieved by including disappointment-at-the-back-for-Lee-Richardson and Saturday's Handbag Hero? Even with a head start GB (or will it be Eng-ger-land ) woould finish third. Get some experience into the younger riders - by the way without Chris Louis patronising "Lion Cub" comment Now if they can only get some new blood into the GP.............

And? So, if it drains THAT well, flood it later. Well of course that's okay then: just a bit of a bugger that the speedway season runs through what passes for the summer months really, ain't it? Brilliant - the defence "it's not as bad as it used to be". Rubbish, but not as bad. That's allright then. I don't think Arthur Cross was suggesting starting the even heats from the back straight & the odd heats from the gate Over 3 hours was ridiculous. Nothing whatsoever done to the track for more than an hour before the start, the 15 minute parade started late when it was announced that basically "Lemo's late so we're going to stand around & do nothing" God forbid that they watered the track then & settled it down by the warm up laps. I know the club's strapped for cash, but does the programme for such a meeting (and for such a crowd) have to resemble a (failing) school project with an excel spreadsheet? It's obviously beyond the promotion to think that a few colour pages & a better quality would sell for more & the punters on the day would buy it. Surely SOMEONE has a Flymo to blast the weeds on the centre green. There's also a dozen various flagpoles in need of a good home. Okay, flags doesn't make much difference, but the whole impression was one of "can't be bothered". That's the same attitude I'll have next year on the day after Cardiff.

And I joined you. I guess the celebrations were as a result of the tidal wave of emotion summoned up by the presentation team which started with the rider introductions: "If ever there was a rider that needed his country to be behind him...." Christ Almighty, setting aside the other two English riders who were representing Great Britain on the day, why not just say what you mean: "Here's a rider who's been a bit crap lately, but c'mon & give him a cheer..." At least with his current form there's little need for Sky to line up another replacement blonde - there's little reason for the curent bird to speak to him!

Harris doesn't ride for Poole - that's why

Good to see people think the Heat 5 incident "fired up Nicholls passion": fired him up so much he scored 1 point less than Holta who only finished 3 rides! I've read comments that Nicholls was within his rights to be "riled" at the dig Sayfutdinov made earlier in the race, but evidently that doesn't cut both ways. "Nicholls was trying to get back to the pits first"? Then he needs to be informed that he needs to aim for the gap in the safety fence - not the bouncy castle attached to the pit gate The quicker Nicholls is flushed down the pan & GB nominations are available for the likes of Woffinden & Kennett there might be a chnce of GB making progress. At least Harris got stuck into his riding & made the semis. Still at least Nicholls was there for his first ride - progress of sorts. The presentation on the night was as usual from the same crew. Appalling. Taped football chants before the heats with the British representatives (I know they're all English, but the weren't representing ENG-GER-LAND) - what the hell was that about? Trying to disguise the apathy of the crowd immediately prior to another poor performnce? Some Bloke Singing To A Backing Tape - that's karaoke in a pub - not interval entertainment for THE Grand Prix of the year. I'm not suggesting Springsteen or The Stones like the Superbowl, but God Almighty....... And a "Tribute Act" beforehand too - was this a "major sporting event" or outtakes from Pheonix Nights?

How dare these people DARE to pass comment rather than just being eternally grateful.

that seems like a cunning idea. Willie Lawson - Berwick Kevin Doolan - Workington James Wright - Belle Vue Chris Mills - Sheffield (albeit a late replacement) In other news: GLASGOW v EDINBURGH 44 - 46 Newport v REDCAR Postponed

Well, they got round to showing the Season Opener tonight @ 6:00. In some respects it's improved - a bit (or were there simply less cameras at the meeting?), but mostly it's reassuringly just as appalling. Either it was recorded in betamax (remember that?) or there's a total lack of ability to convert NTSC to PAL. The editing (for want of a better expression) is err... "innovative", with s-l-o-w cross fades between the cameras, monotone commentary, either overpowering or non-existent live audio, 1980's home-movie graphics, etc. etc. From the amount of footage that features only the heads & occasionally the torsos of those racing it's evidently been recorded in 4:3 and cropped to fit 16:9 widescreen without the footage actually being LOOKED at. Christ even the sponsors logo is stretched! Totally amateurish "production" that we should be pleased is being aired - because there isn't enough of a rag tag & bobtail image for speedway Still, I guess if they have to air 12 month old, second rate footage that is an embarrassment to the sport, at least they got their sponsorship right

Based on its continued non-appearance, you might find the advert at the top of this page as hilarious as I do From the company's website, it would appear that the Belle Vue 80th Anniversary meeting (48 hours after the PL Fours) will appear shortly - comfortably before the 81st Anniversary! Christ knows, if these people can't be bothered to produce the damn things in reasonable time (PL Fours was SEVEN WEEKS AGO tomorrow), why the hell should they expect anyone to part with any cash? Except maybe you've forgotten the result by the time the DVD appears!

What? You mean the Coventry Past & Present? Knowing what Brandon might be like after practising earlier today? Nah! "Restoring some pride" now

Pearson plugged the PL Fours earlier, but I wasn't paying much attention. Maybe he should have suggested that the wildcard for that should be given to Team GB: maybe (just maybe ) they could win that. Now that they're picking up a few points I'm sure it'll be okay & "onwards to the challenge of the run-off" Anybody want to bet on the Russians & Brits for 4th place ? ? ?

Oh yeah, that's right: the purpose of Saturday evening was the racing - everything else was incidental

I think you'll find the majority of folk couldn't give a monkeys about the music. I thought the fence had been well inflated & was regularly topped up, the hot dogs were kept uniformily warm, the infield carpet could have been rolled out more neatly, and the trackstaff looked lovely in what appeared from a distance to be cast off jockeys' hats (yes, I know they were official SGP merchandise). All of which contributed as much to the evening as The Bloke With The CDs. So the irritating music continuing into the races was IMGs idea? So that's okay - following the instructions of IMG will ensure that it'll be your CDs that are an incidental part of the evening next year. The key part being incidental.

So, not a lot of point in asking for opinions then. Lt: spot on my man, spot on

If I was meant to spot the difference between Saturday's "presentation" & the average night at the average track, I wish someone had warned me What was different? Apart from Belinda Carlisle & The Backing Tracks and later Some Bloke picking Queen for his karaoke spot? Same Old, Same Old... Oh yes and once in a while Same Very Old, Same Very Old: I haven't heard the William Tell Overture since I visited White City in the 1970's (admittedly it's better than Highway to Hell"). One exception of course was the immediate medical assessment seemingly carried out after each fall by The Bloke With The CDs when playing Chumbawumba I'd have thought that given a couple of weeks notice just about any track's CD Bloke could have come up with the same hackneyed "themes". One exception would be Sean Leigh, who would have moved on from such tiredness with two minutes notice, not two weeks

It seems that the EL fans & 14 out of 15 teams' supporters in the PL are happy enough not to be moaning on & on .... & on. That's a 96% success rate for JC then: well done, here's to more of the same!!! If I remember correctly the Super 7even includes *7* meetings, not all of which involve Redcar in the first place (there'll probably now be a campaign for them to be in the ELRC)

It seems to need repeating: The EL Pairs are @ KL on Easter Saturday, but this is before Poland & the GPs get going - hence the weekend date & the probability that the top riders will bother to turn out. Unless you want the fiasco of last year & have the ELRC at the start of the season, complete with riders representing clubs they've hardly ridden for (Rickardsson's practice sessions with Oxford come to mind), you're left with two choices: 1) Hold the ELRC midweek & have a chance that the top men will actually turn out, or 2) Hold it at the weekend & have teams represented by second strings & reserves. I guess there's always the further option of waiting until the GP series is finished, when the #1s will be tired & going on holiday or whatever: I seem to recall Davey Watt repesenting Ipswich a couple of years ago. Nice lad I'm sure, but not exactly adding prestige to the event. Thursday's simply making the best of a bad job. £20 admission? What do you expect? It's @ £15 for an EL match, so £20 doesn't seem bad IF the riders actually show some respect to those who pay their wages.