IainB

I watch the GP's to try and relax... not as a brain trainer lol So the points you score in the qualifiers determine how many GP points you get in the Semi's, positions 5th to 8th... but not in the Final 1st to 4th I'll watch tonight's with an Excel spreadsheet open on my laptop

Sounds like a mutant algorithm... Perfectly simple really

I'll say it's unfair... how can the 3rd and 4th of each semi get different points? Nothing fair about that

I'll enjoy the racing, as I always have, and live with it as it ain't gonna change anytime soon, you got to admit it does open the sport up to ridicule when put under scrutiny though.

You don't stop learning once you leave school... I've learnt many things since I left school

What seems to have escaped everybody's attention is the quali system for the semis? Can anybody explain it to me? Semi 1: 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th Semi 2: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th So for the 4 losing semi finalists Semi 1: 3rd = 11pts, 4th = 10pts Semi 2: 3rd = 12pts, 4th = 9pts Confused!?! He'll probably remind you of KK tonight though Made me feel sick that did... also, and it's a real bug bear of mine and has been the same for ever... when you're actually at a Speedway meeting, remember those days, after a rider won an event or race, did you fix your gaze on the guy waving the flag? No? Perhaps you started looking around the crowd for somebody that was waving a flag of the nation of the victor? No? Maybe you stopped looking at what was going on in a rush to fill your programme in? No? Maybe just maybe you were looking at what was going on, on the track!!! Arrrrggghhh! A great GP last night after all of the dross served up so far in the Ekstraliga and great to have 2 commentators who inject some excitement and enthusiasm into proceedings, Didn't think the crowd was anywhere near 50% capacity and one thing I thought was noticeable by their absence were the start girls, was this down to pc reasons?

I don't see much rock climbing or canoeing on TV or attracting crowds in excess of 1,000 every week. I have heard of the activities but not because I can do them at home or at training camps... I'm not sure what your point is?

Do the streams disappear every 30 minutes or do they last the duration of the event?

You say you can't do Speedway at home and then go on to compare it to a load of other activities you also can't do at home, the only real things you can do at home are ball sports or sports that don't require some sort of apparatus, like running. Speedway is available in training camps and available to children. Exactly the same here, I could hear the bikes on a Tuesday night in Leicester and I needed to find out what was going on... telling people I was going to Blackbird road to watch the "Lions", didn't have the same "celebrity" power for me though as telling people I was going to London

Didn't Jason Crump get a wild card to a British GP at Hackney? Not sure who chose him though

Should have called them Slags

There should be a 1 minute or 30 second time allowance for re-runs imo

It occurred to me while watching last nights coverage... what's the point of having a 50 person crowd capacity if you're going to pen them all in one area, madness!

The trick of watching it on Premier/Free Sports is to watch it on delay with your finger hovering over the Fast Forward button

I thought Newport was quite a nice little setup tbh, I only ever went to the New Year Classic's though. I don't know if you've seen any of the racing from Poland this year but the racing has mostly been dire with the match score usually never in doubt after the first 4 races. The music seems to consist of Now That's What I Call Heavy Metal Vol 1 from the 1980's as the bloke that does the commentary for Premier Sports seems to like playing Name That Tune and is always mentioning AC/DC, Metaillica, Van Halen etc. I've seen fans drinking from plastic cups. I agree with all of your other points, especially the lack of other sports and council subsidy... Isn't netball big over there too? Is that an indoor winter sport do you know?

I agree with a lot of what you say... but also a lot of what you say applies to Poland too, from what I've seen of it this year a lot of it is the same, if not worse than what happens in the UK as I've mentioned in a post elsewhere. Where there is a glaring difference is in the attitude towards the franchise/team and the quality of the stadiums, I don't know how much a beer and a burger is or how much admission is, though isn't it comparative to what it is over here? Why are fans turning up in their thousands every week to watch Rybnik get spanked on a dusty track with tractors going around the track more than the Speedway bikes? And even in Poland you're seeing the rules being stretched with guests being drafted in, riders riding on passports of convenience, heat leaders riding at number 8. Their crowd levels probably stem back from the days of communism, where there couldn't have been much else to do other than go to a subsidised sporting event, taking your kids and those kids are now the young crowd that we see in the stadiums today. Now here's a controversial point, I've been to Poland a few times on holiday over the last 10 years and not that many people speak English, it's got better though, the first time I went for example all of the restaurant menus were in Polish, more recently the menus have been in Polish with an English translation underneath as obviously they want to appeal to English speakers to spend their money, you watch a film on TV, a Hollywood blockbuster and it's dubbed into Polish, often by one Polish bloke doing all the voices... so why would you sit in and watch that... or go to the cinema... or Netflix and chill As more and more Poles learn English they'll join the mass market that is the global entertainment industry... so they should enjoy the glory days while they last because they may not last forever

And we keep getting told by all and sundry that it's the best league in the world, it maybe the strongest league in the world in terms of competitors but from what I have seen this season it is by no means the best. Rybnik for one wouldn't have been allowed to participate in a "best league in the world", the tracks have been poorly prepared, often with watering required after the first heat, slick with little dirt, the heat format is all over the place, there's no sign of any team riding... yet the fans lap it up, personally I just can't understand it. I will continue to watch it though as there's nothing else for me to watch, If I'd had Speedway to attend in this country I would have cancelled my subscription after the first couple of months

Was it '86 when Hans Nielsen "knocked him off"? Seem to remember Tommy being the favourite... As a matter of interest, a bit of an anorak question, do you know which rider took the most attempts to win thier first title? Gollob must be up there

Steady Greggy?

They may do if somebody takes a knock on the first round

They've been trying all that and it hasn't worked

Arguably he was at his best before then 1981 world final debut - 3rd

Because Poland is where it's at and that is obviously the model to follow. I have in the past suggested that UK clubs should link up with Polish clubs to act as feeders for them, especially for when the juniors get too old to ride at 6 and 7 for them, they could quite easily fade into obscurity where if they were farmed out to British clubs, with a cash subsidy, they could gain experience on our tracks, they would be committed to turning up every week and our lads would have better opposition to race against... win win

What a ridiculous idea... is what I first thought when I saw this, but the more and more I think about it, it's the kind of genius, out of the box type of thinking that's needed. 1. Tai Woffinden 2. Robert Lambert 3. Craig Cook 4. Dan Bewley 5. Steve Worrall 6 Charles Wright 7 Adam Ellis 8 Richie Worrall They'd see off Rybnik at least... quite who would turn up to watch them and who'd bank roll it I'm not quite sure. Sounds like the type of thing that the Danes would be thinking of. It'll never happen of course

It's an age old argument and I know you can only beat what's put in front of you, but yes I was referring to the UK league of the 80's. The standard across the world was a lot less than it is these days, meaning that if you did have a bit of talent and were a professional you had a distinct advantage, could beat the semi-pro's more often and earn more money to put into your machinery and setup etc. Is winning a GP series over 11/12 rounds a greater achievement than winning it over 6 rounds? For me it is. Tommy rode across the eras of World Championships crossing from one off to GP's and leagues becoming fully professional and didn't win a world title in either era.