manchesterpaul

Outside gate winner this heat? TV commentator just touched on that. Batchelor a replacement can he keep up the gate one success?

In these days of clubs desperately trying to balance the books if he should be getting hefty 'appearance' money it would leave a sour taste. What does a club do though? Pay very high money for a top rider to attract the crowds and/or make a bid for the championship, or go with native riders?.

Looking at the scenery can't help but ponder what lives in Swedish woods? Bears? (eeeeek!), Bigfoot? (eeeeek!) or Goldilocks? (approve) Was just about to critically simply state Gollob! But maybe he is trying hard? Or did he just blunder?

Zetters just gets better. Why the reserve change? Has Anders had to dash to the loo? So good to watch all this overseas speedway. I had over two decades break from speedway when Belle Vue's Hyde Road closed down and to be able to see speedway from all over the world nowadays (modern technology) is just heaven, bordering on sci-fi when i was young.

Come on Scotty earn your Zloty or is that Krona or Euro! Congrats indeed. There are an awful lot of people in America so to come at the top of any sport is to be applauded.

I usually watch Swedish matches without any favourite team and simply for the speedway racing. However, for the sake of the home club i do hope they win in view of their shocking form this season. It's heartwarming to see speedway survive in Sweden over so many years and with relative good crowds nowadays (using UK as yardstick). Last thing we want is for fans to not attend because of a losing team.

Oooooh grouchy lol. Welcome to the meeting and Alan too. Wow you stil got heatwaves Alan? We had Biblical rains once again here today. Heading for a summer that never was.

Just hope none of the swimmers at his son's championships tried to tread water in order for their team to play a Joker speedway World Cup style. Was fearing you popping up with a change in the weather report Ghostwalker, hopefully silence is golden. Incidentally, having major difficulties connecting to the forum and a couple of site checkers are confirming that intermittently the forum is down.

Don't want to unduly prolong a discussion on racecards lol. Yep even i struggle to summon up enough enthusiasm to read such a thread. But just a couple of longggg quickies and a genuine question i'm puzzled by before we let it die a death. Got to admit i am interested in opinions on what i mention below. Black Sabbath famous song wail and riff coming into mind now of 'Oh God Nooooooooooo' as i think i am jeopardizing my chances of prizing Jessica Alba away from her beloved because i risk coming across as an equivalent of a Philatelist or Ferroequinologist. Hey i hope Google and Wikipedia give me a commission on the number of searches about to be made on the latter term lol. As i've mentioned all the other MiniMax racecards also go down the traditional route. I resumed the visual 'wysiwyg' format for the World Cup based on the number of requests i received for it to be reinstated and also for reasons mentioned earlier. However, as i had planned to do this year but didn't have the time, next year i will be issuing the 'traditional' layout as well. Obviously, with the specific/unique formatting of the MiniMax cards. I'm very puzzled by your comment of 'the majority automatically show gate stats'. Presuming we are talking about printable racecards and not spreadsheet software, forget 'most'!, i've not seen any other than mine include that feature. At the start of each SGP season i have a look at all the other cards i can find and see if any have copied the features unique to my cards - and YES indeed some have (as have a few other forms of media). But i've not seen any taking on the gate stats unless they've done it mid-season??? One thing i would like to make clear, as far as i am concerned the more 'different' cards the merrier, which is why i don't do the grid format. What on earth is the point of producing several cards using the same format??? I gain nothing at all from the cards they are totally free, i get no personal fame as they are issued under a forum pen name. Zilch advertising or personal reference etc. I so am not a Facebook type person. I just offer a different type of card with unique formatting that i consider to be very beneficial on the traditional ones (see explanation on my racecard page - won't bore you with it here). There is no contest as to whose is the best. I hope we are all successful in appealing to fans who want what we offer in the various layouts. It is very, very hard to change people away from something they are used to and have used for years. However, i really can't stress enough how after a couple of meetings the 'What You See Is What You Get' speeds up programme filling and has a solidly positive impact on watching the riders go into the first bend. I'm not going to bore myself let alone others by going into several reasons why. Like i mentioned before no less a site/publication than SportoFaktwe have also latched onto this. I appreciate how at first try the dfference throws one off, but, wow it does work very well indeed. As ever, i put it out there as a different racecard to add to the splendid variety of cards. Final thing, not a criticism merely an out and out question as i'm puzzled. I've always referred to my SGP racecard as having a 'traditional' grid for the riders scorechart. By that i mean it's a 'traditional' lol, single block not split into bits across the top of a page or in a grid fashion without any heat sections. Please note no criticisms here at all. Now let me expand.... 1. As a child i used to watch speedway at Belle Vue at the old Hyde Road track (aka if Carlsberg made speedway tracks in those days they would have made Hyde Road) and every individual meeting i ever attended the programme had the same grid layout that i use. 2. I left speedway behind when Hyde Rad closed down and it went over to the American 'toy' type track at the Greyhound stadium. I had my interest rekindled some near 30 years later when i saw the sport on Sky tv. 3. It was only when witnessing my first SGP and looking for a programme that for the first time ever i saw this 'grid' style racecard in use. I think it may have been used on the continent before the UK? So surely this grid style is NOT 'traditional' and my single grid block is? Again no prizes or plaudits to be gained just bemused at the reference to the 'new-fangled' lol grid style as being traditional.

Great news about the weather. Just to clarify i take it i am correct in pointing out the times above are for Sweden and mainland Europe. Meeting scheduled to be on Premier Sports just after 6pm as usual in UK. Talking of which leads me to..... TV meeting racecard (will be updated if any late changes are announced) AVAILABLE NOW FREE MiniMax Racecard MiniMax Racecard Elitserien Valgarna Vs. Hammarby I notice Nicki Pedersen pretty much fought a lone battle for Vargarna in the first meeting a 38-52 loss. Vargarna have a very poor record with 8 losses out of 9 matches! Are they the Swedish Belle Vue?

Lol wow that a groupie and a half dragging Iversen away she simply can not wait lol.

Only problem is a lot of those newcomers will be ridiculing the sport tomorrow. A race in any sport motor or athletics is a race to the finish line. Can you imagine a club athletics meeting having a joker and runners suddenly walking to the line and saying to their opponent 'oh i insist you go first'

Shame on Jensen and Watt there.......simply too much. Wasn't Watt the main culprit the other year?

It's going to be getting even more dangerous if riders start slowing down suddenly especially after the last bend and near the line. There will come a time when no matter how much a rider looks around he'll miss a rider zooming up and carnage on the line, not impossible for bikes to end up vaulting into the crowd etc.

Lol toooooo funny good one Nicki only a professional foul of the same level that Jason was trying. How long can this Joker farce continue in the competition?

'Professional Foul' possibly looming. If Australia finish behind the Danes in next race they can use the Joker in the weak 4th scorers race. Top rider on double points against lowest scorers.....has to be tempting lol.

Thank you, i so got to grab time in the off season to bundle together nearest radar sites for speedway tracks.

Started reading that and thought you were about to sarcastically refer to Steve and his Bacon Heads comment lol.

Hope not putting the mockers on it weather wise but starting to get lots of drama and incidents in the races now.

Jonassson 0, 0, 3 = tuned bike in or swapped it? If his team mates can follow suit Sweden will be back in the meeting for sure.

There has been criticism of the SGP moving away from a packed small stadium such as Malilla in favour of a cavernous 70% empty stadium in a big city. However, this is one meeting where covering for the spectators would have attracted a larger crowd. Just got home in time for this meeting so was glad to see it has at least started, Talking of starting i don't think Nicki Pedersen did anything wrong to trigger a restart in his heat. Sweden having a shocking start. Anyone got a real-time radar link handy? I do have several links somewhere to Swedish weather radar but trying to cook some food at the same time so can't be fussed digging them out. Don't particularly agree with Pearson stating that Sweden are right back in it after the Joker, seven and six points behind the leading two still. Fingers crossed they get their motors more tuned into the track in the next round of races.

Lol noooooooo Apologies that's me cutting and pasting to remove typo's and rewording. I was replying elsewhere before and that's got messed up, i'll sort it later. Only just gettng home just in time for the meeting. All the other MiniMax racecards use the traditional method and as i say i'll make two versions avaialable for next year. As much as anything i suppose i was trying a further step in providing something different to make for more variety to suit varying tastes. Whilst not 2,000 lol i have had many requests for the visually matching outside to in. Anyway thanks all for interesting insight and views on the format.

Had thought the fact that Denmark qualified would provide a little extra spice with Sweden being the competing hosts. Is there no rivalry as such between the nations on the sporting front then? Are they that rare breed of neighbourly neighbours? DW's graph starts at 2pm on Saturday.

I was going to post that graphic but shied away from fear of Sod's Law. Namely some grizzled old Swedish forester quoting the manner and height that the local squirrels are holding their nuts and proving to be more accurate with his forecast! Talking seriously now cheers for the info DW and let's just hope there is a change in the weather,

Thank you for your input much appreciated. I certainly can appreciate how any change to a long-standing tradition/usage would initially undoubtedly be off-putting. However, i would suggest that after a little familiarity one would realize the benefit of WYSIWYG. One merely glances down at the racecard and looks up at the screen and, as i mentioned in the Western world we read from left to right, one's eyes and racecard synchronize perfectly. There is no having to 'remember' or juggle tiny characters from a racecard and align them with the riders. Hopefully next year i will have more time available and produce two versions for the World Cup racecards. Both will incorporate the distinctive and specific 'MiniMax' formatting features but i will do one in the red, blue, white, yellow 'come what may' traditional layout too. However this year with myself being very busy i had to give preference to the WYSIWYG format that was much requested. Just caught sight of 'ABS' response, ok hopefully the latter of the two versions will put you back on track next year. Good luck with betting go kill 'em bookies Regarding the changeover from what is ingrained into a speedway fan from birth! i'll do TWO versions next year. One can't reinvent the wheel overnight lol. Two things i would make note of is that firstly what is likely the largest website for visitors in the world of speedway - SportoweFakte - also use my format, and secondly the download numbers and requests for this WYSIWYG format has been off the charts. However, i will do the familiar version next year too. Incidentally, no worries the SGP and Swedish Leage racecards will stay traditional.