manchesterpaul

Would i love England (forget the GB FARCE lol) to be competing? hell yeah! But i first and foremost a speedway fan and so hope we get a good racing track. I'll be lapping up every lap. So looking forward to this meeting i've got no preference in advance and will cheer on the courageous (whoever may turn out to be) RACERS.

Ok preparing myself for human nature in which 98% will rapidly make a post if they disagree and probably 2% will make a reply if they are happy with something lol. Positive or negative is absolutely fine and much appreciated even if negative. I will though take note of the immense increase in downloads of the MIniMax racecards year on year for the World Cup but sincerely appreciate any comments even if negative. Non-constructive attacking posts (aka get a life) will be like water off a duck's back lol. I know for sure i am absolutely stunned at the thousands upon thousands that have downloaded the MIniMax racecards and increasing with every meeting of the World Cup. PLEASE NOTE I AM CERTAIN THAT FOR WHATEVER REASON EVERY OTHER RACECARD PROVIDER HAS EXPERIENCED THE EXACT SAME INCREASE THIS YEAR. THIS IS NOT A CHILDISH WHO HAS MOST DOWNLOADS WAR. FOR FLIPS SAKE SURELY EVEN THIS FORUM CAN'T STOOP THAT LOW HEE HEE. I AM SURE YOU HAVE ALL HAD MASSIVE INCREASES THIS YEAR MEETING UPON MEETING. I recently had to make a hasty early post to ease up the load on the servers when racecards were not available ahead of meetings - no teams declared - and got a load of criticism for posting in advance of a meeting (even though i have done for several years purely to preempt requests for racecards i was always going to provide). Ok, just interested in opinions on the specific format i use for the World Cup meetings in the VISUAL LAYOUT OF 'WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET', AS OPPOSED TO TRADITIONAL VERSION. Once one takes a few minutes to adjust from the traditional layout the fact that the racecard lines up with what you see visually on the screen really does make things far smoother. I've received - LITERALLY AND ABSOLUTELY NO EXAGGERATION - thousands of emails* approving the format. I never knew that many speedway fans were about lol. So heartened and delighted that from so many countries speedway fans are abundant. The number of downloads greatly in the extreme exceed the number of visits to the racecards threads, i presume most fans bookmark the single page for the racecards in the knowledge that all racecards will be there. *(lol toooooo funny....apologies for that sentence it got messed up in midst of cutting and pasting to correct typo's and rewording. Don't think the BBC get that many emails in a day and i certainly couldn't bear to read more than a dozen hee hee) I notice that SportoweFakte also employs this format. Pearson and Co seem to have pointedly begun referring to 'riders across the gate' in their pre-race introductions during the World Cup and starting from the inside gate. Have they always done that in total contradiction to the graphics on the screen or have i just latched on to it during the World Cup?. I know they do have their favourites in all aspects of speedway. However, the graphics (in a western civilization of the brain reading from left to right) AND the camera angles be it from the front shot or the behind the fence view, show Riders as per the MIniMax racecard displayed as on TV screen and graphics, outside to in, left to right, G4, G3, G2, G1. Additionally, in contradiction to their pre-race comments they always, as do most speedway people in the world, in commentary during the race AND every other aspect refer to the (for league matches and individual meetings) 'red' if on the inside gate as the inside and the 'yellow' gate if on the outside as the 'outside'. Obviously the same applies when in alternate line-up for league matches. Therefore, that automatically transfers to the format i use for the World Cup, albeit red does not have the inside gate every race. I fill in the 3210 then speedily by colour add to the team totals on the right, this then just leaves the 3210 order of the heat to be entered into the team grid, speeded up by the colour coordination.

AVAILABLE AS OF NOW MiniMax Racecard 2012 World Cup FINAL, Malilla, Sweden. (Saturday, 14th, July, 2012) Direct download from following page http://speedway.manc.../racecards.html Oooops lol i opened this thread just before going to bed last night as i would be out all day today. Just got home at around 8pm so i've put the card up immediately now.

MiniMax Racecard 2012 World Cup FINAL, Malilla, Sweden. (Saturday, 14th, July, 2012) The racecard willl be available shortly afterwards for direct download from the racecard page below. http://speedway.manc.../racecards.html

Don't want to digress in detail into football but a loose thought is that the continental championship Finals would provide the qualifiers for the World Cup Finals. That's cool, i don't think anyone has shot you down in flames for doing so (yet!) lol. But i stress again i strongly disagree we should copy football. Pretty much every year we have some of the best racing and drama of the season in the World Cup, so where is the sense in rationing it to once every four years!

Cheers all it's no sweat once the template has been made.

All in all quite an enjoyable meeting. Bring on Saturday.

Can't wait for the final.

That's a thought pretty insane change to make. I'd love to hear an explanation from Middlo for that. Is there a massive difference in prize money between third and fourth then lol?

True

Oh yeah of course Tai already had his Joker ride. GrrrrRRRRR my Mum always said that 'that' Tatum would lead me astray.

Good point by Tatum maybe should have replaced Nicholls with Woffinden or would it have been a too disrespectful to do Hancock replacing Hamill situation.

I'd love to believe that the joker induced false scoreline gives us a chance and get's the Danes shaky with two teams breathing down their necks, however, i look at our scoring and see NIcholls with two points from three rides. I also would have hoped Danny King might have picked up another point or two to bolster belief in our ambitions. I think Denmark qualifying will add even more spice to a final staged in Sweden.

Hmmm Danes FIVE races without a win.

I'm certainly not moaning per se just realistically observing. An England.......oops......GB win is a massive bonus but i love speedway so enjoy pretty much every meeting.

Very nice indeed to see Tai stepping up so strongly, just hope he can continue to do so and not only make the SGP but race well in it. Disagree fairly strongly that it has been dire, there has been a fair smattering of racing in the early stages.

Not for long and can anyone disagree with what i said about Tatum (and the other presenters getting all giddy that we are back in it?)

Tatum says we are right back in it! Well if we can play a joker against a pointless Danish rider in every race maybe. A little bit pesky the fact that every other Danish rider have won their races TWICE. Get real Tatum.

On the realistic presumption that GB would not be battling for the win i was going to say before the meeting that hopefully we'll have a good close race between Denmark and Poland. Looking like a runaway win for Denmark so far no matter what the joker brings for us now.

By the way just to clarify...that kiss blown by the start girl was aimed at me lol Nicholls has to get at least second here for us to think we got a chance. Saddest camera shot so far the empty picnic tables what a waste! With the Heat 4 line-up it will be a bad omen if Chris Harris doesn't win it. Very quiet on here is everyone deflated already? Maybe Chris Harris and Nicki Pedersen will give us something animated to talk about. Unless Nicki streaks off into the distance?

Does Gollob ever get up after a fall or is every race always stopped when he goes down?

Was thinking the same and hoping the background shots were very pre-meeting. Sky just said repeatedly it's a big crowd for a race off!!! Right now it doesn't seem anywhere near as big as the weekly Swedish League matches we see on Premier Sports. Let's hope that everywhere apart from behind the shoulders of the presenters the stands are packed out. Agree would have been good if Sweden had been seeded to this except they likely might not have qualified for the final making it look even worse for the sport if that had a low attendance? It's not just speedway these days that can suffer from the absence of a host nation participating. The last few years have seen many of football's continental championship finals matches being playing in front of extremely sparse crowds.

UPDATE AVAILABLE AS OF NOW MiniMax Racecard 2012 World Cup RACE OFF, Malilla, Sweden. (Thursday, 12th, July, 2012) Direct download from following page http://speedway.manc.../racecards.html

Was just coming along to post the same sentiments. Why on earth should speedway have their World Cup once every four years just because football does? Lots of sports (probably most i think) be it for teams or individuals have their World Championships annually. Also an excellent point made regarding the Tour de France and Wimbledon. For what it's worth the four year gap is too much for football it should be reduced to two.

Apparently practice is already over. There were no problems with the track after plenty of work being done on it last night and this morning. Denmark had five riders practising with the other teams four.