RPNY

There was something similar when Germany was canceled in '08

Not ideal, but F1 been the same for years, just how the cookie crumbles..

Do hope Emil is back in the GPs next year - Would also love to see a round at Tgliatti soon. Looks like a cracking stadium & track.

It was a mistake to nominante Bomber pre BF last year, but the fact is he was the stand out candidate as a British rider for a wild card with Tai already in the series. Now, I'll make this clear I'm not a huge Harris fan, I don't particularly care if he's in the GP's or nor BUT the fact remains he is still the best British rider behind Tai. Scotty is still good on his day and was unlucky in 2013, however after his last few seasons in the GP's & him Shunning the SWC BSI were never going to do him any favors. I also think you should be a little more respectful to Phil Rising. The guy's on here giving us an insight - whether or not you agree with his views, shares his info, no need to be an arse just because he says something you dont agree with.

Havent read the article yet BUT would agree with waihekeaces1 for the most part. It's been a decent series so far this year but no Emil and to a lesser extent no Gollob has lessened it & I hope Emil's back sooner rather then later.

Andy Jaye & Scotty are better then Kelv & Nige, fresher, more insightful, Andy is a little like an excited kid at times but I like the enthusiasm. Sophie is so much better then Charlie who is still tripping up over her words! I dont think Sky's team are awful, I just prefer Eurosport's

Managed to arrive at Heat 7 of Semi Final 1 after being stuck on the M11 for 3 hours! Thought of what I saw it was a very good meeting, they did well to prepare the track for the final and the right team won IMO. Special mention to Charles Wright who rode very well.

I didnt know that about Freddie, thanks for the info Ghostwalker.

Who goes through? No Fast Freddie for the Swedes?

The SWC I saw at Peterborugh (2009?) was a belter too.

Well I thought it was a decent meeting. As is often the case in the early stages of the SWC, the racing isnt great as it tends to be un even quality wise, but the scores stay close which keeps it intersting. Hats off to team GB, they rode their luck but still they deserved their win. Steady and Danny King rode above themselves, especially in the first half of the meeting, really set the tone. Also well done bomber, started poorly and kept plugging away. As for the Aussies, no Holder obviosuly didnt help but Woodward was great for them last year & was unlucky. Shoulda had 5 points after his first 2 rides but bad luck meant he was on a big fat zero. Ward had an off night and as has been previously mentioned, he's all smiles when it's going well and a spoilt bratt when it's not. As someone said earlier, it's not like a load of people woke up one day and said he's a pratt, it's because of what he's done and how he conducts himself. That being said, he's a tremendous talent on a motorcycle, but it's not unusual for a great sportsman to be a not nice person. Great performance by the yanks, Gino & Max were an absolute credit to themselves, and Grin is just a freak of nature. Shame the Russian Federation dont care about the sport because if they had a full strength team there Saturday this thread would look very different! Good luck to all left in the competion.

what part of that was 'a load of tripe' then?

But GB were a 1 man team too right? Ward still a wonderful human being I see.

Apologies, but I just meant 5 to 6 point foreigners!

The writing was on the wall regarding the chaos of EL fixutes in 1995 when Hans quit British Speedway for Poland/Sweden/GP's. Yet here we are 20 years later and they still basically did very little to make it an attractive place to race. It's the worst league for the riders finacially, hectic schedule, stupid rule changes, the BSPA really don't help themselves. Also, they never secured a major sponsor for the league (Im not counting SkyBet thats just Sky tv using free advertising on their own channel) again, not helping the finacial plight. Theyve been complaining about costs for so long, but to my mind theyve never gone with simple solutions. 6 rider teams, less foreigners - ie only employ the best dont fill teams up with the Skornikis of the world.Team kevlars are a pointless expensive exercise as it's rarely a team without a guest. That's just 3 very basic ideas. Anywway we all know Until the EL is taken over by independent professionals with no self interest it'll never be as succesful as it could or should be. With regards to a single race night, yes it is pretty much impossible but they should try and narrow it to say Mondays and Fridays if possible

Anyone know what the official attendance was?

To be fair to Bomber, he's taken all the stick on Twitter in very good spirit.

Watched the rerun on Skt Sports 4 last night trimmed down to just the racing and a few interviews and was still 2.5 hours long! Enjoyable meeting though. Barker and Cook rode well, Garrity was great. Would like to see him in the SWC team. Arent going to win it so might as well let him gain the experience. Nicholls was unlucky, Ive sponsored him in the past and like the guy a lot but it was 50 50 difficult call to make. Essentially it did look like he took Bombers leg away so he was excluded. Tough call he was within his rights to be angry but having a go at Harris probably wasnt the best idea. I feel sorry for Barker. He rode well and tried 100% last night as he always does. I was at Rye House v Plymouth when I was back in the UK the other month and watched him not only score a max but come over speak to the Plymouth fans that had made the long journey. Sat and listened as he was speaking to them & came across as a right nice fella. No idea why he seems unpopular with the other riders, but what do I know. I think it's definately time for a change of venue. Not because Wolves is a bad track, or because it's advantageous for Tai, but because we moan we're never prepared for the big continental tracks then hold our national championship on a tight tricky track like Wolves. Maybe P'boro, Lynn, Sheffield, Coventry would be beteer. Bigger track thats still fairly easy for people to get to... Anyway well done Tai, Jason G in particular and to all on a very enjoyable race meet.

The problem is that he will hurt someone in a bad way soon - or he runs the risk of the others starting to say enough is enough & they all start putting it on him & he'll end up in a bad way. I very much agree that he's great to watch, but he's guilty of this kind of incident time & again & enough is enough before someone's seriously hurt.

When do we know what teams will be at the fours this year?

Hahaha like it

Watched the GP last night. It was pretty bad but as far back as Amsterdam 1987 World Final, any meeting Ive seen where the track has been over an Athletics track has been rubbish! I would imagine live there were enough close finishes and crashes (by the way Im not a fan of riders crashing!) to keep the crowd entertained but it didnt translate well to TV. Not sure why people are so upset on here. You get bad Speedway meetings, you also get bad Football matches, Rugy Matches, Cricket, boxing, F1 and so on and so on, it's sport, happens that sometimes is not so good. That last GP was a belter.

Is there no chance Scotty will re consider riding in the SWC again?

It was definately no frills but better then no at all!

I thought it was very simple but very good coverage. Was nice to see the difference in how they do it over there. Ran smoother & was more competitve then an EL meeting IMO. I like Tatum and Pearson but the lower key commentary was nice. Ermo was one of my heros as a kid but maybe Eurosport should look to getting Dave Norris in, he was great on the mic. Dont miss the pit interviews, they are pretty pointless and although shes very easy on the eye Charlie is bloody useless. Did anyone see her presnt the Klitchko fight the other week? Oh dear oh dear...