Mr Ore

That was quick. Arrived back at our Munich hotel, having had to miss the final, owing to the last bus needed to catch the connecting train being due. A long old day, arriving for the 4 rider qualifiers at 10 a.m. with the snow from heat 13 making it a bit special. A few good heats and a last chance work out for the gp riders. Zorn obviously a class above. A few other English voices in the crowd showed we weren't the only mad ones there.

The incredibly helpful secretary at Weissenbach am Lech advises that their meeting next Sunday goes ahead as planned. Looking forward.

Appreciate the update Iris. Time to cancel the accommodation, fortunately flighst not booked yet.

Whilst not very high up in the rankings the Swiss Chamiponships and Open Individual Meeting are scheduled for 20th and 21st January at Champex Lac subject to the lake freezing sufficiently to support a track. Back up dates are 10 and 11 February. Looks to be a very picturesque venue.

I usually saw Dave at lower level football, where we would talk speedway over a cuppa. He always went out of his way to find me so we could exchange banter He told me he was cutting back but I never realsied he was so ill. My better(her words) half remembers your kindness and we are both saddened by the news. RIP mate.

There is some irony here that tjhose who are complaining loudest about being unaware of this, or supporting the complainants, regularly post about how crap British Speedway and its administration is or how they refuse to attend meetings. Incredible therefore that they should want to have been able to participate in the draw for free admission, otherwise why would it be such a big issue for them. Possibly it says more about their character and morals than than those of the BSPA. There were many chances to enter by supporting various events so clearly those with a genuine interest in the sport were able to enter by getting off their arses to attend. Well done to them. It has been commented that the winners don't live in places with a track so clearly they must travel some distance to get their fix and are therfore even more worthy of the passes. I note that those complaining most haven't had the decency to congratulate the winners who I would suggest are the true speddway fans. With this poor attitude I would suggest they are losers in more ways than one.

On the subject of taking the piss out of the paying spectators, the ultimate must surely have been Ivan Mauger pulling up in the race off to avoid getting the number 13 jacket in the World Final and having to ride in heats 4 and 5. Blatant, yet he is revered by those who criticise others for lesser indiscretions, including having tattoos. I'm certainly no Penhall fan but the incident always cited at White City had no effect on the actual qualifiers. Had Penhall won that heat his fellow countrymen who got through would have still qualified, but he would have been Overseas Champion. Tai gets dog's abuse for allegedly not helping his country yet the same abuse is thrown at Bruce for putting his country before himself. Another case of moaning for moaning's sake?

Yes it is a farce that Sheffield will have two riders in their team who could also have ridden for Leicester but to suggest the BV v Wolves was more credible when, of 12 riders present, 9 regularly occupy a total of 11 other British team places surely makes it an even bigger farce. Good move in my sarcastic opinion not to have televised it. You could get rid of doubling up/down other than we then get the usual suspects on here wanting to ban every other rider under the sun for "crimes" which they seem to commit all the time, xenophobic irrationality, a desire to knock anyone who is not going to make it (Kyle Howarth unbelievably being one of the candidates last year ) or sheer jealously that they have screwed up their boring lives and can't bear to see dedicated young people getting on. I will be spending around £250 to attend both these matches and don't give a f@ck what the saddos on the BSF may think. Ironically Ipswich also have 2 riders who would have been in the same position but I know that the majority of their true fans would have been looking forward to attending these matches had they won. I will actually be giving a lift to a Witches fan to see these two matches and know he would rather have been doing the driving. To make MikeBV feel at home though I'll throw a couple of bottles at one of the opposition riders. I have to agree that would have been really great TV. RIP Tom Petty

The silence from all the miserable losers on the forum predicting failure here is deafening. Two meetings done in 3 hours, including a 25 minute gap between meetings to redo the track must really be peeing them off. No boring pre-match presentations, straight on with the racing. A totally new and brilliant programme produced for the night rather than taking the easy option of sticking in another sheet of Izal following last weekend's rain off, like the "respected" promotions would usually do. And a packed restaurant suggesting the good folk of Edinburgh as well as Sheffield are also willing to support a better and pricier level of food in addition to the basic stuff you get at all tracks. So we didn't have the best ever 30 heats in the history of speedway but there are many tracks who can only aspire to the standard of the poorest heat of the night and the best races were stunning. Well done to the promotion, track and pits staff and riders and to the fans who actually went out to have a great time rather than looking to drag the sport down at every opportunity. Ignoring their collapse in the final 4 heats on the night I see Ipswich as potential play off winners although Jan Graversen has to be the best reserve currently in the league, which could be very important in the final analysis.

Hmm, I don't know, a good looking bloke and all that. . TBH many of Toto's (I know) claims are quite mild when compared with some of the stuff on this forum. Perchance he is a regular poster already. I know who my money's on. Anyhow enough of this nonsence; time to get Ruth Davidson straddling my chopper again. Tutto il meglio

Not totally accurate. Isle of Wight was the home of Ryde Sports Football Club, who folded during the season just before the speedway moved in. The previous season they finished 4th in the Wessex league, above both Eastleigh and Gosport, who were both in National League divisions last season; albeit Gosport were relegated in the end.

Thank you for the update Gorka. It was a bad crash so I am pleased he is not badly injured. I also see Patrick Buri raced in Swietochlowice and he also had a bad crash in Debrecen, with his bike landing on top of the fence.

Do you have any updates about Marko Lewiszyn who was injured in a crash with Patrik Mikel in Debrecen? I hear that one of the riders broke a shoulder in what was a very fast crash. Very grateful to the air fence.

Thanks for the heads up. I assume that the fire brigade would be involved in setting the capacity, quite rightly from the means of escape point of view, but that wouldn't take into account ability to see the track. Whilst there is a largish area for standing on the old 3rd bend, if the screen they had last season is still in place, you wouldn't be able to see the track from there, although you could safely evacuate (ooh missus). I saw the orignal reference to the "full house" as a comment on the inability of speedway to attract a crowd compared with oval racing for cars. OK no speedway team at present attracts 3,500 but the full house sign is hardly indicative of an enormous crowd in attendance, especially for such a historic event in a city of over 8 million. Even so with 3,500 it will be very tight, although no doubt the mechanics will be allowed in the glass fronted areas on old bends 1 and 2, which fans weren't allowed to access when I was there last year. Still unhappy not to have been able to get a ticket for Brisca event though but brown stuff happens.

A lot peed off that I had been unable to get a ticket for this but only a fraction of the stadium will be open so capacity is far less than when speedway was last there. Only the back straight was open last time I was there. Although you could stand on part of the third bend a huge hoarding obstructs the view 100%. I reckon 2,000 tops will be the capacity now.

An enjoyable day on Sunday, albeit fine snow overnight in central Almaty continued throughout the day making the service bus journey to the stadium quite hairy and the stairs to the seats a bit risky. Crowd seemed about 75% of what it was on Saturday before the "abandonment" but a steady flow coming and going throughout the racing, probably meant actual figures were higher than was obvious. Atmosphere was great, especially when a Kazakh rider came onto the track and the locals were brilliant, sharing numerous bottles of spirits with us which somehow had evaded the" bag but not coat pocket" searches. Not that we were complaining. 5 riders shared the mid-morning flight back to Moscow with us on the Monday and seeing the hundreds of miles of pure whiteness on the landscape below, took the sensible choice. Not the greatest of destinations for a holiday, unless you are into winter sports, but we were able to fit in the main tourist sights, 2 nights of culture at the Abay theatre (one night with a crowd of fans from Austria) and a party with one of the country’s top bands made for a memorable time. Whilst he had no chance of troubling the top boys Stefan Svensson was probably the most entertaining rider on the day battling for every point with his pass on Gunther Bauer very well measured and executed.

Many thanks. Hope to see some great racing tomorrow.

That's a pain. Were told it was off so now wandering around the bars of downtown Almaty. Seemed like most of the stadium went away too. Looked like it was gong to be a great day. Here's to tomorrow then.

I may be missing something here but aren't Somerset using as many guests as Sheffield tonight? No disrepesect at all to Bradley and Zach but surely Steady, Jason and Dmitri are a bigger loss to Sheffield than those two are to Somerset, especially with potentially higher scoring replacements lined up. The whole guest, doubling up, price of chips situation in British speedway really sucks but with total respect to all involved Tigers would be far better off with their own riders and they have played it by the rules. Maybe it's the rules which need changing. I like all the Somerset riders and that Debbie Hancock is a fine looking fella, they have a great bar, decent track and wonderful cider but a Tigers win to rub it in with the one moaning Geordie loser would be the icing on the cake. With full sides Somerset would probably still hold all the aces but it would be a hell of a lot closer. Really hope to see Ricky and Robbo on the fron page of Speedway Star wearing their winners medals with clenched fists, just like Rebel's reserve Josh Bates in the Somerset League Cup Winners photo. Oops.

Cheese and Onion pasty and cup of tea/coffee/ soft drink Same meal deal 1 offer.. My other half is veggie and she always has deal 4, Cup of tea and bar of chocolate £2.80; total saving £0.00. How very British speedway when it comes to manipulating the figures . BTW the brown sauce is basic but has an excellent bouquet /taste. Well worth livening up the main course with a mega splash. Plastic cutlery puts the Rye House "accident waiting to happen" stuff to shame. Far more heavy duty and maleable. Makes great Christmas presents too. What's not to like?

Meal deal 1 at the stadium food counters; a very tasty pasty and Bovril only £4.80; a massive 30p saving. Other pies and drinks are available.

I am certainly no fan of referees, having been sent off for blatant honesty during my footballing career for telling one what he actually was, but in speedway the fans can more often than not be the problem, with their designer label blinkers. Seemingly you have a Newport bent, where, on numerous ocasions I have witnessed correct decisons go against them, only to see the "fans" have a go at the ref. On one occasion an opposition rider was so blatantly put into the fence on the second bend that even the most biased of fans would have accepted the inevitable decision. No. When tne home exclusion light was put on a large percentage of the crowd jeered and one obese arsehole was cheered as he made his way round from the back straight, to stick two fingers up at the ref's box. How very adult. Couldn't accuse that fan of being in the toilet though, with the size of his gut I doubt he had ever used one, yet the ref was weakly insulted for getting it right. Referees do get it wrong but in the opinions of most fans any decision is wrong which goes against their team. Check the guy with the spreading arms at the tapes at Rye, the swaggering old biddy at The Abbey or the "formerly the guy with the horn" at Lakeside and I don't even mean marginal decisons where they go off on one. We can all recall "unjust" decisions against our own team but unjust and incorrect are quite different. It is also very noticeable that when a female referee makes a call against their team many on here resort to sexist crap rather than admit the ref got it right. Just to say not all was bad at Newport I recall one match where they had a brilliant young Aussie announcer and a female referee, where his patter with anti female ref commentary was brilliant and I would suggest recognition of the bias from the terraces rather than a dig at the official.

Unlike in the bad old days, a genuine speedway fan could actually take in two meetings today, in spite of the sh@t weather. British speedway fan's dream? Naah, Britsih speedway fan's dream is to always want to play the victim and find an irrational whinge to show how repressed we all are. Maybe a nice walk to a canalside pub or meal with that special someone would be a good way to spend an evening on this hot summers day. With no speedway in the top two tiers I will reluctantly be going to Lakeside this evening. Beer festival with meal followed by season ticket duty at my local team will be filling my day before this chore of a visit to the eastern extremities of the M25. Life for some of us can sometimes be a real bitch.

Predictive text can be a real pain. I've heard that, in the same text the team were named as Danny Kink, Tied Woffinden, Craig Cock and Rabid Lamb butt plug. Chris 'arris on standby. No wonder they were confused.

Had a great night celebrating on the Plymouth Hoe. Sadly she had to leave just after midnight to find some more punters. Fantastic day's racing, only surpassed by the quality of plastic forks at the fish and chip van. Sad to hear from the bloke on the centre green about the 101 year old man who was taken ill. Hopefully he's OK.