Leaderboard

Good luck and stay injury-free to all riders from both teams who have racing commitments both here and in Poland over the weekend!!

Shouldve been a replay Worky and the play off could wait

People are right when they say it is impossible to compare eras. The sport is wholly different to what it was in the 50s or even in the 80s. Racers in each era can only ever be the best of their era - they can only beat who is in front of them, on the tracks of that day, using the machines of those times. Having said that, I am massively impressed by Tai Woffinden. He truly is the complete speedway rider. He has the lot. He can win from the front, he is equally brilliant from the back. He is cool under pressure and highly professional. In my time watching the sport, I would rank him up with Tony Rickardsson and Bruce Penhall as complete riders. I've no doubt Tai Woffinden will wrap up his third World Title this weekend. Beyond that, the speedway world is his oyster.

Let’s hope not, unfortunately the sport can’t continue to fool itself any longer that the crowd levels attending speedway can balance the books come the end of the season. I don’t believe for a minute that Redcar are the only club who have a question mark as to whether they will run in 2019, and I hope that common ground is reached for all three leagues so that all clubs can continue, we need an affordable package but what that is nobody knows , I believe we have now arrived at reality for many clubs across the UK, for some maybe too late!

Fair comment but for those teams that employ those riders and continuously put Workington in the waiting room is hardly Workington's fault. When you have teams (2 that I know of) declining fixtures because their star is injured when a guest facility was available and at least 1 team declining because they were racing in the Fours at Redcar the next day is unacceptable. 2 of those clubs were offered 3 dates and turned them all down! How many years have Workington and Berwick together with their visitors for example raced on a Saturday and then tripped overnight to Peterborough for a Fours with a 2 o'clock strat?

You are free to go home at any time, some of us wanted to see the whole meeting and i'm quite happy to watch the juniors as well. If you felt so irritated by it you could have left the arena anytime you wanted without jeopardising those who were willing to stay for the continuation of the meeting

Traditional Race card Torun GP 21018 :- https://www.keepandshare.com/doc16/21521/gp-2018-11-pdf-37k?da=y

Awwww Man Got all the craic and emails off Jacko last night to put over once and for all; a comprehensive post with the proof and reasoned arguments with all the details as to why the Comets had blank Fridays and Saturdays and what do you know "Byker Biker" summed it up in his first post on this matter with 7 well chosen words that even a thick "Jock" should be able to understand "'cos no bstard would accept a fixture!" brilliant, concise and in a nutshell spot on. So there you have it, the "3 Glasgee Amigo's" who think we "Sassenach's" are all "Buttoned up the back" will be sitting there with tissues in hand ready to "Pull the heed af the chicken" and have a "Chug" with their "Glaikit" looks on their "Fizzogs" waiting for a response to confirm they got a bite, and to be fair they did in some respects. So these three "Merchant Bankers" who are 1st class "Pubis Mons" may think they have some "Gallus" but they are really "Boggin". Ya need to "Shut yer geggy" and "Away an’ bile yer heid" because all ya talk is "Keech" ya need to "Haud yer wheesht" as "Yer heid’s full o’ mince" so go "Bolt ya rocket" an stop ye "Greetin" ya "Bawbags", total "Nuggets" and probably "Jobby stabbers" to boot. A note to all of those who do not "Ken" the complexities of the Scottish language or had to watch "Rab C Nesbitt" with the subtitles on, if there are any phrases you have difficulty in understanding just google those in the "quotation marks" for a translation and it should become apparent as to the sentiment of the post Those of us who know our history will always wonder why "Longshanks" didn't finish the job or the "Duke of Cumberland" stepped in to call a halt at the end of the day letting far to many off the hook in his little tussle with our skirt wearing friends north of the border. However I blame that lonely Geordie fellow who once had sex with a pig! for if it were not for him there wouldn't be any Jocks anyway would there? as I am led to believe, and as I was once told; that was how they were made and where they originally came from. I mean lets face it nearly 9 million of them on the planet and only 5 million of them live up there, says it all really doesn't it and if it wasn't for the Italian Ice Cream car salesmen bailing out the Tigers they wouldn't be here either would they? What do they say about people in glass houses Regards THJ

1 If a meeting is abandoned no further track action is permitted - so that wouldn’t have been possible. 2 Miracles we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.....

Tai is more, much more then a one trick pony. He ca gate, he cuts back on the first bend for sure - but so well, and he can pass in exceptional ways. I am impressed how easy he makes it all look, in contrast, to say Zmarzlik whose legs are going everywhere. TW just sits and does the stuff needed. Very impressive.

Absolutely correct, I know we all remember when he has been the thorn in our side and whether he owes us anything as he said is debatable but what is not debateable is that he has been a fantastic servant to racing in this country and you can't buy his spirit and determination. Personally I have always liked him and he has given us some of the most exciting races ever witnessed.

Under the old World Championship the most successful rider was Freddie Williams with two world championships and one runner's up. But then it was open to all riders and not like today when it is only a few are allowed to enter

think the offer for 2019 is more likely to be buy one get one free!

Does winning the most titles make him the best British rider ever? Does winning any titles make you the best ever? It's all a matter of opinion really as you can't accurately compare different eras.

You are not taking into account that there was a junior match to follow after the main meeting, those lads were there right from the start of the meeting waiting eagerly for there chance to get some racing in . So well done Ged you did the right thing getting the temp lights in action and i'm sure Ged would have wanted the minimum delay for all supporters. It was unfortunate it took so long to get the lights ready so give him some credit instead of knocking him for doing the right thing for all concerned.

So a team depleted by injuries at the end of the year gets stuffed by a team who have been depleted by injuries at the beginning of the year strange sport is speedway . Was some good racing and think the difference was Manzares who scored 7 more than expected which gives a 14 point turn round.

Allen all class ,riding well hard to beat around Scunthorpe,panthers lucky that his offside auty was absent,scorpians deserve some silverware ,unlucky season

Sad to lose, disaster to lose by so many ,inconsolable to lose to Mr Godfrey.

Dont have to look too far back for inspiration Take heart from Worky/Edinburgh....

Someone please switch the lights out again

Go go agent Kemp Born to be a Witch and always will be

Qualifying by finishing in the top 8 of the previous year's GP series is no less a method of qualification than finishing in the top 3 of the GP Challenge... Steve

maybe underestimating Adam, very good around Kings Lynn

Great city, make sure you visit the castle, the astronomical clock,Charles bridge, Petrin tower, Jewish quarter, old town. I have used https://www.prague-airport-transfers.co.uk/ several times and recommend them from and to the airport. one thing that needs to be mentioned- Prague is rife with pickpockets - be aware !!!

But not many at Poole expected Brady to be so bad in his scoring and ending up with such a low average

Have to give them some joy at the end of their season A ORLOV!!!! Unfortunately Batch didn't drop his average enough to come into consideration.

And this is the official thread

You could equally argue that past British Champions only had to put 5 decent rides together on one night. The weather and track could have suited their riding style perfectly and they became World Champion. Likewise a single fall or breakdown break down by a rival could take them out of contention. In the GP series this year Tai will probably have to have around 50 good rides on different size tracks with different surfaces over several months to become Champion. Personally I think that takes a lot of the luck out of winning. The skills required today might be a bit different but I firmly believe that todays riders are at least as talented as their forebears and the top riders of any generation could have been there at any time. No way to know for sure whether Peter Craven or Tommy Price could have won a World Championship now but I suspect they could and I equally believe Tai could have ridden in their style and been at the very top in their era. I keep reading that todays riders don't have so much skill but I think it's complete nonsense, todays bikes are different but if you think all they do is pin the throttle and hang on you are very wrong. I'd put Tai right up there with the best of British riders and on results he is clearly the best. Not only that as I've said elsewhere I think he is the best first turn rider I have ever seen of any nationality in the 50 years I've been following the sport.

Your supercilious attitude precludes debate.

No unfortunately he’s cer Unfortunately not the greatest British rider, turns his back on British league does not ride in British Final should not be allowed in any GB team , past British riders had a one off world final all a matter of five rides on the day to get it right, Tai has the Luxury of many rounds and can afford a few off meetings , backed up with large mechanical team nowadays and mostly about all out speed, I certainly believe the riders of yesteryears needed a lot more skill and sure did not rely on all out speed. Tai simply can not be classed or compared To the hero’s of yesteryear.

As this is the British Speedway Forum and as Jim Lawrence is involved with British speedway he has more right to his own thread

Doesn't take you long to raise ya ugly heed !!!

First bend? Isn't that where the 'hooligans' and 'thugs' (c) Alun Rossiter 2018 congregate?!? Might have to 'keep your nut down' if go stand with those lunatics?

I wonder if that's the dog that had its own bank account?

Everyone has different opinions, but the constant twit for tat posts are tiresome, just agree to disagree, talk speedway and nothing else, statistics can be used to fit any argument, it's what happens next week that matters, nothing is gained by looking backwards, FWIW I think Brady will be a loss as he's not at #1 now, less pressure and can see how the track is riding before he goes out, RR is risky as Somerset found out, let's all just look forward to what should be a cracking Final.

'cos no bstard would accept a fixture!

More a case of the whole of the current Premier league will "drop down" I think. Statement from Damien Bates stressing the separation between Sheffield and Leicester, so I very much doubt that Steady would have carried on. Hopefully at last the Lions have someone with the right set of skills to steer the club. If only he could build a replacement track...

I dont think that is an option If the main meeting was halted I dont think the juniors could be run as it would be meeting closed

Shameful display from Panthers

...If I recalll towards the latter days of the one-off World Finals it was decided to run with two semi-finals so as to allow a better system of qualification rather than he old sysem of running a Continental Final which allowed a direct route for the Eastern Bloc countries. Not sure how many years that ran for before the GPs kicked in?

Great stuff, hope to see you there. As racer and royals be aware about pick pockets though I have been there a few times now and never had any problems, just be sensible don`t have your phone or wallet sticking out your back pockets things like that. Seems the hot spots are the narrow streets around the old town leading to Wenceslas Square. As advised the old town is lovely as is the palace, don`t let the walk up the hill put you off, once there the views of Prague are lovely.

Just been reading Ippo 2019 thread & wondered if Campton is in the same boat as Douglas last year in that his long term visa has run out & having not achieved a 7 point average will have to sit out a year irrespective of how he might do in the Aussie Champs this winter.

Jack Holder was the reason why there was no team spirit in '17, so no thanks! Somerset can keep him.

You start off by giving an opinion and then claim it to be fact. It can't be fact because you can't say with certainty that Tai (who I greatly admire) is better than Brian Crutcher or Jack Parker or others. He can't race them under the conditions that they raced and neither can they race him today. He will certainly be the most successful (I hope) but that isn't necessarily a measure of him being the best.

Not really - all the rules about safety, compliance etc etc are the domain of the SCB- the BSPA would set the rules about team line- ups, doubling up, format of the league, etc etc which would then get ratified by the SCB and put in the rule book.

Just thought, that if Jim Lawrence had his own thread then so should Tai

What a load of "sanctimonious crepe" you couldn't give a "fat rat's ass" Loads of Money corrupt Tory attitude cos you have a couple of guys prepared to bankroll your club of choice Honestly am balling up and having a half day and I may have the Monday off as well Regards THJ

PE7Panther makes some good points. It would appear that a lot of the crowd had made up their minds that the result of the tie had already been decided and, after waiting for some time, decided to go home when the delay became protracted. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and the promotion were between a rock and a hard place. Keeping the public informed is of paramount importance and, on the face of it, this could have been better on the night.

One of your own “lady”s makes me look like an Angel as for going on about crowds ...cast your mind back a few years before the millionaires moved in , Glasgow’s crowds were dire , the worry of closing down was only too present on the fans minds so you know how it feels , cheap digs at crowd levels are a pretty low blow , we can all have banter on here but I really wouldn’t want ANY team folding , you got lucky just remember that

Kings Lynn vs Ipswich where Shane Parker split the Ipswich pair in heat 15 to win the meeting I think it was against Rickardson and Louis