tyler42

You could never compare British Finals. That is one meeting where the standard has dropped quit significantly. If a 2nd division rider qualified back in the day it was a rare. Now it's the other way round!! and that is not because of DU riders

my apologies

All three riders were from different eras. I am biased, because P.C was my idol, Peter Craven i never saw and as for Tai. Well his record is up there with the other two. In terms of World Championships, one better than the other two. Their wins were over 20 heats of racing, where one mistake and it was over. Tai's was over a season, where a bad meeting did not mean you still could not win it. So its all if's and but's I think you can't compare there achievements. Can we just say they were and Tai is still great riders and British!!. b

So after two days of racing Russia was only one point behind us. They then had to go into a stupid race of with Poland, who were 9 pts behind them. Fortunately for us (the supporters) the best two teams met in the final. We all knew the format at the start of the week. How many people would have thought GB would ride so superbly and actually go straight to the final? Not many i would hazard a guess. So for you to say they were undeserving winners is rather harsh. I wonder what the majority on here would have said if GB did not make the final race. I don't think there would have be so much complaining about the format.

I think this tells a slightly different story. 2012  Målilla :  Denmark (39 pts)  Australia (36 pts)  Russia (30 pts) 2013  Prague :  Poland (41 pts)  Denmark (40 pts)  Australia (34 pts) 2014  Bydgoszcz:  Denmark (38 pts)  Poland (37 pts)  Australia (36 pts) 2015  Vojens:  Sweden (34 pts)  Denmark (32 pts)  Poland (27 pts) 2016  Manchester:  Poland (39 pts)  Great Britain (32 pts)  Sweden (30 pts) 2017  Leszno:  Poland (50 pts)  Sweden (42 pts)  Russia (18 pts) Maybe last years final was a bit of a two horse race, but as you can see, it's not always gone Polands way

And more than likely will be a spectator in the final!

100% agree with you, so it begs the question. Why pick him in the first place?

So you're saying, we should pander to the weaker teams to make the sport more fair? once again let's water down the sport so the the weaker teams have a better chance. So come Saturday when one of the more favoured teams are about 20 odd pts in front of one of the lesser teams and one of the lesser teams somehow make the final and the favoured team has a mishap and the team who were 20pts behind end up being World Champions. That to you makes the whole thing fairer? Trying selling that to the people who might tune on Saturday.

I agree with you, but third was not a bad ride first ride. If Rosco didn't wan't to make a change, then why did he not give Cook the chance to ride in his second heat against the Finns

Cook's confidence must be very low after last night's meeting. I think we all knew that Cook only had to have one bad ride for Rosco to put Lambert in. When Lambert opened up with two race wins, it put Rosco in a position where it would have been madness to change For Cook it must have hard to watch, for as the night wore on he must of known barring any probs for the other two, he was not going to get a ride. The stupid rule where you have to keep the same three riders other than illness or injury for the final. Could see the farce of Cook not even getting a ride over the two day final (barring Injury's or mishaps to the other two) IMO i think it would have better for Cook to stand down (illness or injured) to save him the embarrassment of just standing around like a spare p•••k at a wedding and put the young boy Bewley in at reserve. Let's face it he will have as much chance of a ride as Cook would have in the final

Fair enough

Do you honestly think it is genuine? I would say more like being told to shout by their employers to make it more exciting. Still if you think screaming at the top of your voice is ok, thats fine we are all entitled to our opinions, but you should respect other peoples opinions as well.

Surely whoever dreamed this up needs to be shot. They get rid of the dreaded joker, but come up with something more pathetic. Two day final that comes down to one race and as you say, if the team with the most points over the two days have a mishap in the final, the other team ride round waving to the crowd and take gold.

Even though Poland have won quite a few times. I still think the finals have been very competitive. Last year was the worst in terms of scores, as Poland won it by a big margin. They scored 50 the third place team Russia scored 18!! but if you look at the last four finals before that, the scores have been very close. and in two of them finals Denmark won one and Sweden the other. I agree with you that in theory it should give more nations a chance to be competitive. Lets hope Tuesdays fair produces a bit better racing than tonight and hopefully we will see a great final.

The standard of Speedway in GB has been getting weaker year in year out. IMO the World Team Cup was the one competition especially the latter stages where four riders going hammer and tongues was absolutely brilliant. But changing it to this pairs format, on todays showing is a massive backward step. The difference in class between some of the riders was woful. Maybe when it comes to the two day final, things might change, but why in general does mediocracy seem to be the way forward?