Bavarian

YouTube has the complete 2nd meeting of the Aussie sidecars tour, the November 18th "Individual Shoot Out" at Invercargill's Oreti Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v8WN2QDtnk It's nearly three hours coverage with all the sidecar races and the various solo support events, with live commentary and some interviews

At least it won't just be a return to the not very popular traditional Best Pairs System. Reading Casatgna's comments in the Star I guess it will somehow involve junior riders (maybe a 500cc U21 and even an 250cc U16) along with the best senior riders in this Speedway of Nations. I wonder if the FIM will also abandon their Junior U21 World Team Championship, which had even less nations take part than the SWC, and which was almost every year won by Poland ... and which has an equivalent in the European Junior U21 Team Championship ... which again has even less ... and is alway won by ... you know what.

that is good, because we already have a European Pairs Championship (since 2004) and we don't need this twice as a double-up world pairs too

Leif "Basse" Hveem was the best ever Norwegian speedway rider - no doubt about it

Western Australian Solo State titles (500cc, 250cc, 125cc) are on Dec 16 at Pinjar Park Nominations for tonight's South Australian Championship at Gillman Speedway: SA 500cc Solo State Championship riders : Dakota Ballantyne (SA), Robert Branford (SA), Aden Clare (NSW), Josh Coyne (Qld), James Davies (Vic), Mitchell Grech (SA), Oliver Hamilton (Vic), Seth Hickey (SA), Declan Knowles (Vic), Jaimon Lidsey (Vic), Brayden McGuinness (SA), Robert Medson (SA), Blake Ridley (SA), Cooper Riordan (Vic), Justin Sedgmen (Vic), Jordan Stewart (Vic). Reserves: Jack Morrison (Vic), Zane Keleher (Qld)

Three of the five Aussie State titles tonight (Dec 2) in NSW, WA, and SA

Crowds were usually quite good for the SWC, and fans were looking forward to the world cup week each year. Poland did not even dominate as much as Denmark did in the 1980s. The Poles usually won the SWC when the final was held in Poland, but were far from being such a dominant force away from home. Problem was that Poland got the home advantage in the SWC final every other year. Why is it not possible to continue with the 4-Team SWC at least every other year? Is it the F.I.M. who charge and demand too much from the organisers? What other reasons could there be that no country other than Poland wants or can afford to host the SWC race-off and final anymore? For me as a fan of international speedway team Meetings there is not much left in this Sport to look forward to. Where can I see any national speedway teams race next season? Perhaps two or three International Test Matchs in Poland again, but other than that there is nothing! Or is there any senior competion left, other than this proposed poor man's version of the SWC, which is the "F.I.M. Speedway of Nations" Best Pairs event? Probably not! I get more an more disillusioned with Speedway these days. Sadly it isn't the sport it used to be when I became a fan way back in the mid 1970s.

https://translate.google.de/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.przegladsportowy.pl%2Fzuzel%2Fdruzynowy-puchar-swiata%2Czuzel-przyszlosc-dps-przesadzona-smutne-slowa-witkowskiego%2Cartykul%2C831836%2C1%2C983.html&edit-text=&act=url Oh dear, no more SWC - they replace it with a "Speedway of Nations" pairs competition ! Perhaps it is time for the major speedway nations to take action and organise their own international team events, such as Test Matches and a proper World League where the national sides meet in team vs team matches ! Why can't we have a round-robin International tournament like the Six Nations in Rugby Union's, with the national speedway teams of Poland, Australia, Sweden, England/Great Britain, Denmark, and a combined Rest of the World team !

I am not sure if the sad News has been posted here already, but a Glasgow Tigers junior rider, Greg Mackie, son of Colin Mackie, passed away last Sunday - R.I.P. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/15685720.Tributes_pour_in_after_death_of_young_Glasgow_Tigers_Speedway_rider/

Now (Sunday 21h00) on the F.I.M. website You can watch the live TV stream of the annual FIM Award ceremony in Andorra http://fim-awards.com/

You will find that his proposed "Diamond League" is not intended to be a league for teams, but a tournament series for individual riders, something like a mini Grand Prix series for a selection of hand-picked riders. Something totally unneeded and unwanted, if You ask my opinion, with the riders already complaining about having to too many meetings. But of course if the prize money is good, and the winner gets to win the Diamond prize, the riders will be happy to participate in his meetings. I'd rather see his other ideas realized. That's him helping to resurrect the former speedway club Slask Siwetochlowice, and perhaps start a completely brand new speedway from scratch in his home town of Bielska-Bialej - that would be good.

New Zealand beat Australia 93 - 77 in yesterday's Second Test decider at Invercargill

Here is an article in a Polish Magazine about Mr. Ireneusz Nawrocki, the man with the big money for Stal Rzeszow, Google Translation https://translate.google.de/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.przegladsportowy.pl%2Fmagazyn-przegladu-sportowego%2Czuzel-stal-rzeszow-ireneusz-nawrocki-greg-hancock-i-marsz-do-ekstraligi%2Cartykul%2C829235%2C1%2C13283.html&edit-text=&act=url

1.5 Million Zloty, which is about 320.000 GBP, so he gets close to a million Pounds Sterling for his three years contract with Stal Rzeszow in the lowest of the three Polish League divisions !

As the Aussies ride in the UK they should all be available on any Monday and Thursday, if the Premiership clubs want to host such test matches. I would love to see an England v Australia speedway test series again, but only if it is taken serious by both nations, proberly organised, and with the strongest possible teams. Very welcome, but a British Lions tour to Australia is currently a no go. Unfortunately, there are no Australian speedway promoters willing and able to finance such a tour. It would be great, though.

Are there any international test matches planned for next season? With such a limited league program, tracks would have many free racedays to host England test matches (or Team GB). The national team riders would surely be happy to represent their country and get extra opportunities to race and earn some extra money. And the fans would get the chance to see something in addition to the regular league meetings ! How about a revival England v Denmark series ? Or England v Sweden ? Or for the juniors a Young Lions vs USA series ? or vs France - that would be something new ! Why is there no initiative ? Does the BSPA only think about their clubs ? How narrow minded is this !

No results from Dunedin so far, but I found this short report in today's Otago Daily Times https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/motorsport/swinging-100kmh-all-nights-work

Yes, You are right @Duane its at Tamworth for the 2018 Aussie title

Me too

Each club should have their exclusive seven-man team for the season. Doubling-up riders should only be allowed as an additional squad for the teams. Each Premiership club should have a 1-7 of their own riders, plus a squad of three or four double-ups from the lower league to call on in case of injuries or absentees of their regular riders. Likewise in the Championship, with the douple-up squad riders being drafted from the NL. Double-up riders should largely be used instead of guest riders. A guest should only be allowed in case of covering for an absent heat leader. Second strings and reserves should always have to be replaced with a rider from the club's squad of lower league double-ups.

The fixed race nights in teh Premiership League is only introduced to keep on with the double-up of riders in both leagues and avoid fixture clashes of the Premiership and Championship clubs. Not sure if this is really desireable, all it will do is increase the number of double-up riders between both leagues. It won't be long until some clubs chose to, or have to, race one or other of their home meetings on off-nights other than their exclusive Mondays and/or Thursdays. Anyway, no more than half of the teams can have a home meeting on the same night, while the other half has to race as the away teams on that night. I have my doubts if fixed race will be a good thing for British Speedway.

Josef Hofmeister was born in Abensberg, Bavaria, on the 17th of June, 1934, so he is not far off now . Another soon to enter the top 20 is a certain Barry Briggs, born 30 Dec 1934

True, but these "good" riders rather shouldn't ride in so many different leagues, but more often get the chance to represent their countries in international matches. That's how it is done in other sports. This would be much more acceptable than riding for two, three, or who knowns how many different league clubs at the same time. A meaningful F.I.M. competition for full international teams, that is what's missing ! We have the SWC as an annual four-team tournament, fine, that's o.k., but it could be so much better if it was a Team vs Team competition. Even if such a tournament was held only every four years, this would be an absolutely outstanding event for world speedway. There should be England, England 'A', and England U-21, England U-16 (250cc) national teams, and it should be attempted to resurrect other home nations' team (Scotland, Wales), that's a long shot, I know, but perhaps it could be achieved initially by recruiting some Colonial boys with Scottish or Welsh roots. Bringing up home grown talents should be the ultimate goal of course. This has been done in the past, and it is done in other sports where it works reasonably well. Aspire to achieve !

Bavaria's very own, and Germany's first speedway world finalist of 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960, Josef "Wack" Hofmeister" is still around and in very good shape. Don't know exactly how old he is though.

Every Major Sport now has a proper World Cup tournament as the flagship competition. Why can't we have one for Speedway? Who says there are not enough competitive nations to track teams for a proper World Cup tournament in Speedway? I currently watch the Rugby League World Cup, a sport that is professionally played in only a handful of countries, Yet the RL authorities manage to organise a great World Cup tournament with fourteen national teams and attracts reasonably good crowds and has world wide tv coverage. It is even shown on German TV, and nobody really knows anything about Rugby League in our country. How sad to see that Speedway in this respect has fallen behind so badly. The 1973 Daily Mirror Tournament of Nations was the best we ever achieved in organising a tournament with seven proper national teams (England, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, USSR, and a combined Norway-Denmark team) in a round-robin tournament, followed by a couple of semi-finals, and culminating in the grand finale at Wembley. This should have been the start of something big, but look where we are now. We don't even have any meaningfull International Test Matches anymore. There is not even an England speedway team anymore, all we are left with is a "Team GB" ! How often did this team race this year ? Come on, how poor is that ? I'd love to see the England team in International Speedway Test Matches again ! High level international Test Matches is what I miss most in modern day speedway !