topsoil

Chuffed for Matt Ford the best promoter in the sport! Poole to go on and win it now?

Good meeting which hopefully raised a lot of money for a very worthwhile cause. As for the newbies, I think Jacob Jamrog never gave up and his pass on Pijper was superb. Lined him up for two laps then got him on last lap. Then his horrific looking crash in heat 13. How the hell he got up from that and took his place in the re-run I've no idea. Just confirms the thought speedway riders are a special breed. I would love to see some of the prima donna footballers showing courage like that. Berge looked okay in parts. Again looked like a trier. Given his age, he's bound to come on. Hansen looked decent. A heat leader? maybe. All in all a meeting carried out in the right the right manner. The result was just about right. Good to see travelling Sheffield fans supporting a former rider. Good luck Ricky. Everybody is behind you in the biggest race of your life!

Was there a bit of spite from the SGP in the Speedway Star hightlighting the small crowd for the European Championship round in Gorican and the possible absentees for the final round? Surely better concentrating on their own competition.

Any idea if these Swedish clubs produce annual accounts? If so any links to these?

Totally agree. They used to spoil meetings when I watched them on Sky. Then I watched meetings with the sound muted. Can't stand the pair. Scott Nicholls and Steve Day far better.

Agree with what has been said above, a tremendous meeting. Some of the moves on the first and second bends had to be seen to be believed. Full commitment, no quarter asked or given. Very impressed with Gomolski, Pawlicki, Dudek, Milik and Lebedevs as well as Kyle Howarth who did himself proud in vaunted company. Track was perfect, the dirt was even throughout the whole track and very smooth. Great to see how much speed the riders were getting putting the back wheel on the edge of the dirt line. Cant fault Berwick at all on the running of the meeting and would love to see Berwick awarded another FIM meeting in the future.

Whats wrong with Berwick like? its got an FIM licence, it means the meeting gets to go to an area where it hasn't been before. Then again you won't like that, because it's not being held at the Newport dustbowl.

It's common knowledge that at least three G P riders who had originally agreed to ride in this meeting have now chosen to ride in the Tomas Topinka testimonial meeting. That's disappointing considering the proceeds from the meeting go towards injured riders and their families. Also disappointing because they would no doubt have added to the gate. But the cynic in me says that chances are they would only be using the meeting to test equipment for New Zealand and you may get better entertainment from the likes of Barker, Harris, Hall, Ashworth, Korneliussen, Worrall etc.

It'll probably rain anyway and I'll end up losing my breeks!

Congratulations Sam Martin. So glad Ricky Ashworth didn't win it. To have him twice PLRC champion would have been a nightmare. No way he would have ever won it had it not been held at Sheffield IMO.

In an ideal world I'd love to see a World Cup similar to that of football or rugby union. A tournament in one country over a couple of weeks, two team matches, but unfortunately that would cause too many mismatches. Football can get away with for e.g. Italy v New Zealand in the 2010 World Cup but can you imagine Poland v Hungary or Slovakia at speedway? Maybe a divisional type of tournament? Have matches between Poland / Australia / Sweden / Denmark / GB / Russia? in division one, Czech Republic, Germany, USA, Slovenia, Finland, Italy in division two? promotion / relegation? Having said all that the run off and final this year were extraordinary. The level of skill was a big step up from that seen at league level week in week out. It is a big step up for a lot of riders and this is where I feel the British riders miss out by not being exposed to this sort of level of intensity more often. How many riders did we see this week riding above themselves because they were riding for their county? Anybody watching the sport this week had to be impressed.

They used to say happiness was 40-38. Berwick totally got out of jail by getting a 5-1 in heat 15. To be honest though the result was irrelevant to me tonight. Never actually saw Alex's crash because I was looking at Tyson Nelson laying it down to try and avoid Jade. you could tell it was serious straight away though because There was just a collective gasp then a horrible silence. Only hope Alex is okay. As for the meeting Kozza and Pepe were superb for Bandits, Seb and Lee turned their meetings around late on. For Rye House I was very impressed with Tyson Nelson. The race where Kozza went round him was worth the entrance money itself. Great to see Adrian back tonight.

See my post above. Pass it on to BSPA. You never know they might just ignore it :-)

There is a way to keep everybody happy / involved. Take the top two riders from each team Teams 1-6 qualify for the second stage of the tournament. Teams 7-14 enter at the first round, two groups of four, each ride against each other. The top team from each group proceeds to the second round with teams 1-6. Two more groups of four, same format as the first round. Top team in each group proceeds to the final. This format has 25 races compared to the current 24. Every supporter going gets to see their team the night before the GP. I just wonder at the moment how many fans don't go because their team is not involved. If it adds a few more fans to the gate it deserves consideration. But the bigger problem IMO is to try and ensure the top two riders from each team, if possible, turn up. I'm fed up of these so called glamour events when riders can't be bothered and teams are forced to send second strings / reserves and the meeting is devalued.

I think the nail was hit on the head before. Tai Woofinden has been over-hyped this season, but only because Britain has very little else to shout about right now and commentators are desperate for somebody to label as the next best thing. I've only seen him a couple of times this season (on TV in the World Cup ride off and live at the PLRC) and he has impressed me. Let him develop in his own time!

Putting to one side the fact that this meeting was rained off this is another classic case of the sport shooting itself in the foot. What is supposed to be a showpiece event is turned into a farce because of the absence of some of the top attractions. Excuse my ignorance but what rates of pay do the riders get paid for riding in these meetings. Just wondering how it compares to their contracts with their clubs. To be honest I can't see much of a future for the likes of these events purely because only a handful of the riders seem to take it seriously which is a shame. I like one of the previous members can remember going to Belle Vue in the 70/80s and watching meetings which could have doubled for a World Final. Maybe some of the shared events at Premier League level are more successful because you don't get riders competing so much in other countries and in Grand Prix meetings so they have fewer commitments. I know the Pairs at Somerset this year was a cracking meeting. Maybe that is one way to attract the riders, the day after the Cardiff Grand Prix? That was tried a couple of years ago at Swindon. I wasn't there, was it much of a meeting?

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who is too shy to come on here. This year we (4 of us) stayed at the Holiday Inn for the Cardiff GP weekend. Can't fault the hotel, great location, everything at hand. We booked in for next year as the date was announced. Bit annoyed that the prices have taken a hike but I suppose that's the same with everything else these days. What is also annoying is that they stateon the booking form that they only require a deposit of £50 at the moment (gives you a bit of time to save up for the rest). Except that they've now taken the full price of our credit cards. On phoning up to complain about this we were basically told if we didn't like it we could cancel. Just feels like another dig from the hotel chains who seem to be increasingly exploiting the GP weekend. Just wondered if anybody else has had a similar experience?