Kevin Meynell

And what a scandal that is! In an era where all manner of crap buildings get preserved, it was an absolute disgrace that White City was allowed to be torn-down and replaced by an office block. Not only was it the venue for the 1908 Olympics, but it was for a while the largest stadium in the world. I think it is still the only Olympic stadium to have been demolished, although the Amsterdam stadium came close to the same fate a few years ago.

I get the impression that the BBC is only interested in promoting the (increasingly diminishing list of) sports where they have exclusivity. That's why we're subjected to low-level athletics meetings, obscure horse races, and extended coverage of other minor sports. I generally think the BBC provides top-quality programming, but it must be said that its sports coverage leaves a lot to be desired at times.

What a crazy story:blink: .... cool though Whether there's an element of truth to the story I don't know, but he certainly wasn't the last apprentice hangman at Tyburn. Executions stopped being held there at the end of the 18th century, and the area is now Marble Arch.

The full list of countries where speedway is actively ridden is as follows. Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Bulgaria Canada Croatia* Czech Republic* Denmark* Finland* France Germany* Great Britain* Hungary Italy* Latvia Netherlands New Zealand Norway* Poland* Romania Russia* Slovakia Slovenia* South Africa Sweden* Ukraine USA Not all these countries have national championships, and of those that do, a few include foreign riders as well. AFAIK, there are only team championships in the countries marked with an *

For 2004, it's as follows... Final Placing USD 1st in Heat 25 10,250 2nd in Heat 25 7,450 3rd in Heat 25 6,250 4th in Heat 25 5,750 3rd in Heats 23 & 24 5,000 4th in Heats 23 & 24 4,400 3rd in Heats 21 & 22 3,250 4th in Heats 21 & 22 2,850 3rd in Heats 17 & 18 2,650 4th in Heats 17 & 18 2,600 3rd in Heats 11 & 12 1,750 4th in Heats 11 & 12 1,700 3rd in Heats 5 & 6 1,600 4th in Heats 5 & 6 1,600

Surely the Mitropa Cup is for teams in Central Europe (i.e. 'Mittel Europa')?

1) Such a competition already exists (the European Club Champions' Cup), although British, Danish and Swedish teams don't part. However, such a competition can never have any credibility whilst riders ride for multiple teams in different countries. 2) I don't disagree with namely the leagues more consistently, but promotion and relegation has been tried in the past, and failed dismally. It will never work until there are more teams wanting to ride in the top flight than can be accommodated. 3) I'm not a fan of age restrictions as there have been examples of riders who started late but who went onto become decent riders. In addition, the standalone tracks need to track attractive enough teams to draw sufficient crowds, so there will always be a need for a few old-hands. 4) Speedway is already expensive enough, without adding additional 'taxes'. I don't want to sound heartless here, but surely promoters and riders should be properly insured in the first place? Getting injured is an occupational hazard, and it's absolute madness to have to rely on charitable donations if the worst happens. 5) I expect that would mean a few tracks closing down, as there doesn't seem to be enough owners to go around.

I agree that it won't work if BEL and BPL teams run over the normal match format. After all, it was tried for the BSPA Trophy about 12 years ago, and not only were there a lot of mismatches, but it contributed to the bankrupting of at least one Division 2 team (as those teams had to pay Div 1 rates). However, I do think an inter-league competition would work if you based it on the 4TT format. That might re-introduce some interest to the current BPL Fours, and allow the re-introduction of the old qualifying rounds. Sure, the BEL teams would probably still dominate the groups, but having 2-3 BPL teams in each meeting would keep some interest going.

It's all about giving and taking. Britain (not to mention Poland and Sweden) often employ riders from the smaller countries which gives them experience of a higher level of competition that they would otherwise never have. They certainly provide the opportunity for those riders to ride professionally which could not be sustained in most countries. However, you can't expect to advantage of such opportunities whilst simultaneously disrupting the professional leagues for mickey mouse competitions. I would absolutely support smaller countries wanting to use their best riders for world championship events, national championships and even national league competitions (if it's only a handful of meetings). However, I don't see the purpose of the European Championship, European U-19 Championship (which often features the same riders as the World U-21), European Club Champions Cup (which features countries that don't even have leagues), and now the European Pairs.

The trouble is that the current format isn't working well. There aren't enough quality riders at the moment, and the Pre-Main Event is just a waste of space. You also have the problem that riders only have to finish second in each race to progress, and often attempt to manipulate their positions in order to get a favourable gate in their next heat. The other problem with having 24 riders are that you have to pay out more prize money, and it makes non-European GPs prohibitively expensive. I also suspect that by scrapping the qualifying rounds and reducing the number of riders, it'll persuade British speedway not to take the decision to ban them. If that happened, I imagine a number of riders would withdraw because the SGP certainly doesn't pay enough for riders to ride in full-time. The knockout format was a good experiment, but I think it's well and truly run its course now. I think the proposed new format is the standard 20 heats followed by knockout Semi-Finals and Final.

The problem is that there are far too many international competitions nowadays, which riders have to miss domestic league meetings for. I don't really object to having a pairs competition for lower-ranked nations as a sort of second division to the SWC, but why do we need all the UEM individual competitions as well?

I seriously doubt the decision had anything to do with the BSPA. I think it's more likely that they've realised that someone can save money by paying eight fewer riders. I don't think BSI pay out the prize money themselves, but lower operating costs might make it easier to find new local promotions willing to stage GPs - something that has proved difficult in the last couple of years. I'm generally not in favour of abolishing the qualifying rounds, but they had become pointless with all the riders that were being nominated directly. It should either be that all new riders have to qualify, or they should all be nominated to minimise the disruption caused by the qualifying rounds.

Wasn't the Champions Chase for around 32 riders?

Not really. I have seen an 18-heat variant of the knockout format, but that still means four meaningless heats for places 9-16. In any case, you really a format with at least 20 heats. Going beyond 14 heats with 16 riders basically means a certain number of meaningless heats.

AFAIK, it'll be the format being used for this year's WC qualifiers. This is the traditional 20-heat format, with the top 8 progressing to knockout semi-finals and a final. A knockout format for 16 riders is not really practical as it would result in too few heats (14).

Yes, it'll be a closed shop from next season. The final nail in the credibility of the World Championship.

Alternatively you could fly to Zagreb (in Croatia) and take the train from there. It's closer than Ljubljana, and Croatian Airlines sometimes offer cheap flights.

Tomaz, Excellent. Adria is a ripoff airline and discourages people from travelling to what is a very nice country. Budget airlines generally only fly to EU/EEA countries which have open skies arrangements rather than bilateral arrangements (which usually means a national carrier duopoly). Of course, Slovenia will join the EU on 1 May which I guess is why EasyJet are starting to fly there.

I would say that speedway needs less international competitions rather than more. There is already an U-21 and U-19 competition, so I don't see the point of adding another.

I've heard a figure of around GBP 40K for a typical BCL track.

I haven't been to a Dutch Open meeting for a couple of years, but they usually start around 13.00. Sometimes a few heats are staged earlier in the day for the lower classes, but you're not missing much. There are usually around 40 heats featuring 2 or 3 solo 500cc classes, a 125cc junior class and a sidecar class. The standard is not terribly high - probably around Conference League for the top solos. Gert Bos <gert@speedway.org> used to be the man to contact for the details, but I don't know if his e-mail address still works.

I had to go the second time for work, but I stayed in Copenhagen at night ;-)

I've been to Malmö a couple of times, and I have to say that it's not the most exciting city in the whole world :-(

The problem with longtrack is that it's boring once you get beyond being impressed by how fast the riders go. It seems mostly about how powerful your engine is, and passing is more or less non-existent after the first bend. However, the fundamental problem with longtrack becoming popular is that the tracks require too much space. There is no chance of fitting them into an inner city venue, and their size makes viewing much too difficult. The reasons you get big crowds in longtrack is that they're generally one-off events. Each track usually only stages one or at most two meetings per season, for which the locals all turn out. On this basis, we could equally argue that we get 40,000 fans for the British GP. As for the New Zealand round of the World Longtrack Championship, 7,000 was decent enough considering the venue, but it hardly indicates that the event is hugely popular.

What about staging the junior races before the start of the main match? That would allow people who get there early to see a few extra races, but it wouldn't matter if you were running slightly late.