al4elt

This thread is so pathetic. How many British speedway supporters have been to a big individual meeting with British riders taking part only to support a foreign rider who rides for their club. I was lucky enough to experience Wembley back in the 70's and early 80's and there was always massive support for the Americans and Danes from British supporters who happened to support the clubs those riders rode for. I am British through and through, I will always support a British rider over a foreign rider, but what Tai did on Sunday was not on the track and was not whilst Team GB were still riding. Therefore it has no relevance to Team GB. At the end of the day Tai earns his living in Speedway and lets face it the window of opportunity is not that big and he needs to earn money full stop. If Tai wins a big event in the future and claims the success to be down to experiences gained from helping Team Aus, or any other team, will you all slag him off again or will you celebrate a British success.

Back to the main point of this thread - The Joker. I understand why the joker exists. Its there to keep the score lines close and therefore some will say yesterdays result proves its worth. Afterall it provided a last heat decider. However the fact that a well played joker can completely reverse a points situation as it did yesterday is wrong. In league racing the best outcome would be to reduce the lead a team has not cancel it out completely. Therfore you have to conclude that Australia were the victims of a poor rule system which in my opinoin need's to be looked at.

Fair comment, although who knows how fast Scott's run up the inside could have been if Hans had not shut his throttle off. I'm not arguing over who won the race or who was faster. It has been said on this thread by some that every rider should race to win, not race to manipulate the score, ie to ride for second to ensure that Poland could not play the joker. I'm simply stating that it has gone on before and it will happen again.

Agreed, just wanted to see others thoughts. I remember the days of if your bike was bent or off the pace your only option was the track spare. Now that could have been fun.

I seem to remeber Hans looking over his right shoulder whilst Scott was pinned watching and waiting for PK to pass.

No cheating allowed in Speedway I hear you say. Unfortunately its always going to happen until the rules are changed. Hans at Poole gifted the Swedes when he clamped Nicholls (I think) coming out of turn 2 and shut the throttle off. Gollob not sure when but has team rode an opponent home to ensure a better result for the Poles. The facts are simple, had Crump maintained second, Australia would most probably have been World Champions. To add another twist, does anyone else think that a rider should not be able to borrow another team members bike. It was plain to see that Gollob's was not up to scratch yesterday.

Spot on in my opinion. Why is it in this country we are English / British if we win, yet we're Scotish, Welsh or maybe Australian if we loose. As for he would not get a place in the Aussie team, I think you will see a couple of those top placed riders stepping down in the next year or so. Tai is a rare talent, not only can he race, he actually has a mature head on young shoulders and thinks about more than just himself. Probably what's upset a few on here.

This is utter stupidity. Tai wore a Ausie t shirt, so what. He's gained experience at the expence of a few morons who just want to bring him down. Australia if I remeber is part of the commonwealth, hell there's even a Union Jack on their flag. The fact he chose to ride for team GB shows more spirit that some are willing to give. Surely if Tai was all about winning he would have chosen to race for Australia in the first place. Lets face it their in front of us in tearms of silverware potential. At the end of the day he helped out a group of lads he has grown up with, who he has riden with since he was a kid, who most probably have helped in the making of the great rider that Tai Woffinden is. My final rant is that if you were to help out a mates company with a little work on the side, would you refuse to wear the company T shirt just because you work for someone else. The answers NO and you all know it.

I'm not blaming Scott for any bad team spirit. It was clear last year than none of our boys were happy and none of them seemed interested in eachother. All I'm saying is that Scotts experience and knowledge at this level is worthy of him being there to pass it on. I'm also happy to mentioned that Joe Screen could have been there, after all I believe he made it clear that he was not interested in riding but was happy to offer advice. Rob wants to go with a young team, fair enough. I just think there should have been other more experienced riders there to offer help / advice and back up rather than stay at home and sulk. As I mentioned in the post, I am a Scott Nicholls fan and would love to see a return to form as he is a great talent. I dont want to see british boys being left behind.

Firstly a great performance from Team GB last night. Against all the odds we almost made the final. I for one was not a believer in Robs decission to field such young riders with a lack of experience at the level required. However the level of comitment from all concerned was fantastic regardless of the fact that a couple could have scored a few more points. The experience they obtained from that meeting will be worth more than being part of the pit crew. Sure Scott could have been included. But he was not, and that is because love or loath him he has been way below par this year. I am a Nicholls fan and do believe he would have scored more points that two of the riders there last night but would that have been at a cost to the wonderful team spirit that was evident to all. One big question has to be why was Scott not in the pits last night? His experience at this level should be passed onto our youth if they are to gain maximum benefit at these meetings. You cant slate Lewis for breaking the tapes, the pressure he must have been feeling to perform got the better of him. You need to look no further than Scotty himself to remember a couple of big GP race where he himself has blasted the tapes when under pressure. As for Danny, AJ just sucked him in and done what he does best. He buried him in the dirt and that was the end of that. Both these boys will learn from these experiences and hopefully come back stronger both mentally and physically. Overall a great night of racing. Well done to all our boys and it was great to see some of the other youngsters in the pits backing them up as well.