HenryW

You gotta laugh at your interpretation of the story! The quote from Nicki said "I would not say that it will cost the World title." (emphasis added by me) but you somehow take this as him moaning that it could cost him the world title!

As you asked...208. At the time of the match, the ages were: Mike Faria - 51 Bobby Schwartz - 51 Shawn McConnell - 49 Buck Blair - 30 Jimmy Fishback - 27

Is that any worse than Speedway, where the same rider could win every GP and still not be World Champion?

According to www.russpeedway.ru: Sergei = 18/5/1991 Vladimir Teigal = 25/2/1992

It's good to hear that they DO have this in their plans. I kind of assumed that they would be planning this way for the time being, but I hadn't seen anything to confirm that. I guess that they are probably going to be looking to some Russians and lower league Poles for the first season's foreign imports...and that's a very sensible way to go. As I suggested, it would be a shame if one club was able to sign some "big names" and ruin the future of the league.

While it would be wonderful to just throw a World U21 round into Argentina, the economics don't stack up at the present time. Do you realise how much cash it would take to get 16 riders with all their equipment and support crew from Europe to Argentina? Who is going to provide that kind of money just now? It's surely much better for the time being to encourage riders to go over and do the full Argentinian season, rather than just diving in with a sure-fire loss maker of a World Championship round.

Nothing about the Czech League? Surely they will be running again in 2009!

The final rules haven't been set yet...in fact the list of clubs is still not definite, so everything can still change. There does seem to be a real appetite to make this work and expand it in future years, so hopefully things will work out well. From the little bits that I have seen, it seems that the Ukrainian League will be allowing foreign riders to compete in the league, which is probably only realistic given the widely differing standard of Ukrainian riders, but hopefully none of the clubs will get silly early and cause the same problems that the Russian League has encountered over the last 4 or 5 years.

It has been known for a long time that the maximum number of teams likely to compete in 2009 was going to be 4. Ukrainian team Chervonograd will be competing in the newly formed Ukrainian League this year rather than in the Russian League as they did last year. It actually seems more likely that the Russian League will consist of just 3 teams, with Salavat also likely to be lost due to sponsor problems. The foreign rider ban decided on early last week was more of a surprise, but isn't likely to hit many riders too hard, as most only did 1 or 2 matches last season anyway. The newly formed Ukrainian League will be allowing foreign riders to compete, but I wouldn't expect to see any big names in that league just yet.

I think the suggestion of moving the U21 to a Grand Prix style is potentially a good move, but I'm not sure that the current proposal is worthy. If the full SGP series can't be made to work financially outside of Europe, how the hell can the U21 series do it? The guys competing in the U21 championship are much less likely to have the infrastructure and backing to enable them to make long treks across the Globe, so who is going to pay for this round in Argentina?

Interesting business plan....Have low prices when demand is high. Will you raise prices when demand is low to compensate for the lost revenue opportunity?

I'm not sure it's all to do with track preparation. I have seen a good few matches from Poland where the track was uber-slick, but the racing was still good. I think the biggest factor is the shape of the tracks. Most of the Polish tracks are big and wide, and are in stadiums where they are the primary tenant, so the tracks take up whatever space they need, rather than being squeezed into the inside of a dog track or into a small area outside of a football pitch. Not sure I would say "free", but it's included with the XL TV package that Virgin Media provide.

I presume by that you mean do the pre-qualifying rounds. If so, no we don't. The 6 teams that competed in Denmark are seeded to the Final Tournament.

People who have watched it Despite it still being four bikes going around and around, they have this strange tendency to change the order that they are in as they go around!

Are you serious? I can understand that you have your preferences, and would rather see a one off world final, but I can't believe that anyone that truly enjoys speedway would fail to watch the GPs on TV if they had the chance. It might not be the same as the old World Final, but it's still the best riders in the World going handlebar to handlebar....I wouldn't miss one on TV if I couldn't be there in person!

Firstly, I think the quality of Egon's entire career is fairly irrelevant when discussing his merit as the 1983 World Champion. By that stage he was about 34 years old, had past his prime and was losing interest in the sport. His next two World Final results were more representative of his true abilities at that stage of his career. However, even taking into account his entire career, I still don't believe that Muller was better than Havelock. Secondly, mentioning the fact that he was a multi-discipline World Champion is also irrelevant to a discussion about his ability as a speedway rider in 1983. He was a pretty good lounge singer as well by all accounts. Would you like to include that as proof that he was more deserving in 1983 than Gary Havelock was in 1992? Thirdly, for a rider who had just one good year, Havvy still managed to finish another World Final higher placed than Egon did....and let's not forget that Havvy's career at the very highest level was effectively ended with his back injury while he was still only about 28, and had made a good start to the GP season that year. Good to see that you still threw in the insults again as well when you have no idea about the international speedway knowledge or background of those making the comments. You dismiss Gary and mock us because apparently we only consider British results. Just when did they move Wroclaw out of the UK? I guess it must have been some time after 1992! When did Egon Muller win anything at the top level of speedway outside of his own country? I don't believe I have dropped to the level of such insults, so hopefully you aren't including me when making that comment. I respect your views, but simply disagree with them. I like our sport having a more "proven" World Champion. I would have loved to have seen Erik and Hans go head to head for multiple rounds in the late 80s to see which one really did have the upper hand on the big occasion. One off World Finals gave an extra level of excitement for that one night, but I would rather see the top riders going head to head more often. Again, I will repeat that I don't think the GP series is perfect. It's Far from it, but I think it's an improvement on what we had before....but I guess you'll never agree with that

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that...I was starting to question my sanity for a bit there

Oooh! That was a bit patronising, was it not? I can assure you that I do look beyond British results. I also still believe that Havelock was a far better speedway rider than Muller!

I agree that there weren't many fluke champions, and agree that the one off finals were often very entertaining. There is also nothing to say that with a GP series in place, the riders who won the titles in the years that I mentioned wouldn't still have come out on top. For example, if there hadn't been a GP series during his career, you would probably have said that Leigh Adams would have been a World Champion under a GP format...but we all know that he doesn't translate his normal form to SGP form. Quite simply, from a purely sporting perspective I find the GP series a much more satisfactory way to determine the World Champion. I certainly don't think that the current system is perfect, as I already mentioned I would like to see the inclusion of more riders for one thing, but I believe that it is an improvement over what was there before. Finally...I haven't got a clue about Freddie Williams abilities, but I would strongly disagree with the suggestion that Egon Muller was a better speedway rider and more deserving champion than Gary Havelock!

I'm not convinced that's the only way. I've seen 20 heat matches won by riders that certainly weren't the best on the night due to many factors, such as controversial exclusions, luck with gate positions as conditions changed, engine failures, etc. Even discounting these anomalies, you are still only finding the best rider on one day, on one track with one set of conditions....so there is still plenty of scope for "the best" not to come out on top. Having several rounds doesn't entirely remove all of these factors, but it does lessen their impact and make it more likely that the "best" will rise to the top. Of course, by doing that, you are inherently making the final result more predictable...just like the top two in the English Premier League is far easier to predict than the top two in the FA Cup! I can't speak with any authority as those were before my time, and I only have a few matches from each year that were covered by TV to make a judgment on, so I bow to your superior knowledge in telling me whether they were indeed the very best in the exact years that they won the title! However the guys who were consistently at the top of the sport would obviously still be more likely to win more Finals than others. The one off final doesn't ensure an unfair result, it just makes it more likely than having combined scores over multiple rounds. From the years where I am more familiar with rider form, I would suggest that 1983, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994 probably didn't give the title to the best rider in World (and I probably should also include a couple of the years that Erik won it, but I am too much of a fan of his to do that! ) The most obvious one there being the 1983 Title. No matter how much anyone loved the old format for the excitement and drama it provided (not that there was any excitement ON the track that day), there is no way that you can ever argue that Egon Muller was the World's best speedway rider in 1983. He was the best on that one day on that one track, of that there is no question, but there is no way you can claim him to be the best rider that year!

Interestingly, both the examples that you gave were things that led to unfair results in one-off events, and they were ditched. That wouldn't suggest a rush back to the old one off World Final was on the cards! Only problem is...look at the National Champions. Whilst Chris Holder would be an interesting addition, I really can't see that including Magnus Zetterstrom and Adam Skornicki in the SGP would have the fans flocking back! (should I point out that both of these weak and unlikely National champions won in one-off National Finals?) Although I don't agree with the choice, I think it's probably a little harsh suggesting that Gorican and Togliatti are more active speedway centres than Vojens!! Whilst the SGP IS looking like quite a closed shop, the problem is that the top guys really don't change much from year to year. To have a credible series, you HAVE to have the best in there, and that means that the names at the top wont change that much. It's the same in most sports run along similar lines. To me, the problem is that 16 riders just isn't enough to give opportunities for new riders coming along. You saw more interesting results when there were 24 riders involved, but that was ditched for financial reasons, which does obviously call into question the viability of the series.

I haven't been following what has been going on over the last few weeks, but I thought that there was a proposal on the table to limit each team to 1 foreign rider each per match...If this does come in, and the league only has 20 or 24 matches in the season, which seems the most likely, there aren't going to be too many opportunities for foreign riders.

The famous Oktyabrsky club didn't race in the 2008 season after losing their sponsor, and the chances of them returning for 2009 always seemed slim. As mentioned by Schumi, of the 5 clubs that participated in the 2008 season one of them was Ukrainian, and there have been some doubts over whether they would be competing in the Russian league again in 2009. A few years ago, things seemed to be looking good for Russian speedway as the number of clubs slowly increased. Unfortunately it looks like they pushed into the foreign rider market too soon and shot themselves in the foot. Hopefully the sport over there can recover from this setback.

Not sure if I count as a GP apologist or not....I have certainly defended the GP series in the past, so I may well be on your list. I have posted elsewhere today that I think that the inclusion of Harris is a disgrace, just like I thought that including Kasprzak last year was a disgrace. However, despite Kasper's inclusion, the nominated riders averaged 72 points in the series this season while the qualifiers averaged 58....I'm pretty confident that similar results will be seen between the qualifiers and nominations again next year. In my view, there are two problems with the SGP at the moment. One is that there are not enough places. The other is that the qualification system is a joke. A move back to a 24 man field would be great....Ideally I'd like to see a qualifying match for the bottom 8 from the previous GP and 8 "outsiders" on the Friday....with GP points being allocated to the non qualifiers that competed on the Friday. The 8 outsiders could be nominated riders to ensure that the series was kept up to date with the "in form" riders at the time. A move away from having qualifiers would also be great. Let the cream be picked from World speedway rather than having one off matches to provide the field for an entire season of competition. If it was down to the GP Challenge, the top 8 would now be joined by Bjerre, Ulamek, Walsek, Iversen, Jedrzejak, Sullivan and Monberg. Much as I detest the selection of Harris....I am way happier with that than seeing the bulk of those guys in the SGP series (not saying I wouldn't like to see some of them in there)....Assuming that we are stuck with a 16 rider field just now, if all 7 were nominated we would almost certainly be seeing Hampel, Holder and PUK next year....Now we have to wait to see them in the series

Not strictly true. He beat Rune Holta in heat 22 of that match. He also beat Jarek Hampel earlier in the evening, and I would argue that Jarek is a far superior rider than some of the qualified riders for next year, but that is slightly irrelevant. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly NOT advocating that Tai is ready for the SGP series. As someone who does regularly travel to GPs, I can honestly say that I would love to see some exciting new blood in the competition, but more importantly I want to see the very best racing in it. If the exciting young riders are better than the current crop, then yes they should be included. However, I'm not convinced that there are many ready for that. Emil and Chris were the obvious candidates. It appears that Emil is in and Chris isn't. I'm excited that Emil will be racing and disappointed that Chris wont. You pick on Greg but what are you saying, that he should be pushed out because he is getting old? Ignoring the GP series, Greg finished 3rd in the averages in both Poland and Sweden. He is clearly still at the absolute top of the game and fully deserves his place in the series regardless of his age. Anyway, back in the "brilliant" one off world final days, did Ivan Mauger not win the World Title when he was older than Greg currently is?