Col

I don't care about silencers.. Sorry not geeky enough to understand.. Havent read much of this, but here is my take on the meeting. Firstly Lindgren screwed up. Seemed the fastest guy on the track, but didn't make te gate in the semi and showed a lack of patience, silly boy. He would have picked off at least two of those in front of him to make the final. Gollob was correctly excluded with his main meet clash with Pedersen had however he gone down in the final, Pedersen should have gone, Gollob backed off to avoid being fenced. Crump, WTF? Looked outstanding in his first two rides then did nothing. Bjerre levelled Hampel, whereas Hampel had no clue Kolodzeij was there.

Rosco has a nouse for bargains? Illustrated when?

In 3 seasons! Coventry dumped him after about 2 months.

1 ~ Tomasz Gollob 2 ~ Jarek Hampel 3 ~ Jason Crump 4 ~ Rune Holta 5 ~ Kenneth Bjerre 6 ~ Greg Hancock 7 ~ Chris Harris 8 ~ Chris Holder 9 ~ Artem Laguta 10 ~ Antonio Lindback 11 ~ Fredrik Lindgren 12 ~ Nicki Pedersen 13 ~ Janusz Kolodziej 14 ~ Emil Sayfutdinov 15 ~ Random Brit Can't see AJ or Hans being back to be honest. 2 Swedes, 2 Danes already there assuming Pedersen gets a pick (which he will). Shame but I reckon they'll give another Brit a chance, though none are deserving.

Sadly unable to attend due to work, not so fussed considering all the riders that pulled out. Predictable result.

I'm sure season tickets were valid in the past. I'm not sure I could cope with the gloating from the regulars, but this is usually an entertaining meeting.

It was hard but fair defensive riding by Nicholls, but I didn't what happened to initiate the incident - only thing on YouTube is in Russian and misses the start of the incident, plus anything that happened on the way into the pits. For the record I though Andersen parked the bike hoping Harris would touch him having lost out in the first turn to Pedersen & Hancock, Andersen should have gone. Second time it should have been all 3 back. Also thought Crump should have gone when AJ did, another bike parked when the battle in turn one had turned out badly for a rider.

Personally (Dekker feel free to object as that is your life) I thought until the final there was only one winner - The Russian Wizzwid called Emil who's second name I havent yet learned to type. I thought he and Lindbck would domintae the final Crump & Pedersen battling it out for a point, Crump being lucky to be there since Lindgren chucked his bike away in the semi after hitting that rut - harsh on AJ. The first running of the final I thought Emil was looking to take a dive knowing Pedersen was going quicker than he and fair play to Pedersen for finally finding a setup that worked, only Pedersen taking care of Lindback gave the Russian a chance to hit the front. Bad call from the referee. Lindback bottled the second running, Crump made an awesome gate but wasn't going to hold off teenager. But mostly I thought... The track was a mess, a dangerous horrible mess. Lot's of ruts, lots of dust. They'd have been better off not grading it towards the end (last 7ish heats) - which is all I saw.

I was given the book as a gift for my Birthday 18 months ago. Having spent a week in Spain last week - I only tend to read books on holiday, I read it and enjoyed it for the most part. There were some slightly odd stuff in there like Carter owning a Buffalo and being huge on animals when such things hadn't previously been mention at all. There were quotes from guys who were 'great friends' with Carter that didn't appear until near the end. IMO the book could have been better constructed in terms of content. I thought Bruce Penhall was superman aged 3-6 so much pretty hated Carter with a passion, even if I was never old enough to really understand the rivalry. Still I enjoyed it. I must say I wasn;t old enough to appreciate how good riders were or weren;t at the time and before reading the book I was of the opinion that Carter was a second rate rider, total liability (an 80's Lukas Dryml?), that certainly doesn't seem the case in retrospect.

The EL is full of tight tracks - Monmore, Kirky Lane, Arlington & Purfleet. Foxhall isn't much bigger. Brandon & Wimb. Rd are what I'd term mid-sized tracks. Only Blunsdon & EoES are 'big'.

They were about as competitve as Klindt was yesterday!

A great afternoon. As previously documented the Crump/Fisher race was awesome and Woffinden was very impressive, even if he did lose out to two of Monmore's veternan track craftsmen after leading them. Thought Wells looked good, Kennett deserved more than he got. The no show from Nicholls (BOO!) handed a rostrum place to Lindgren as he wasn't in heat 20 (Adams v Hencock v Crump v PK). Felt for Greg in heat 20 he was the only rider that didn't ride the very apparent inside blue groove that had appeared in an attempt to pass someone and missed out because of it - not enough water & too much wind. Crump deserved to win, he looked absolutely awesome in his first ride I was sure he'd taken the track record and Fisher did a great job holding him back for 3.9 laps. Great to meet Steve Evans and thanks for your efforts in organising the event. Thought Proctor found the pace a little too hot to handle (the new Monmore mobile chicane?) and Klindt was utterly awful for a rider that has called Monmore his home track for a year now. Complin needs more power and to learn to gate, for a rider that grew up and Sheffield he was smooth enough around the tight turns just had no pace. Smolinski did enough to suggest he is worth a punt for an EL track in need of rider. I'm sure Billy enjoyed the day as much as we all did. Surely PK's involvement in heat 5 of Cradley v Wolves wasn't needed, it should have been the show down of the four American's as it always was in the early 90's - and yes it was a contrived result though not in the finishing order I expected. Farewell William Gordon Hamill aka Billy the Kid, The Bullet, you've left me with some heart stopping memorys in your time in British Speedway, I wish you well in your retiremrnt. They are both in their mid 50's and have been retired for at least 10 years. None of the Wolves riders are that old and most were still riding a couple of years ago, what did you expect? I don't think either even had a bike a week ago.

I've barely looked at the forum for months! Too many pointless posts, couldn't be bothered after the signings were announced.

Not a great meeting, but they never seem to be this early in the year still good to have the smell of methanol in my nostrils again, best heat was when Howe missed the gate and Barker chasing Compton. Both Howe & Barker appeared to be testing equipment all night, expected more from both. Other than that Vissing impressed me, he's come on leaps & bounds since he was at Stoke. Ulamek was utterly clueless the once when Franc out gated him, but every other race he was well clear as he hit the first turn. And whats with this new 7:30 start, I missed the first heat (it was 7:45 start time all last season).

First time I've looked at the forum for a month Got my season ticket through the post on Saturday, thought I'd see when I can start using it. Line-up looking good, except for Ulamek Barker, Franc, Parker all very good at Perry Barr.

I just hope they recreate the greatest heat ever... Heat 15, Dudley Wolves Trophy second leg at Monmore, August Bank Holiday Monday 1992. Gate 1; Greg Hancock Gate 2; Sam Ermolenko Gate 3; Billy Hamill Gate 4; Ronnie Correy It was awesome. Anyone else remember it Wolves had gone down by 20+ points at Dudley Wood earlier in the day mostly due to Ermolenko falling off allot and Wolves loanee Andy Phillips scoring 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 0 from reserve for Cradley. His duck egg in heat 15 is long since forgiven & if not forgotten due to the end result. The Monmore men could however restore some pride with a heat advatage in the final heat. Scott Smith had obviously taken Stephen Morris out in heat 2 (or 4) as he always did (purely due to his inabilty to get around the tight turns) and both were at New Cross by the time the race occured. Phillips had made Cradley loanee Nigel Leaver look a muppet for most of the night as both had 7 rides So does anyone remember what happened

Billy was awesome for Cradley... Came in on 6:00 to start the year in 1990, was our #1 by the end of it thanks to Janno, Cross & Hancock getting injured, and generally crap guests. he spent much of the year gating like Gjedde with his wheel in the air and 20 yards back from the gate, but it rarely mattered the 3 & 4 swoop he mastrerd quickly along with heavy dive up the inside of turn 1.. 1991 he was second heat leader behind Janno, who won the World title that year, about the only season the Dane ever completed fully fit. We lost Janno early in '92 and he never rode again. Hamill & Hancock kept Cradley alive after that.

Excellent Wolves v Cradley.. Not many ex-Cradley riders still going. Hancock, Hamill, Fry & Scott 'Scud' Smith the only ones I can think of. Barker retired and although he never rode for us Krister Marsh was a Cradley junior for a time, he's also now retired.

£17 for that line up and a walk in the park for a rider that couldn't be bothered to turn up for his teams last EL meeting of the year today? Meh, I'm not paying that despite the fact the meeting is usually interesting due to the handicap system.

Why do some Swedish teams have their "#1" riding at #2 in the team? Are there any restrictions in place which governs what position in a team a rider rides in like over here?

You should make the short-ish trip up the M5 to Perry Barr, Grachan, Roynon is a prospect and a half, especially considering the injuries he's sustained in his short career. Along with Ben Barker, thos two riders are more entertaining than anything since Jan O Pedersen, except for Chris Harris when in awesome mode. I know it's detrimental to his money & career, but I love it when Adam misses the gate at PB.

Cheers Niclas.

Any results through yet?

Harsh! The P'boro v Eastbourne match on Sky was good. Nicholls has topped the qualifying scorers and picked the wrong gate position in the past. He's also made the rostrum a few times.

Good GP, overjoyed Adams won. Pedersen should have been excluded, he realised Crump was coming past (you see him look over) and turned left on the Aussie.