GREDON

www.duo.com fly Birmingham/Stockholm (main airport at Arlanda) Prices not as cheap as Ryan air. For example fly out Friday return Monday about £130 return

Depends where you want to fly from. Ryanair, from Stansted for example, however be prepared for long journey on the transfer bus from whichever airport you land at in Sweden.

Thanks for info on tickets, last time I looked the Swedish GPs were still provisional

Much will depend where you are staying with regard to transport. I always use the 22 tram, which drops me near my hotel, there is also I think the 18 and No.8 that go from not far from the stadium. The trams run through the night, but change their number at I think midnight. As already said, the trams connect with the underground in various parts of the city.

Difficult to make decision until BSI get organised and state where all the GPs are to take place. eg. Krsko was doubtful, due to lack of money, but has now been confirmed as ok. However, Stockholm, Germany and Poland all provisional at the moment. What a way to run speedway, and these people have the contract for years to come.

Very sensible Andrew, but that idea is too easy, for the promoters to work out this year, perhaps in a year or two time

Well not quite the wheel, but is interesting to see in this weeks Star, BSI are putting forward proposal, for GPs to have 16 riders and 20 heat formula, as the old World Final. Amazing they should be given any credit for this as it is what fans and possibly some riders have been asking for ever since Ole Olsen brought out the 'Its a Knockout' formula. Hopefully this new? idea is put into practice, and we can then watch each rider competing against each other at least once and off different gate positions, roll on 2005.

To put riders in Grades A B C etc according to averages is an excellent idea, and has been moted to me before, but is usually thrown out by some promoters. The cut off point for Grade A riders can be determined by the number of teams in the league, if ten teams then the ten top riders in the averages go to Grade A. That way each team will have one rider, perhaps they have them already. If a team did not want a Grade A rider they could have perhaps an additional Bgrade. It has always been silly that an experienced 3point rider has to be slotted in just to get round the points limit, based on averages for the previous season. After all some riders may improve, whilst others may reduce their average. Also if a guest has to be found there might be a few more available. No one will be doing away with the averages, so I think the grading might be worth trying for a season. After all the promoters have been moving the goal posts every year.

Lets scrap it altogether or run every four years or even 40 years

Hamar was a dreadful venue to stage the last meeting, but suspect that when it was booked it was not intended to be the final one this year. At that stage probably Australia was still in the frame.

There has to be a new rule for the one off tracks, in that if a rider comes down, when in close contact with another rider, it has to be all four back. If he is out on his own he should be excluded as usual. Which meeting was Keith Huwen watching. It was not the best one off track so far, there has yet to be one. Referee was hopeless, but he is under a lot of pressure to get meeting over in time. Why was final meeting held in Norway and possibly again next year. Stadium is not big enough, although was not full, but not surprising, when you consider cost of getting there, staying food and drink. Final should be staged on a proper track, think BSI are fast losing the plot. Frankly on the one off tracks, you might just as well have two riders going in one direction and the other two the other way, all carrying jousting sticks! Speedway this is not, and I have been watching it long enough to know what I am talking about.

Only able to watch on TV this week, no way going all the way back to Gothenburg and thank goodness I did not. Whilst track was marginally better, they might just as well have carried on with things the week before. Will they sack Ole now, even he cannot prepare a good one off track. On the night Leigh Adams should have won, or even Scott, but certainly not Ryan. The GPs are too much of a lottery, Leigh did not stand a chance of Gate 3. It is time they went back to the old World Final formula, were riders meet each other at least at least once, and have to ride of each gate at some stage.. How can you possibly say at the end of it all we have a World Champion

Only one snag to Benfield offer as I see it, is that you have to let them know next month which GP you wish to attend, although you can change your mind when calendar comes out I believe. Can anyone confirm which GPs will take place next year. All I know for certain is that Cardiff is on and so is Copenhagen, but for example will Sweden stage any next year, even though stadiums booked

I actually did attend last Saturday aqnd in common with others there were far from happy. It was pretty obvious on Friday the meeting had to be in doubt and the top dressing put on the track on Saturday was not the answer

Noaksey obviously you were not there. No way could you have put a bike on the track until Saturday. Under the polythene it was at best watery mud

Believe Colin Pratt is due to retire and become a pensioner at end of the season. Do not know about next year, but hope it is not Colin Meredith, but not that many suitable people available I guess. See BSI are offering a ticket to overseas visitors to Sweden, for any one GP next year FOC. Always providing you ever want to go to another GP

Just suppose on Saturday 20,000 new fans turn up without tickets, where are they going to sit. The organisers will not know who is not coming until tickets for refund have been sent back.

If it is run next Saturday it will be interesting to see who turns up. I spoke to several Swedish supporters, some who live not far from Gothenburg and they told me they would not be back. They were either very annoyed at the complete shambles or had other committments. I want my air fares and hotel costs paid, who is going to do that. As I booked myself not much chance, but maybe those who travelled with a proper organised trip might have some success, eg. Travel Plus, who advertise the trip as a Grand Prix weekend

Do agree as Race Director Ole is responsible, he would not have riden any of the one off tracks that have been prepared so far. However more often than not the man at the top is not the one to go, will probably be Philip Rising his assistant for the chop. Big problem is that John Poslethwaite, whilst trying to race the image of the GP has moved to quickly. By all means move into a stadium lay a track and if it works go forward, but to take the GP to all the main cities without getting the product right has done untold harm to the sport we all love.

The state of the track on Friday afternoon, was such that there was no way a meeting could be staged on Saturday, particularly as it was covered in polythene. If this had been removed, there could have been a chance, but heavy rain forecast Friday night which did not materialise. Saturday windy and sunny. I was also told problems with track on Wednesday and also that Karpana I think had offered their stadium.

Maybe it would be better if EL cut down to six teams, they might not then have such a struggle to complete the fixtures, before sky sports cut off date for the playoffs.

I may have missed it, but as it coincided with site breakdown, perhaps it got deleted. However I have not seen any comments about the Danish GP in Copenhagen, so here are a few. Track I think was best one off so far, Admittedly problems on the third and fourth bends, but maybe this had something to do with sun shining on that area after track watered, perhaps roof should have been shut until sun set. Re stadium, did everyone appreciate the non slip steps and hand rails. Only problem was you nearly lost your shoes at times as they got stuck. Am learning that you cannot now take drink into these stadia, but food!!! is now included. We had to stand outside and eat ours before being allowed in. Seems however it is ok to take in fireworks. Did everyone find Copenhagen expensive, it must have cost me twice the price of visiting Vojens last year and we hired a car there as well. Suppose we could always spend the nights in shop doorways or on the station as many people do. Think BSI might find cost puts people off next year. 70dk for programmes, when you found them at the beer stall, is too steep as well. Meeting not bad, but too much bias on inside gates, but that can happen anywhere including Vojens

Lovely weather on Saturday, Cardiff do seem to manage that anyway. Believe stadium roof was closed during the day, to keep the moisture in the track. Track as usual absolute rubbish, although it did take longer to start breaking up. Less people there and I think will be down again next year and by the time 2006 comes round (new contract signed till then) will probably be down to normal speedway crowd. As everyone seems to day lacking 'who let the dogs out etc', although atmosphere not bad. Again entire meeting ruled by Sky and it over ran in spite of everying being rushed through. Water truck break down did not help. Thought should perhaps be given to starting the meeting at 7pm when Sky start transmitting rather than 7.20pm Biggest problem is still the 'man made' track, but it is impossible to make any sort of repairs in the limited amount of time available.

Are there any good refs these days. Do feel however with these dreadful 'man made' tracks there is perhaps a case for all four back at any stage of the race, when no definite decision can be decided as to cause of stoppage, expecially when the track surface can have played a part. It is all very well looking at video rerun, but that does not necessarily produce the true story eiither. You only have to look at the Greg Hancock/Leigh Adams incident in Avesta. One shot might lead you to believe Greg was at fault, but if you follow the shots from when it started, Leigh was clearly to blame

Seem to remember some problem with Jason Crump in an hotel after a GP last year, he came in with his wife and daughter are the rest of his support team, pushed his way to the front of a queue for some food and wanted the swimming pool opened. Believe there was a bit of bad language then. Such a shame as he has a lovely wife and daughter.