RacerDon 5 Posted July 15, 2008 What a difference a year makes... GREAT BRITAIN 60: Scott Nicholls 15, Chris Harris 14, Lee Richardson 11, Simon Stead 10, Edward Kennett 10. SWEDEN 49: Jonas Davidsson 16, Fredrik Lindgren 12, Peter Karlsson 9, Mikael Max 8, Antonio Lindback 2, Magnus Karlsson 2. RUSSIA 27: Denis Gizatullin 11, Emil Sayfutdinov 6, Roman Ivanov 4, Sergey Darkin 2, Renat Gafurov 2, Danil Ivanov 2. USA 20: Greg Hancock 15, Billy Janniro 3, Chris Kerr 2, Charlie Venegas 0, Tommy Hedden 0. Even allowing for the Danes being involved this time around with pretty much the same team as last year GB were slow, seemingly underprepared (perhaps over confident, or maybe just complacent, Jim??) . Painful to watch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruckerroo 792 Posted July 15, 2008 Our Domestic speedway has prostituted itself so badly in recent years, sadly, to riders from foreign climes. I thought GB would probably finish 3rd anyway but for the likes of nicholls, harris and rico to be completely outridden by swedish trio of ljung, nermark and jonas sums it all up in a nutshell. Those 3 swedish lads rode as if theyre lives depended on it, ours quite frankly didnt. Keep wheeling out the well worn cliches about the track was 'slick and we dont like it', its all cobblers anyway . Middlo papered over the cracks in the english team for a good few yrs tbh. Dont get me wrong jim lynch has an imposible task, silk purse, sows ear variant but the selection of simon stead really was utterly incredible. One other thing why are the english lads machinery always seemingly miles down on power to our scandanavian counterparts ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikegum 0 Posted July 15, 2008 (edited) Dont think it matters whos in charge,we dont have good enough riders end of story.It goes to show that Middleditch didnt do that bad a job after all. Dont know why it takes a performance like last night to make everyone realise how crap British speedway is.We have been overtaken by Denmark,Sweden and Poland with Russia and Czech not far behind. If anyone thinks that Tai Woffinden can come in on Thursday and make everything alright then it goes to show how desperate GB speedway is getting.No dig at Woffinden,he is a fantastic rider and will get to the very top one day. The last time speedway really boomed in the UK, we had a highly successful national team, strong enough to put out 2 competative WTC teams but I'm not convinced the current promoters understand or care about the impact of team GBR. Unlike almost every other country we have no integrated structure for up and coming riders while we continue to be a training ground for youngsters from abroad providing sponsors accomodation etc to supplement the already excellent support many receive from their own federations and clubs, such as 'Team Sweden' and Gundersen's junior Danish programme. What did our wonderful promoters come up with at their conference....a virtual ban on doubling up & a points limit that fills the bottom end of most Elite teams with more second rate or young foreign riders. We simply rely on the odd individual making it to the top on their own endevour, often with structures that actively work against them and then wonder why we continue to fall further and further behind. Edited July 15, 2008 by mikegum Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hazzman 72 Posted July 15, 2008 £23 quid to watch that tosh - 4 and half of my social hours spent on that. I feel utterly robbed. Why hold it at Brandon and make it that slick? Everyone knows when Brandon's slick is a total gatefest. I thought Stead looked Conference League at times, Allen trying too hard, Harris battled with bike probs and the other two weren't worth a mention. Highlights for me were Iversen, Rymel, Davidsson. Total bore apart from them 3. I said Lynch has the swagger of a Venables charlatan on the presentation - needs to get his head in the rule book. I noticed a nervous exchange between him and Stead post-presentation to me it didn't represent confidence. Why did we have just a stupid running order aswell? We just have too much self-interest in the sport. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jemma 0 Posted July 15, 2008 The BSPA need to arrange, perhaps a week before the world cup to send the British squad to a 'boot camp' for a week. Team bonding and things like that. Similar to what Polish clubs do during the winter. If it means the league racing, in particular the EL has to close down for an extra week, then so be it I agree, it might just help. Or at least give the impression that having a successful British squad is something British speedway actually wants and is prepared to invest in. Unfortunately I suspect the word 'invest' is where the problem lies - who'd pay for a week's training camp? British Speedway is run by a group of individual promoters and I'm not certain the promoters are keen to pay into anything that doesn't directly affect their own club. It'd be kind of typical to send our squad off to Latvia for a week's hard labour...er I mean training, and then expect the riders to pick up the tab. The whole British team just seems to have an air of lack of interest in it all round for whatever reason. On a separate note, I went to Coventry last night on a whim, only my fourth meeting of the year (last year I was going to two meetings a week). I've lost all enthusiasm to go this season, and frankly, if I needed any confirmation that my decision to draw a line under my speedway supporting years was a good one, last night provided it. The product, the track, the racing - p1ss-poor and lousy value for money. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
philfromcov 326 Posted July 15, 2008 are team GB just a bit thick? it took 15 heats for them to work out that olsen was in charge and err the tracks as bold as steve johnstone! it was obvious this was going to happen and yet they were unprepared! didnt help that the stand was empty so home straight noise, mind you for £35 quid what did they expect! i know im biased but Allen was the best brit, tried hard out of his depth but gave it all, lets be honest kennet or woffinden or whoever would have been at the back also. they just expected the track to be like the normal brandon track, the evidence is in AJ's scores who was also struggling, you would expect around 13 points! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ashman 19 Posted July 15, 2008 team for thursday. harris kennett woofindon wright. allen bridger. well why not.? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blazeaway 1,501 Posted July 15, 2008 are team GB just a bit thick? it took 15 heats for them to work out that olsen was in charge and err the tracks as bold as steve johnstone! it was obvious this was going to happen and yet they were unprepared! didnt help that the stand was empty so home straight noise, mind you for £35 quid what did they expect! i know im biased but Allen was the best brit, tried hard out of his depth but gave it all, lets be honest kennet or woffinden or whoever would have been at the back also. they just expected the track to be like the normal brandon track, the evidence is in AJ's scores who was also struggling, you would expect around 13 points! Great point, should've made it £20.00 for a seat and £15.00 to stand. Get the place full and jumping, we've seen what the atmosphere at Cardiff can do to ordinary riders. Not sure who set the entry prices but do they not realise that times are tough for lots of people at the moment? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blazeaway 1,501 Posted July 15, 2008 team for thursday. harris kennett woofindon wright. allen bridger. well why not.? I know GB are rubbishe but why should they be allowed six riders!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hazzman 72 Posted July 15, 2008 Great point, should've made it £20.00 for a seat and £15.00 to stand. Get the place full and jumping, we've seen what the atmosphere at Cardiff can do to ordinary riders. Not sure who set the entry prices but do they not realise that times are tough for lots of people at the moment? It was even more disgraceful at the reappearance of Brandon's definition of a child - Under 15's were at concession prices. So if you have child aged 15 or 16 years old, you paid full whack. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westhamboy66 599 Posted July 15, 2008 Words of advice for Chris Harris Drop the stupid inssulting Nickname Remember form states you are a below average GP rider and badly need to improve at this level Forget Cardiff 07 on a dodgy track Don't be seen laughing in the pits when your team was being decimated Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
philfromcov 326 Posted July 15, 2008 having pre paid my entry was £12.37 for 25 heats not bad, normally £15 for 15 heats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Hamilton 1 Posted July 15, 2008 Well, we all know it was a pretty shocking performance, especially as the whole team were supposed to be track specialists! I would be inclined to drop Richardson (he is now a spent force) and Stead for Thursday and leave Olly in. We are almost certainly going to get slaughtered on Thursday as well, so we might as well give the younger ones the experience and hope for the best. If Jim Lynch were brave enough, I would also drop Nicholls and bring in Wright or Bridger, preferably Wright. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ylinenhare5-1 0 Posted July 15, 2008 Richardson may have been shocking, but I don't entirely agree that he is finished. Remember he won the semi-final of the GP qualifiers in Italy and is the only GB rider left in GP qualification final. I can understand people's frustrations towards the so-called - big 3 - but the youngsters would get slaughtered. They might try hard, but would get eaten alive by the Danes and Aussies! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paulr 0 Posted July 15, 2008 Lynch was proved right with his defeatist but honest appraisal of tonights meeting. Truth is we are just not good enough to step up to the top table. Cant see where another collins, carter, morton, jessup, lee, louis, etc is going to come from, theres a couple of promising lads coming through but not i fear of the above quality. With such a poor investment in young home based riders what do you expect. I know someone who,s lad has just started riding, he,s finding out just how difficult it is to get a couple of laps in. Compare that to the excellent danish youth policy and there you go. At last - amongst all the bile is a thread that hits the nail on the head - at present we simply are not good enough. Last night we had a couple of guys painfully 'performing' at a level above them - we shouldnt be surprised we can see the skill/class gulf each week in the EL and how British riders dont consistently perform at GP level. If there were 10 races between Nicki & Bomber - how many times would you expect to see Bomber win (not many I would guess would be the answer from most) - so why do we expect our riders to suddenly find the skill necessary to win against some of the worlds best , just cos its at Coventry and because we wave a few flags ??? As a meeting it was boring - filling in the programme after lap 2 isnt my idea of entertainment - I saw great riding, but poor racing also only a couple of heats were ones that you could say were exciting - if this is speedway at its best then I worry for the future of the sport. Bizzarely, after watching 10-11 heats on Sky repeat last night it didnt look as bad on TV as it did live... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
