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Late to the fun as ever but I thought the final race was very odd. Pairs events have always worked on the basis that not finishing last is more important than finishing first, so why Tai felt the need to race Laguta is a mystery. Ok, when you see a rider slowing down (Zagar in the first meeting springs to mind) its quite strange as it goes against the nature of racing but those are the rules. Woffinden was out of this world over the two meetings so it seems harsh to criticise but it is a valid point. Our only chance was him helping Lambert. He didn't and we lost.

That's funny because in that final race he was and right on his back wheel That's disappointing to hear... perhaps Speedway is not the sport I thought it was or maybe it's just the difference between winners and losers so we would have gone from a losing position to... a losing position

How many times did we see slowing down during the SWC for the Joker? It's nothing new to the highest levels of our sport. If Tai played darts he'd be the type to hit hit a 180 during a pairs match when on 183 - individually brilliant but tactically a dreadful decision.

Team looks awful after that re declaration.. full of riders on there way down or not good enough.. At least Poole wont finish bottom now

Looks like we will do http://www.poolepirates.co/news/2018-06-11_tough-finals-night-for-richie.html

As is moving someone over, diving up the inside, making a blast around the outside. I once saw a rider crash and break his leg because he was trying to pass someone. Next time folks complain about a dull meeting, I'll mention it. Manzares was simply out of his depth and made a mistake. As for 'thinking of Poland'. Yes of course they were.. Tai thought "I'm in Poland tomorrow, I'll just take a safe second". No he went hell for leather after winning the race. Lambert and Sayfutdinov nearly collided and had zero thought of Poland the next day either. Still good to see folks getting creative to try and avoid simply saying, Great performance GB, messed up the tactics in the final,we'll learn next time. Was it on this thread or another where Krompa, or perhaps another Polish poster, posted the video of Tomasz Gollob, slowing Tommy Knudsen (no mug) down and eventually getting his partner through?

Maybe just maybe they were thinking of Poland on the following Sunday where they would be earning fortunes which they couldn’t do if they were injured trying to play games and risk ending up in the fence.

We obviously had a plan but it didn't survive the first two bends, after which the Russians were in front. Bit difficult to come up with plan B in the middle of a speedway race. Out of interest, how many times in the whole SoN did a rider in front successfully slow a race down to let his partner get through?

Still waiting for an explanation of why it makes perfect sense to NOT try to win a gold medal. You advocate it. Phillip Rising advocates it. Seems Team GB advocated it. Champions League Final.. Liverpool trail Milan 3-0.. co managers Phil Rising and Sommelier.. "Shut up shop lads, let's not concede anymore. Silver is great! We can't take risks and chase the game at this level, not in a final, the standard is far too high" Superbowl 51.. New England trail Atlanta by 25pts.. head coach Phil Rising... you get the idea. Now apply it to Speedway of Nations Pairs Final.. Sayfutidnov gets into 3rd on bend 2.. less then 15% into the race and you're advocating throwing in the white towel.

I am at the track,, looks like a decent crowd again, it is probably somewhere between 4000-5000.

Actually the issue has NOT been answered at all. In fact what has just been revealed is that we now KNOW they got the tactics wrong on Saturday AND now, in addition, we know that they still haven't worked that fact out. Amazing.

Does seem strange that he felt going for and holding on to a 5-1 was a strategy,but trying to get a 3-3 and hold it wasn’t on the cards

How is it fair? It's nonsensical, or did I miss a new set of riders being shipped in for the final that were of a much higher standard than the others? Actually, in consideration his comments do make perfect sense.. it's the conclusion that is nonsensical. Basically it's being said the final is of a higher standard, riders going for it to a greater degree so therefore it's much more difficult to beat the opposition.... conclusion, we'll leave Lambert on his own, sure he needed a bit of help when the standard was lower, but now it's higher he'll be fine as he is! Sorry.. but the argument Tai puts forward once again leads to one conclusion.. the wrong tactics were used.

TOP BRIT Tai Woffinden says it was ‘good to be back’ riding for his country last week. The Scunthorpe born double World Champion scored a stunning 38 points out of a possible 39 in the Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations Final. But it wasn’t quite enough to hand GB the gold as Russia pipped them to the post in the final – despite Woffinden winning the race. Now he’s looking forward to a bright new future for the national side under the franchise ownership of Rob Painter and Vicky Blackwell through their VRX Motorsport team. “This is the first stage of a five-year plan for GB and whilst Rob Painter (team supremo) is making all the right noises I’ll be alongside him, he said. “I want to say I’m proud of young Robert Lambert, he did a great job throughout the tournament and also a special mention to Craig Cook who travelled with us and was a big member for us as part of the team. “It was good to be back racing for my country on a team basis.” Woffinden has explained the circumstances behind the final in Poland – he won the decider but with Russian duo Artem Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov claiming second and third they effectively won the race 3+1-3. He said: “The plan was to win the final 5-1 or 4-2 and we knew we could do that so that was the goal. “In a final like that you cannot slow down the race like I did in previous heats. The competition is just too good, maybe 10 years ago you could but at world level now anyone can beat anyone and you have to do the best job you can. “Unfortunately the event rules state if you’re second and third you’re better then the winner! “There’s not many things in life where you get rewarded for losing! “I would like to congratulate Emil and Artem for their world title and look forward to doing it all again next year.” Woffinden has also congratulated newly crowned British Champion Lambert, who romped to the title with a six-ride maximum in Manchester on Monday. “He’s the future,” said Woffinden. “Congratulations to him, he deserves it. I know what it means to win your first national title and it’s pretty special.”

I'd be happy with Kus at number 7

They need to strengthen up and replace Clegg with the extra 1.81 available, only way they will get near the top 4 imo!

Likewise!! Have a programme for every meeting I have attended since I first went in 1976. Stored lovingly in boxes and looked at when the need for nostalga arises!! Would be gutted if they stopped!!

Don't really understand how you can get the full experience of a speedway meeting without filling in a programme. Still, each to his own...... But if you want to try it without any cost go onto the Speedway Plus website (http://speedwayplus.com/) where you can create your own race card and it doesn't cost you anything. (League matches only)

IMO the same thing is happening in Speedway with SGB Championship programmes now mainly costing between £2.50 - £3.00. With the Speedway Star running a rating feature on each track's programme, it appears that some Promotions have entered into a vanity contest to be top dog, with the result that larger, in terms of size and number of pages, are being produced, which in turn has resulted in the prices rocketing. If they reverted to producing a more compact & smaller sized version at about £1 - £1.50, I wonder if those who now print off a basic scoresheet to fill in, might be tempted to purchase a low cost Official programme instead?

Just maybe we might want to keep Perks and if that should be the case knowing it would be a short term signing do you think Shanes would want to sign for Panthers when he could get a full time position somewhere else.

He's been riding here for what, 10 years? Bit of a funny one. Maybe somethings happened in his personal life that's stopping him somehow from being allowed to work here. Is weired, but not our business. And to think it was stated on here that Ford, wouldn't let him go on loan in 2018. But wanted to sell him..

My guess would be OUT Bjerre Smith Gravesen IN Josh g Nicol Georgie wood

but deprive clubs of much needed advertising revenue

I think riders at the very top think they are Superman,Anything is possible and they will stay out of trouble.Doubt many top riders go to the tapes thinking this heat they might get injured. I am actually convinced that Nicki used that 'out of control' wheelie across the entrance to the bend,to frighten off his opponents.It was risky,but he never I bet thought he would get hurt and I doubt he wanted to hurt anyone else.But it was a tick up his sleeve he was willing to use to get the points

Are you a Hancock fan. He has spoken out about slowing a race down since Manzares was injured. Any views on that

Yes that is something to be proud of 2 West Cumbrians in the top 3 of a national sporting event, that cant have happened too often, if at all. Perhaps gurning ?

I hope you've got a extra large back garden then.

Yes. That's how it goes in sport, isn't it ? We all shut up talking about games/matches/cups of the past once the rider/player has spoken. I think not. This is one of those that will still be spoken about when Tai has overtaken Ivan's records.

Pulling out an old programme from your collection is like hearing that old tune on the wireless, seeing an old photograph from your prime. Can’t beat that feeling… glancing down the line-up, the blank racecard and remembering your youthful anticipation, the team line-ups, riders you’d never heard of… a blank programme as we entered the unknown for the next 90 minutes. I couldn’t get rid of my collection - 40 years of my life.

Impossible to calculate unless you have the full spreadsheet and know which meetings are dropping off for each set of rolling figures (and remember to reduce the sample size by 2 each month)

Poole should clean up at reserve Simon Lambert is ok at Kings Lynn sometimes but isn't really good enough at this level, he shouldn't really trouble the scorers and whoever is the other reserve won't be the level of MPT.

It's on at the moment on BT Sport 2, it started at 12.30 but like tonight it is the 2 hour condensed version.

Is that apart from PSG?

This pointless low level intellectual sparring is what spoils or at least mars the whole Forum. Would you come to blows if this was a speedway chat in a pub?

Im not convinced Newcastle will be very happy to see these riders guesting at Scunny on Friday when they have a meeting .....

I thought Lambert moved on the start in the race before Dudek was thrown out for the same movement. Think it Great Britain's last heat. Haven't read all the posts but wonder if anyone else noticed or commented. Also in my opinion once someone hits the tape no more infractions. In all likelihood he might have drawn someone else off and I don't think it's fair to penalize more than one for the same infraction.

BSI really pricing everything too high, also the semi final at Belle Vue was too high, and the Danish GP is ridiculously high and looks like it could only be half full.

So why did we even go out on track? Tai and Robert could just have said "Well done, lads", shook hands, and saved methanol and tyres... Come to think of it, why did we even compete? We could have just stayed home as you don't think we should have even tried to win... Steve

You're still not grasping it are you. There isn't a counter argument to what you have said because you haven't got an argument in the first place! Going for the win was irrelevant. It made no difference to the end result whether Lambert did or didn't pass Emil. Let's just suppose Lambert had sneaked past Emil on lap 2.. Tai has cleared off chasing the win.. Then on the last bend Emil goes round the outside and takes back third. Had Tai not been in the lead he could have blocked that outside run. The scenario for the final was simple. Come last, you lose. The win was not important.

Woffinden didn't practice. Major mistake in my opinion, he dropped a pt as a result.

Doesn't the best rider just come down to opinion. Belle Vue fans will say Collins, King's Lynn fans are likely to say Lee, Wolves fans say Woffinden etc etc. For me I can't compare riders from many year gone by as I've never seen or remember them riding. Certainly since I've started watching Speedway (1989) Tai Woffinden by far is the greatest ever British rider of all time. That's my opinion, it can't be right or wrong, it's just an opinion

THINK (notice phil i also used capitals for my opening word good eh)the point kevh is trying to make is not whether holders being paid by organisation a or b or from country x or y but that hes NOT being employed by a british club to ride in cardiff gp so doesnt need the same work permits,example a brazilian f1 driver wouldnt need the same permissions to drive at silverstone as a brazilian nurse would need to work in the nhs

It's a good job we kept the first leg score close at Belle Vue!

Other than that you're doing fine Nick.

Ok so Cook is a bit hit and miss and hasn't got the consistency yet for a top-level rider but he is in the SGPs on merit and easily qualified for this year's GP Challenge and deserves his place in Team GB SoN. If he can get his level of consistency to match his passion then he can expect a successful few years ahead.

I can assure you, I monitor all our crowd levels, and compared with theprevious 2 seasons, like on like for this time of the year, they are up

You really shouldn't talk about yourself that way. You're airing your opinion, others are airing theirs. It's discussion.

I think sensible people are too often wasting their breath on here, Rob. I'm with you. Too many clueless idiots who offer no cohesive arguments using the forum as their personal attention-seeking platform. If the cap fits, wear it.

And I suppose you will now tell me that record revenues are also false??? Hamburg weren't successful in the Bundesliga.They got relegated,but still 2,000 turned up for training last week So ok,you have convinced me that football is on the way to being as poor as speedway