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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?

But none of the 3 of them are an improvement on Grondal who I think is worth waiting for.

but deprive clubs of much needed advertising revenue

It's actually a funny fact of the whole competition ... I don't think there was much evidence that many of the teams really understood the difference in tactics required for the race/off and finals that made them VERY different from all the other races. There were only 6 races where setting out to get one of your opponents into last place was the ONLY effective 'plan'. And in three of them one side ended being reduced to one man so it became a little irrelevant. In the other three race ALL of them ended 3-3. It was obvious that Australia, Denmark and Russia had 'got' it by either 'going' for a second/third 3-3, or at least being very happy to settle for it when it happened. And in all three races that really came about BECAUSE the lead rider of the 'other' side singlemindedly (and pointlessly) went for the win and Zagar, Millik and Tai never make any attempt to assist their partner at all. We all know that hardly any team other than GB had actually done any team riding all week AND their partner in each case could be regarded as being 'difficult to help' so that comes as no surprise in the qualifiers. But we know Lambert WAS able to make use of Tai's help which was very different. BUT the reality is that NONE of those three winners ever even gave it a thought. And none of them had it as a 'tactic' that they had even thought of. They still seem to think that there was something 'helpful' about going for the win ! Including Tai.

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

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.

I am still keen to find out who came up with the genius tactics. Tai himself, which as you said yesterday if that is the case he's done enough over three days to be forgiven for the error in tactic judgement. If some member of the Team GB management came up with that, well questions should be asked.

Fair comment from Tai about the final.

The idea is to promote the sport to the public and while newspaper are about surely that would be the way to go....

He was in the UK at the SON so must have had a passport surely? That was put on the forum last week wasn't it.Phillip Rising i think put that on one of the threads,possibly the SON thread.

Typical that a team is going to change and strengthen up yet again just as we get to them

FFS behave. IMO they need to have a serious think about this finals lark. Yes, we know they know beforehand but fans want fairness. Imagine if Lambert hadn't won last night. Slight tweak needed. Otherwise its a good competition because a good range of nations can compete

Not sure what websites you are looking at? Its been on Poole's since yesterday - albeit not necessarily with the correct line-ups!!

From the moment Robert made his National League debut around Saddlebow Road he seemed destined for this. He was, as Webby says, majestic, seeing off the young guns of his own generation and going head to head in superb battling style with the British "veteran" riders. Thank you BT for a stunning broadcast which allowed me to almost "be there" ( as I can no longer attend in person ). That man Bewley is going to share the future with Robert and they will likely form the spearhead of the GB Speedway Team - how lucky we are to look forward to that exciting prospect. With Garrity, Cook and Woffinden WOW!

im sure most of us will he has just had the week of his life racing speedway

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.

all the tarnow fans are feeling this way, every team should get their fair share of live matches, I understand the gorzow match yesterday but I feel gorzow has the worst racing at all the extraleague tracks but they seem to be on most weeks, tarnow are a fairly well supported team and are bating way above their capability and yesterday came from 8 points down with 3 heats left to win by 4 against the league leaders, they deserve more live airtime, I’m not a big fan of watching non live matches and don’t really watch the Monday night highlights as I already know the result

so holders situation is out in the open but no mention of what that situation is apart from personal situation stopping him riding in uk does that also include the gp at cardif ?

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.

I can confirm that !

Your source is simply wrong. There was no CONCERTED campaign...and if you still believe that it was - prove it... and don't spread lies.

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

Maybe because he'd put a lot of thought and effort into the post, I wouldn't knock it myself, I think it was very good of him to have given advice?

Is this available on Sky Tv if so what channel?

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.

Exactly Aces51,that's the point I was trying to make to Najjer who was implying his future with the aces was in danger because of his performance at Somerset.I don't believe it is and would definitely stick with him.

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.

Massive Whoosh .