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First ever Russian World Champion. Talk about balls of steel after a terrible start to the meeting. Nothing against Zmarzlik at all but Poland are so dominant in world speedway we must have other nations victorious.

Nice from Fricke, hopefully he'll get a wildcard next year

The new scoring makes the 20 heats more or less pointless. We get to the semi's Laguta's bike packs in and Zmarzlik wins the final and is champ. Dramatic maybe but to me makes it a farce. Old system much better

Looks like it's all over, can't see Zmarzlik making up 9 points on Laguta for 1st. Lindgren making up 9 points on Sayfutdinov for 3rd or Madsen making up 16 points on Woffinden for 6th. Didn't think the racing was bad last night, watched 10 heats before going to the pub and the rest when I got back, but not as good as some Ekstraliga meetings I've watched from Torun this year. Can't understand why the FIM people take over track preparation/grading/watering, just let the guys that do it week in week out for the league meetings look after it, they clearly know it better.

As tracks haven’t started working until 2/3rds into a meeting, this could be a very good thing.

Emil has been my favourite rider since he first burst onto the scene, but his inconsistency really frustrates me.I fear he will go down in speedway history as the greatest rider never to become world champion. I do hope he proves me wrong.

No,they just don't want to be wiped out.

MPT can't cross his fingers.....

100%! My local National League track Mildenhall is almost perfectly functional and financially viable in the 3rd tier with its healthy crowds for the level they run at. I get the impression that the powers that be would rather Mildenhall stepped up into the 2nd tier but that wouldn't work out as costs would go through the roof, admission prices would have to go up but crowds probably wouldn't go up to subsidise the increases. And I doubt racing the racing would get any better cause race times would sometimes be 2 seconds quicker which would mean race times of under 50 seconds which would be a blink of an eye and make overtaking even harder! - Indeed with out the 3rd tier Mildenhall speedway would of probably finished permanently in 1992 when the track folded mid season in the 2nd Division and the track tarmaced over for stock cars. The reality is in present times most tracks in the 2nd tier don't get big enough crowds to afford to pay riders a professional wage. In fact most of them would be better of racing at 3rd tier level where the crowds would be more viable in terms of the reduced costs. Rob Godfrey has a short memory cause if there wasn't a 3rd Division when he got Scunthorpe going in 2005 its doubtful he would have even tried cause reopening Scunny in one of the two professional Leagues, a former failed speedway centre that failed to attract viable crowds in the better supported times of the 1980's would have been a massive gamble! I also suspect Godfrey is a tad bit oblivious to the struggles of other tracks in the Championship because his team is subsidised by being able to have almost unlimited access to his track which means he can put on lots of practises, amateur meetings, stock car meets and the venues available for private hire. The likes of Birmingham and Eastbourne only kept going a few years back when they had to drop down into the less expensive 3rd Division. The modern 3rd Division in its numerous guises has been one of the best innovations in British speedway ever since it was formed in 1994, in fact its something that would of helped speedway if it had been formed in the late 70's. - I suspect quite a few of the track closures from the late 70's to the early 90's may have been prevented had a 3rd Division been in place then? Apart from offering up and coming riders a constructive 6-7 person team League to race in the 3rd tier has been a viable water in which to reopen former tracks and for new venues to test the water. Also competent riders not good enough for higher Leagues but are still capable of providing good racing and passing on experience to young riders have benefited from the 3rd tier. Basically all this leads me to conclude that British speedway needs to go to 2 Leagues next season. - The top League called the British League will be an amalgamation of clubs in the current Premiership and Championship that can afford to run professional speedway at a level akin to the current 2nd tier. - This would be at most 15 of the tracks at present I suspect? The new 2nd tier to be called the National League to be a semi professional League stronger than current National League but not by a massive amount. This would contain the likes of Birmingham, Newcastle, Berwick, Kent, and maybe Scunthorpe and Redcar combined with Mildenhall, IoW, Oxford, Eastbourne, Workington and maybe a couple of reserve teams like Belle Vue Colts if they could afford to? - No foreigners except Commonwealth riders with a British League average under 5 or 6 allowed. 2 per team allowed. The successful, properly run, enthusiastic 4 person Northern junior League and the Midland Development League (rename it the Southern League to encourage Southern tracks to enter and for a equal North South split!) to continue for novice riders not yet ready for National League. Forget about the still born, half hearted Godfrey/Louis Premier junior League from this year. Allow teams representing defunct tracks to enter like Milton Keynes, Exeter, Reading cause these could possibly stir up enough interest to provide the inspiration to open new tracks at these lost centres like what happened at Scunny cause again Mr Godfrey who blocked such teams from running done exactly the same thing in 2003 and 2004 before Normanby Road opened in 2005! Things need to change thats for sure but what is certain is the National League has to continue albeit at a little bit higher level!

But does Palin & Flint's improvement have anything to do with the "rising star" system! They were picked for their teams long before it was thought up & would have improved anyway!

He did he paid his money

Sayfutdinov has been a brilliant gater in the past. And a brilliant rider. Have you forgot he was up with Tai when Tai won his first world champ medal. Emil had that very serious injury when Medinski fenced him - could have been career ending. Then of course Emil went AWOL from world GPs for 3 years. He come back not the racer as he was.

I'm way behind on the GP, just seen the Doyle/Berntzon incident. Now I like Tatum and Pearson but what race were they watching? If Lindgren or in years gone by Pedersen had clouted Berntzon they would have been apopleptic......just because they like Doyle they fudge the issue. Janowski never touched Doyle, Doyle hit Berntzon, Doyle knocked him off. Simple decision. Where is the dilemma?????

Anyone think we should go back to the every point count scoring system

Lol! You know what? I do that at Poole as well as I sit behind the riders.

At least Fireman Phil has reduced the flooding tonight....

Can someone please tell these two that FRICKE DOES NOT NEED A BLOODY WILDCARD!!!

Im watching a stream so dont have to listen to those two

Forecasting Snow in some parts of Scotland this week even on lower ground. They just never learn and every season is the same.

Echo that. Fantastic servant to speedway.

In the case of the BSPL I think we'd be better off starting with small steps. How about a 5 day plan?

Silly statement !! why would they want to do that ? No more meetings = no money and it's their jobs !! They were all fired up to overcome the deficit but it just didn't happen. As for RIP there is a lot going on to save the club so let's get behind those efforts .

Sadly yes, though he said there may be some live events on Eurosport. Not really sure how they expect to enlarge the fanbase by making it less accessible, but that seems to be the plan. With The Hundred in cricket this year, Sky Sports streamed all the women's matches and a few men's ones each week for free on YouTube as well as putting other matches on their basic channels Sky One and Sky Sports Mix. That was in addition to the BBC being the free-to-air partner. In an interview their head of cricket spoke of how it was more important to Sky to build up the audience in the first few years rather than simply make money from it. It sounds like Discovery's plans for speedway are the opposite of that, because while most people with a pay TV package get Eurosport included, only those who specifically want to watch sport will buy Discovery+ with the sport option. But their person did only speak of increasing the reach rather than the audience, so he clearly only meant the number of people capable of watching on a global basis, whether or not they actually do, or whether it shrinks the audience in any specific country. This will probably lose me from the sport completely. For personal reasons I am not able to attend live meetings (and I do not have a local club anyway, the nearest is Kent which is 50 miles away, and I do not drive) so I first started watching the sport when accidentally coming across the Elite League on Sky. But domestic speedway lost me by moving to BT (admittedly maybe without choice) as I could not afford that just for speedway. At least when the SGP and SON moved from Eurosport there was the VPN option. But even going back to Eurosport I have struggled to watch it. Whether through lack of habit or the erratic scheduling I kept forgetting it was on. I have probably only seen two league meetings and the British Final. And I never got into the SBP or SEC until last year when there was nothing else happening, and then they moved that to Discovery+. I do not watch anything else on Eurosport, or for that matter any other Discovery channels, even though I am already paying for them through my TV subscription. I refuse to pay twice for content I am not even watching once. A shame as everything else about the presentation looked good, though I would have like more information on how SGP4 would work with the local boards. When flashing the logos they also only showed SGP4 alongside Swedish, Danish, and Polish flags even though in the presentation there was a British logo too. More also needed to be said about how SGP qualification would work. I still do not understand how, at the very least, the current GP Challenge is not televised as part of the normal contract. But there is surely as much scope in making that series a bigger event as there is with with the U21s as SGP2. The main negative is nothing being said about how they will work with the leagues, because while you cannot complain about a big increase in prize money, surely it will only lead to more SGP riders only racing in Poland to the detriment of the sport in other countries. And despite all the big talk about not being concentrated in one country, next year will see four SGPs in Poland to one everywhere else. Whilst he said one of those was due to a problem with an intended Latvia SGP, surely they could have moved that elsewhere. In particular it seems odd not to hold anything in Manchester, a major city with a suitable track, when BSI regularly used the SWC or SON to be able to stage a second senior British event. Going to Poland for 6 of 17 events in total is a conscious choice.

I think that around 40,000 people might hold a different opinion regarding Cardiff!

First mistake. Should have the British GP at Belle Vue and dump boring Cardiff

Completely right. At the other end of the thing, the RS system has forced some teams to use riders who either were not ready or who never will be, doing nothing for these guys or the teams they were in. Redcar fans should remember that another effect of the Rising Star system was that Edinburgh were forced to make changes they didn’t want to make which sent James Sarjeant to the Bears. I’ve got nothing good to say about the Rising Star system.

Scorpions have bought Jake Allen's contract from Somerset. To all intents and purposes Jake will be a Scorpion again next season. Yes, yes, yes some good news to a poor season end for us.

More recent news is that Mateusz has been able to take a few steps out of bed- N Sport commentator Tomasz Dryla who visited him said " it`s a miracle"

I'd totally disagree that a new venue is not needed, it's desperately needed, but would guess its not financially possible atm, a new venue would open up many new revenue streams for the club

Woffinden saying he is now “fired up” A bit late Tai. Afraid the boat has already sailed on anymore world titles.

Think Laguta was more interested in staying out of trouble, so he could enjoy the celebrations, and who can blame him ?

You were right,not rearranged till next Sat,can see these play offs finishing in Dec.

I think, given the amount of rain in Leicester the last few days and today so far (and there's more, to come) it would have been very difficult to prepare the track for racing for tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Going into tonight, old way AL 169, BZ 158, ES 115, FL 103. MJ 102, TW 107. AL has done 69 races and won 45 of them, BZ 67 races 36 wins, then the nearest is woofy on 20 race wins. Biggest gainFL 19pts ES 16pts.

Doesn’t seem to be a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination but I think encouraging home grown riders is to be applauded.

You be pedantic, I'll be positive.

Buying a riders contract means very little these days. Charles Wright is owned by Poole and has been for several years but has never ridden for them, just means Godfrey can collect loan fees if he doesn’t use him.

Considering the championship has 5 days to choose from, you'd think Leicester could choose a date during the week.

Adam will tell you himself, he uses the same bikes for Scunny as he does for Sheffield. In fairness, Adam was mainly brought in for away performances - however, the Scunthorpe track has been prepared very inconsistantley all season - and Adam's struggled to learn Scunny as his home track due to that and the fact that everyone can ride Scunny! I'd personally love to have Adam back next season if the rules allow

Is it right to announce a rider whilst he is involved with another club in play offs, Just doesn’t sit right why not wait until the season is finished.

No problem, you’ll come across some old photos, programs and general aces memorabilia as well to keep you entertained

Thank you sir, for coming and supporting the lads and paying your admission to help keep the club alive! Meeting wise - that wasn't the best meeting we've had this season, I dont mind losing to the Lions, a team that would do well in the Premiership, but even the racing wasn't entertaining last night. Outclassed by the Lions from the gate and that was that. Congratulations to the Lions and I wish you well in your quest to retain the league title. As for the Scorpions - for a team tipped to be in the bottom part of the table, we've done good this season and I'd like to thank each and every rider that's donned a Scunthorpe race jacket this season, it's been a pleasure to follow you guys home and away all year. Onto next year now and it was pleasing to hear that Rob's secured Jake Allens contract from Somerset - maybe that means he's coming back?!

Having just watched the FIM / Discovery+ video, outlining the plans for the real SGP series, including SGP2 (u21) SGP3 (u16) and SGP4 which features Poland Denmark and Sweden but NOT Great Britain, I'm left wondering if an ultimately true word hasn't been inadvertently spoken in jest here. I wonder if the BSPZzz will take an active part in the FIM's plans or if AGAIN the BSPZzz won't interested in playing on the world stage. Anyone who remembers the early years of the Speedway European Championship will remember the BSPA cold-shouldering the FIM. I wonder how long this attitude of "we're British, WE know best, and you (FIM) aren't telling us how to run our sport in our country" will last, and what damage it could do to the sport in this country? I wonder who will prevail? Who will prosper and who will go under? https://www.speedwaygp.com/news/article/9277/fim-speedway-world-championships-2022

Below you can read excerpts from an article written by Lukasz Kuczera in the Sportowe Fakty website https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/962437/malzenstwo-ktore-wygralo-polska-lige-klub-traktuja-jak-dziecko (…) Andrzej Rusko, president of Betard Sparta Wroclaw, the new Polish champion has been working in speedway for over 30 years. During this period, he created a tycoon in Lower Silesia, the richest club in Poland. It was the beginning of the 90s, when speedway in Wroclaw was declining, and then appeared a man called - Andrzej Rusko . An efficient manager and businessman who started to introduce ideas straight from the West. Ensuring support of Poland’s first private TV channel Polsat TV, which was a novelty at the time - the clubs did not have title sponsors, or bikes from respected tuners, gave the medals they wanted. Three years in a row, (1993-1995) the speedway riders from Wroclaw did not descend from the throne . On Sunday 26 Sept.2021, Betard Sparta Wroclaw became the Polish champion for the fifth time in history. Although the speedway traditions in the capital of Lower Silesia date back to the early 1950s, the club won all the titles in the Rusko era. It is hardly surprising, however, since he himself treats the club as his child. Sparta is our common child. Mine, Christine's and many other people. The child that was born grew and gave us a lot of joy - said Andrzej Rusko when the association he founded celebrated its 25th anniversary. During this period, he could always count on the support of his wife - Christine Kloc . It was she who took the lead when he decided to head Poland's football Ekstraklasa. (…) When Rusko was active in Ekstraklasa, the club found itself in a black hole. Back then, it fought to stay in the PGE Ekstraliga , had a worse squad, and the Olympic Stadium, which was reminiscent of the communist times, deterred fans. This worse period of Betard Sparta is remembered by Tai Woffinden . The Brit, a three-time world champion, joined the club in the 2012 season. As he says himself, Krystyna Kloc saved his career, because the people of Wroclaw stretched out a helping hand to him at the right moment. As Woffinden climbed the ranks of the world speedway, so did Betard Sparta I've waited 10 years for this. I just cried - said Woffinden after winning the gold with Wroclaw, For the last several months now Wroclaw is his home. He has bought a house 20 minutes from the track and moved in with his family. If Woffinden has been waiting for gold for many years, so did Rusko. Wroclaw celebrated the last title in 2006. After lean years, fat years have come. In recent seasons, they regularly appeared in the playoffs, but they always missed the dot on i. Ironically, each time they had on their way their biggest rival - Fogo Unia Leszno . The Wroclaw president’s dream was to celebrate gold in 2017 - it was the first season of competitions at the completely renovated Olympic Stadium. For the amount of PLN 120 million in Lower Silesia, they acquired one of the most beautiful speedway facilities in Poland. The activists also did a gigantic marketing job. Suddenly it turned out that 12-13 thousand fans can appear in the stands at every match. Currently, no one says that Wroclaw, as a city, is too big for speedway. On the contrary. Before this year's finals of PGE Ekstraliga with Motor Lublin, there were voices that if the facility had 30,000 capacity, it would also be able to fill it. In order to be successful, Andrzej Rusko had to deviate a bit from his policy. For several years in a row, Wroclaw attracted the stars of the young generation, who, with appropriate support, were to reach there a higher level. Before the 2021 season, Artem Laguta was brought in - one of the best speedway riders in the world, currently the leader of the general classification of the SGP world championship . All this would not be possible without the city's support. City’s President Jacek Sutryk is a huge fan of speedway. Perhaps in part because he rides a motorcycle himself and has a passion for two wheels. The city's involvement in the speedway sport is greater than in the times of its predecessor, moreover, Wroclaw is organizing the speedway Grand Prix cycle again - from which it gains profits. The presidents of other Polish speedway clubs say straightforwardly: it is currently the richest club in Poland, with a budget well over PLN 10 million. Andrzej Rusko has been in this business for so long that he managed to make enemies in it. Betard Sparta and its president have often been accused of doing everything to achieve success. First of all - it does not train its own riders, but only brings in juniors from outside. However, this is also changing before our eyes. For some time now, trainings with the youngest have been actively conducted in Wroclaw, the effects of which should be visible in the future.

But do you lean out of your chair when watching a close exciting race? I do.

It has stopped Teams training some 2nd rate foreigners and probably saved a few bob.

I have said before that if you want to save a fortune on subscriptions, sportsmania on IPTV is the place to go. Costs me approx £70 a year with every channel in 4k or HD. No buffering.

Inevitable result last night... Connor covered for Theo at reserve, but the joint absence of Thomas and Tero proved too much to bear. That's not taking anything from Leicester, who were superb last night and may well have beaten a full-strength Scorpions. Still some superb racing on display. Heat 13 was good, but Heat 14 was even better - with one Scorpion battling with Lions for two laps, and the other taking over the battle on the last two laps, resulting in a near dead-heat for second place.

Like many others prefer the old style scoring system but been having a quick count up using the old way of scoring where every ride counts and if my maths are right its summit like this, Artem 170/178, Bart 158/169, Emil 113/131, Freddie 110/122. First figure being every race counts, so the top 4 doesn't change, but still prefer old way of scoring

Indeed Mike attended the meetings in question at Worky, all crammed in at the end of October, the last one a double header iced off, the club was on the slippery slope to the end but this did not help matters.