Firestorm

Are you being risque AGAIN Volt? and anyhoo, I always thought the smell of methanol was the foreplay....

... if you like orange girls with dog-rough faces! (that being said, the 'red' one was pretty - she looked natural! - but she was never on camera for any length of time, maybe because of that? ) If thats the best they have to offer, I'm dismayed - surely there's much prettier girls in Scandanavia?? And if blokes fiind these examples stunning - then there really is no hope for the rest of us normal females....

Ah Sandie - I am afraid I am one of the fragrant sex (rather like your good self!) Roll on Cardiff! - all this talk has made me want to go....* *to Cardiff!! hee hee!

...so if a tall brunette, wearing a red suede jacket and carrying an ADAMS flag comes up to you looking nervous - you won't make me feel like a prat now will you SCB?

I'm going to Cardiff!! ...as Forum folk seem (as has been said on here) to meet at the Prince of Wales in Queen Street, if I arrive there how will I know you all? Perhaps you could all wear a red rose and hold a copy of the Daily Telegraph?

Like I said - don't write off the Aussie duo after only one GP!! They'll be getting in the mix no doubt tres soon... But congats to Gollob for winning... One thing, a certain Mr Adams will now probably be in a foul mood for Monday (and its his birthday!!) so Eastbourne might end up on the receiving end of that one (I hope!!)

Inside gate paradise! Just done a quick tot up (so I could be wrong!) but of the 23 races, 11 were won out of gate one, 10 out of gate 2, and 1 each for gates 3 & 4!! Red scored 47 points, Blue 53 points, Yellow 24 points and white 14 points... Ergo if you weren't in a red or blue hat you were knackered! Both Crump and Adams only had one red and one blue ride (which they both scored 5 points for) each hence their low scores - I wouldn't write the Aussie pair of just quite yet!!!!

I think one of the points being made is that the refereeing was TERRIBLE! Any other heat that would have been stopped with an exclusion on any other track in the country - doesn't matter who the riders involved were. Its not a dig against Nichols per se, its just that it sends out mixed messages to riders about what is and what is not acceptable (or indeed legal)

Yes I agree the programming was shocking (two live events back to back) what I was pointing out that they were building this event up for at least two months beforehand (which they did not do for some wee SA rugby game) so they should have given it the broadcast it deserved and they promised! Even if they'd gone straight to the speedway rather than hauling us through a colossal advert break beforehand it would have made us feel that they were doing it justice! On another point, yes I know Laukinnen was the qualifier - the Gjedde comment of mine was firmly tongue in cheek as a dyed in the wool Robins fan!! End of school report Sky: must do better!!!

Well, folks, how does everyone feel about Sky's coverage, those that stayed at home to watch it? After endlessly trailering it, about what a HUGE thing it was, great sport, fantastic action etc etc etc - it was a bit galling to turn over to Sky Extra at the appointed 6pm start time and be met with some obscure South African rugby that I doubt many cared about (apologies rugby fans!). When they finally pulled away from the rugby it was 6.20pm and instead of going straight to Gelsenkirchen they found time to fit in a 5 minutes advert break (of course!) By our reckoning the first 4 heats were nowhere near "live" all recorded (thus including the colossal Heat 2), we also missed the parade of flags and the build up (which they showed in a montage of the evening at the very end of the show! - just to rub in what you missed!!) They'd also spent money making little build up vignettes of each rider which they had obviously intended to show before racing started which instead got crow-barred into the show whilst racing was going on (thus meaning we saw even less live speedway!!) On to the race coverage - the camera angles were appalling! Seeing wee bits of the track, no wide shot so you could see who won but not who was in the places (except of course when Adams won his second heat when they concentrated on the battle for 2nd and 3rd spots thus ignoring Adams going over the line!!) Half the time we didn't know WHO had got the points till the caption came up!! Yes they interviewed the three podium placers (Jonnson, Hancock and Crump) on the night but didn't interview the podium placers for the GP season as a whole (yes, Crump had already had his say - but we heard not a word after the medals and trophies were handed out by Adams and the new world champion Mr Pedersen) I am all for supporting the British boys when we go into these big events (and I do! - Harris at Cardiff was magic!) but when will the Sky team realise that we speedway fans also support riders who ride for our teams at home, there's a big following for Pedersen by Eastbourne, Anderson by Peterborough, Crump by Poole and of course Adams for us Robins etc etc etc. For example in our case, if a Brit ain't going to win then we'd like Adams to! And another thing, why give Laukinnen the wild card, surely it should have been Gjedde? A shame that such an illustrious event was treated so shabbily when Sky are supposedly at the forefront of making speedway massive again - this will not have snagged new people into the sport and annoyed their loyal followers who wanted to experience the whole thing (but couldn't physically be there) Must do better!! OK you can come out now, rant over!!

Yup - they announced it during the meeting that next years prize for the final GP of the year would be $200, 000 Shame if its going to be at that venue again tho' - not a passing track at all, gating was everything... I know venues have committments to other sports - but surely there's a case for moving such a big prize round so that every rider gets a chance at a track that suits their riding style? Wouldn't a big money prize at Cardiff be something?

I think what is annoying people is the inconsistency of referees... *now with tongue firmly in cheek* Would one say that Nicholls' "wipeout" of Harris was less or worse than Balinski's "wipeout" of Janniro t'other Monday? One got excluded (for tapping a dirt deflector), the other took the back wheel completely away!!! Now before you start! I'm over it (my therapist keeps telling me so!!) I was just making a point of inconsistency of interpretation of the rules...... Another point, was so relieved that Hans was OK after that horrendous crash, and what a piece of riding from Mr Leigh Adams to avoid smacking him in the head and then swerving the other way to avoid Bjarne!! Wouldn't this sport be fun if there were helmet mikes? Can't you just hear Mr Adams as he came round the corner to see bikes flying everywhere "oh I say, it's Smallmead all over again!" (or words to that effect....) Anyhewwww..... Please take this post in the spirit in which it was intended.....

One more year - please Mr Adams!!! Pretty pretty please???

Yeah from me too! WELL DONE NICKI PEDERSEN - a great GP Series and a thoroughly deserved World Champ title.. And... as a Robin! .... well done too LEIGH ADAMS for his (almost certain?) 2nd place. A wonderful season finally coming to fruition... Just hope he's not coming second with The Robins over the next two Mondays! Once again, well done Nicki P - a great champion xx

Leigh Adams - what a guy!! Tough as old boots.....