salty

With the race so close for 8th I'm thinking that the 2 uninjured riders who miss out will possibly get picks alongside NKI. As it stands that would be AJ and Batch. The 4th spot will then go to a Dane and I would plump for Kildemand over MJJ. Obviously, the great unknown is what will be done about Ward.

Can't see Rory getting a wild card as he hasn't donned the Aussie colours in the WTC for a couple of years. Edit: I mean a one off wild card in Melbourne not as a permanent nomination.

So if Holder finishes 9th you would give Ward a nomination instead of him? Can't see it happening as I reckon Holder will be in the top 8. Ward's only hope is if Batch fails. Surely they will want 2 Swedes and will be hoping either AJ or Lindgren get into the top 8.

With an Aussie, a Brit and a Pole grabbing the 3 spots tonight, it certainly makes things interesting. Obviously things might change at the bottom 8 over the next two rounds, but I think you can ink in Greg, Tai, KK, Nicki, Matej and Holder. If the other two spots go to Lindgren and Batch that would leave us with.... 3 Aussies 2 Brits 2 Poles And 1 American, Slovenian, Dane and Swede. Puk is a shoo in which would make 2 Danes. I reckon THJ would get the nod to make 2 Swedes. Another Pole - probably Jarek, but it would help if he had a strong finish to the series. Another Dane - a toss up between PK and MJJ. Personally I think PK has been very impressive in his two wild card appearances and I would go for him. Can't see Ward getting picked if there already 3 Aussies in.

Why would that make you sad?

Don't think you should get any flak for expressing your opinion. I'd agree a 6 month ban would be about right, however, we then have the issue of the GP's and whether he should get a nomination for 2015 which clouds the issue. Give him a nomination and the ban seems superflous, but no nomination or being able to ride in the Aussie qualifiers brings us into the realm of greater punishment. Also, we have the issue (as you mention) of legal challenges by the Ward camp and (as mentioned in the Star of 6/9/14) that Middlo had advised him to look into whether the tests "were done in the correct manner". I think this approach from Ward and his advisors has the affect of hardening attitudes towards him as it makes it appear that no lesson was learnt. A feeling underlined when we hear Matt Ford saying "fingers crossed he gets away with it". Little wonder that people want to see such viewpoints come a cropper.

All the talk of Darcy "learning his lesson". From what I can see all he seems to have learned so far is to use a high powered legal team to try and find a way of - to paraphrase Matt Ford - getting away with it.

The Ward conundrum is interesting. Teach him a lesson by giving him a ban to the end of the season, but then giving him a wild card? Thing is although his sponsors have less influence with the FIM, are they able to wield more weight when it comes to the nominations (think there was a precedent a few years ago when Pepe got a pick on the back of Pentel's patronage)? Or will his sponsors walk away following his latest brush with the authorities? I think MJJ may struggle to get a pick as with 5 Danes in the challenge he will be lucky if none of them get a top 3 slot.

I think Pearson basically reacted to the pictures on the screen. The cameras mostly followed Hancock as he went into the pits (no paddock, Kelvin), so naturally he talked about Hancock when he was on screen, whilst not forgetting that Puk was still being attended to on the track.

Absolutely agree. But the fact is the pressure from international events is only going to get greater - especially with the burgeoning European calendar. Only answer I can see is for PL teams to try and avoid employing riders who are going to be missing riding on the continent every weekend - and that is easier said than done.

Can't believe Hancock would risk riding in a meaningless challenge, if he is fit then that would be amazing.

To be fair, on many other threads where we have been bemoaning the lack of British progress, people have said we should embrace these junior European events as a means of giving our lads much needed international experience. Given that our teams are wrecked with absences anyway, we might as well enter our own lads, rather than bury our heads in the sand and pretend they don't exist. Becoming hard to see much of a future for weekend Speedway in Britain.

All depends who finishes in the top 8 (or out of it) and in the top 3 at Lonigo. With 5 other Danes going to tapes in Italy it's very possible that MJJ will find it hard to get a pick as they might be looking at other nationalities for their 4 choices.

Awful crash between Puk and Greg, hope they aren't too seriously hurt. Hancock might be very lucky, because they way his arm got sucked in was horrible. After we saw the worse side of the sport it was great to see the best with some superb stuff from Zmarzlik, Zagar and KK. Lovely celebrations as well.

Seriously! Gater with his "Darcy wasn't drunk, Darcy didn't hydrate" garbage was bad enough. Maybe even Starry has learnt that you can't defend the indefensible (though it hasn't stopped him before). Maybe he's on the charabanc over to Zielona Gara as the patched up Pirates (and guests) bid for Matt's "Holy Grail" of world domination?

Fair play to Matt Ford. He's still giving this event the big'un. "I've always made it clear this tournament is the Holy Grail for me. This is something special" Well the Poole team reminds me a bit of that knight who keeps gettng bts lopped off him in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie. No Pawlicki - no problem we'll use his brother No Holder - no problem we'll use another top quality rider who has no discernible link to the club. No Ward - no problem we'll use another rider who used to ride for us but we binned. As long as we call them the Pirates nobody will care. "What a chance for this beautiful, sleepy little town on the South Coast to become world champons. In 5 or 10 years time, no-one looks at the team line -up's - just the team that won it." Hats off to the Speedway Star. Apart from the mithering from Ford they have given this ground breaking event the coverage it deserves - diddly squat. Well done!!

I think liberal use of jokers would be appropriate to reflect the gravitas of this event.

Sure there is a particular legal practice that makes great play of their ability to help well heeled people evade punishment for various parking offences by skilfully finding technical loopholes.

But Gundersen, like Mauger before him, was able to build up to the big night and make those 5 rides count. Thats what was needed in those days. No reason if there was a different system in place then they wouldn't have been able to adapt their approach and make the most out of the GP's.

I wonder why the about turn? At the start of the month we were told it had been agreed Holder would ride for Poole as they were his "mother" club.

Off the top of my head I'd go for Janno in 1990 and Nielsen in 1994.

The actual quote in the Echo from Darcy was “I got some bad news yesterday when I was having dinner and a couple of drinks. I didn’t eat properly and I wasn’t hydrated unfortunately." This sort of contradicts the reports that he has been aware of the split for some time. Maybe there was a final confirmation over the weekend but hardly anything that can be classed truly as mitigation.

Given my level of cynicism about the sport it wouldn't surprise me if he gets a token ban, alongside a more lengthy suspended one. Just don't feel that the unhealthy relationship between sponsors (both of individual riders and events), authorities and the GP promoters will allow him to be left out of the series for next year. Can't base my feeling on anything other than a general cynicism with the way the sport works, but I suppose we'll find out soon enough. Don't think a gentle slap on the wrist will do him much good unless he uses this opportunity to change the people around him and give his talent a chance.

Forgive my cynicism, but that would be a "monster" surprise to me.

Yes, but Western Springs is not a "new" circuit to the sport like the ones in Riga and Tampere. We were very close to going to Riga for this weekend, but chose Copenhagen instead. Don't think I would risk going to a meeting in a first time stadium in the future.