salty

Looking forward to it. Also looking forward to next weeks double page expose "How Poole got Benji"

Bit worrying that he says he knows nothing about Speedway, given his involvement in influencing the future of Wimbledon Stadium.

Sounds like a daft pricing policy. Who decided the prices for the final?

To put the 2004 effort into context. We probably should have won it. 3 points clear going into the last round of 5 races, but the Swedes got 13 points against our 9. The Brit team had 3 GP riders in it Loram, Nicholls and Rico.The Poles had 2 - Gollob and Hampel. Their other 3 were Kasper, Kolodziej and Marcin Rempala, none of whom had been in the GP's at that stage. On a similar theme the Danes had 3 GP riders with Bjerre and Puk still early in their careers. The Swedes had Trick, AJ and Max out of the GP's, the young Lindback and star of the night PK who hadn't been a GP rider for a couple of seasons. 4 fairly evenly matched teams, though Gollob was hopeless in the final as was Kasper. I remember both the final and play-off for some terrific racing - Jonsson and Rempala in particular both had some super races. Could we have won if Neil had kept faith with Joe Screen in the final? We'll never know and Havvy did well with 9 points. As I said before I never really had a problem with Middlo as manager, though I thought he made a mistake picking Kennett last year. A thankless task, which in an ideal world would be a salaried 52 week a year job with a brief to oversee the development of riders for the national team from under 15's onwards. Clearly the resources aren't there for such a role and people like Peter Oakes and Rob Lyon have shown their frustrations by leaving the fold in the past, but there is encouragement with the work of Phil Morris and Neil Vatcher in the past couple of seasons. Hopefully Rosco should be enabled to continue that development work into the senior set-up, but to do so requires a leap of faith (and no little investment) by the BSPA and it remains to be seen whether promoters beleagured with their own businesses can make such a jump.

Absolutely true. Same as Test Matches run over here. If they attracted big crowds and were profitable then we would be racing a couple of Test Series each season. But they don't and we aren't. As I posted on the WTC thread the most obvious way of getting the Brits some much needed international experience would be to embrace the various European competitions. Given the further disruption that will cause our domestic product, can you see the BSPA doing a U-turn on that issue?

OK. Rosco did better this year than Middlo did last year.Hardly fair to compare with the team of 10 years ago. Never really had a problem with Middlo being in charge, but he lost me when he picked Eddie Kennett at Kings Lynn last year.

Does that mean Latvia will be seeded to the final??? Cracking end to the meeting tonight, but the WTC is staring to lose it's lustre in my opinion. Holding it every year doesn't help. The need for a home team to be riding so that the final has a decent crowd resulting in teams being seeded through - like Czecho last year - make it a mockery. Russia not taking it seriously for the past 2 years is a real shame as they were starting to make a real mark. As for GB, we did well to win at Kings Lynn, but lets not forget that each year we have the massive advantage of (in effect) a home semi-final. That means every so often we are going to get direct to the final - but if we don't.... As soon as we travel overseas we are out of our depth. Primarily, this is because our riders just don't get exposed to that level of competition enough. I remember about 10 years ago Edward Kennett not riding for our Under 21 team because it would have meant him missing a home meeting on a Saturday at Rye and Len Silver justifying it by saying he would learn and earn more at Rye than he would beating Italians et al on some continental track. More recently we have riders like Garrity not entering qualifying rounds of the Under 21 championships. Under the stewardship of Phil Morris and Neil Vatcher things do look more promising and the fast track system may help deliver riders quicker. But surely we have to embrace the European competitions as this at least will give our riders that experience of riding overseas. I'm sure riders like Peter Kildemand are benefiting greatly from such opportunities. To hear that someone like Craig Cook has only ever riden abroad once is staggering. For too long we have been too inward looking and parochial and it is consequently no surprise that we struggle at the highest level.

Not saying your opinon does carry more weight, but given your years of experience at watching top level speedway I was interested in finding out. I'm sure I should know the answer to this, but is there a system in GP and WC where the performances of the refs are reviewed?

Swedes gave it a good go, but that awful decision knocked the stuffing out of them. Some cracking racing, amazing score from Herbie. Be interested what your views on the Nilsson decision were?

Think you'll find yourself in a rather small minority with that point of view. Rotten decision.

Maybe there is a big Women's Basketball match in the city tonight??

Strange term times at your university?

Re-iterate my hopes that Andre isn't hurt too bad. Apart from that I thought the meeting was great entertainment, with some excellent races. Slightly surprised that Nigel and Kelvin talked so much about the World Cup given that it is on a rival channel. I thought Simon Stead came across really well, but why do we have to put up with someone else who hasn't got a clue interviewing the riders?

Fingers crossed for Andre, that was an horrific crash. Am I right in saying that Sky didn't show the replay? If so, well done to them.

Oh behave yourself! You yourself said "Historic moment! That must be A FIRST for me on the BSF!". By replying "even a stopped clock is right twice a day" its hardly sniping is it? Surely even the most thinned skin person could see that is not a malicious comment?

What are you on about??

Accept your points, but still feel in the case of the Supreme Court judgement that good common sense had left the building. If I recall correctly, there was mention that having won the original ruling the case presented by the Stadium owners solicitors at the Supreme Court was somewhat less than robust? Maybe somebody with more knowledge can elaborate? As you say - a precedent has now been set and it might lead the way for other cases of a similar nature.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

Yes OK you made that point before and you are quite right. But - apart from that - do you not agree she made a couple of very valid points??

True. If I remember rightly if they were to rebuild then there would be an injunction come into force causing motor sport events to cease. Utter madness. The law truly is an ass. The Lioness post above sums it up for me.

Bigger draw back than the lack of the GP top boys, is, in my opinion, the regular absence of the current contracted riders. All well and good for Leicester and Eastbourne to want to run on Saturday nights, but how often are they able to run without wholesale changes due to clashes with international events? A set race day (say Monday) would be a tough step to take, but I think in the long term it is the only way forward.

Didn't go, so confined to watching on TV. I thought the event came across really well and Jason Crump, in particular, was excellent, showing a real professionals insight. Streets ahead of anyone else who has filled that role imo.

Not a chance. The Newcastle team was effectively 6 heat leaders plus one other. Best at that level IMO.

I think Kevin suffered from riding at Poole when they were struggling financially in the early 80's. Looked very promising in 1980/81, but then seemed to stagnate. If I remember didn't he even take a break from the sport in 1984 which was the last one for the Pirates in the top division? Can remember him riding in the NL for the Wildcats but was still surprised he retired when he did.

Good to see you back, albeit briefly. Don't know why you left, but I would agree with TWK in this case. Hope the gig going is still mounting up. As for music Cradley had 2 pieces that I remember, unfortunately though I can hear them in my head I don't know the names. In the 70's it was a march (an RAF one I think). In the 80's it was a more modern piece that ITV also used for their Big Match and Midweek Sports Special intro. Edit: after a wee google.... 70's was the RAF March Past, followed in the 80's by The Big Match music which was by Jeff Wayne and called Jubilation. Not sure if that continued through to the closure in 1995 though.