salty

Did my ears deceive me, but at some point this evening I'm sure Millard said something along the lines of "We all think of Jason Crump as a youngster but he's actually 34 next week" and then a few moments later say about Emil something like "we think he's been around for ages but he's not yet 20" Forgive me if I've got the wording wrong but I am sure that was the gist of what the maestro was saying. Different planet.

The young Aussie at Sheffield - Hugh Skidmore - has a name made for Speedway!

Suppose you can't look past McMillan, Beaton, Hunter and Collins from the 70's. Throw in a McKinna (or 2) and maybe even Bert Harkins who was a heat leader in the British League for the first half of the 70's. Hope there is something about Jim Beaton Jnr as the way he came back after his serious arm injury was some story.

Holta represented Norway in the 1995 World Cup Final (the old 3 man formula). When he rode for Poland in the 2005 Final he became the first to ride for 2 countries.

Amazing how year after year the World Cup throws up some great finishes. People might slag the joker rules, but they certainly do play a part in keeping things close. The Russians looked dead and buried today but the 6 point joker ride gave them a boost and they were able to carry on and be right in the mix for the rest of the meeting. Another super performance by them. You might argue that the Aussies should have been a bit cuter and not gone 6 up over Poland near the end, but it wasn't out of the realms of possibility for the Poles to have engineered it anyway.

Clearly they should be when a country loses a rider like the Danes did last night. But if I remember right the 6th rider was done away with following teams abusing the facility a couple of years ago.

Really enjoyed that! Fantastic performance by the Russians, with Emil inspiring the other guys to ride out of their skins. Great to see them pulling off that victory, hope for more of the same next Saturday. Means the run-off on Thursday will be even more tasty than expected with both the Danes and the Swedes in it.

Hard -Yes. Dirty - No. Pedersen put himself in a difficult position, if you watch every other heat all riders are going on the line Laguta took down the home straight. Hope Pedersen isn't too badly hurt.

Totally agree with that point Iris. Having 2 Brits rather than 3 on parade in Cardiff would have a negligable effect on the attendance. Hopefully Harris will qualify by one method or the other, but unless Nicholls comes on strong in the second half of the season I can't see any justification for him to get a nomination. As for the other Brits, not one of them managed to get through any round of the qualifiers, so it's hard to see any of them coping with GP's in 2010.

Tai or Eddy getting a wildcard (nomination) would be a joke. Neither got through their initial qualifier and then when Tai was given a second bite he again failed to make the cut from the Semi. Would make a mockery of the qualifiers if someone got a pick who couldn't even get through one round.

Richardson is doing well in the leagues, but would he be able to make an impression in the GP's? Will be interesting to see how he does in the WTC (if he gets a ride). Pity he pulled out of his qualifier, but I would rather a rider who finished 9th or 10th in the standings get given a nomination than a rider of similar vintage get in purely because there are no other Brits good enough.

Big problem with the nominations is at least one (if not two) get used up to ensure that there are Brits in the series. Surely there can be no justification for having 2 Brits for 2010? Harris still has a chance of qualifying in the top 8 or failing that getting through at Coventry, but with Nicholls way off the pace and no other Brit even qualifying to the semi's by right, let alone the Final, it would be totally unfair to put a Brit in for next year.

Would be cruel if Smolinski missed out in such a way. Hopefully one of the Brits will get through the other Semi.

So supposing all the Brits did fail to qualify. Who chooses which semi only gets 7 qualifiers?

A few surprises in Latvia. End of the road for Bjarne, Schlein and Ales. Eight qualifiers are Hampel, Pavlic , Lindgren, Bogdanow, Miedzinski, Holder, Pepe and Smolinski.

Should mean that Woffinden gets a go. Wright is now in the other one - not sure who pulled out to allow that.

First I've heard that Zagar was put forward (and presumably turned down by IMG). Makes it more of a joke that 2 Brits had to be nominated. Given only Bomber is still in the qualifying process and Scotty is having a mare, surely there can't be 2 Brits next year??? Re Nazza's post - I've not seen anything about a Brit being seeded through to Coventry.

Why's it a mistake? Worst thing we did 2 years ago was qualify directly to Leszno. Far better to get into the run-off and at least give the guys a chance to have a go on it before the final.

Always great to see Backtrack sitting on the doormat when you get home. Quick sift through and have to say I really enjoyed the memories about Reider Eide. When I was a kid he always seemed to ride for a different track each season and now I can guess why! Reg Fearman likes to have the "right to reply" doesn't he? Having visited the Shay under lights I have to agree with John Berry. Also to quote Eric Boocock - "It was the banking that got you round the corners, because it was very narrow going into them and narrow coming out"

In the world of Speedway it is impossible to be too cynical. Have to say that it crossed my mind that Lee's league form around Europe would put him in line for a possible nomination and he wouldn't want to jeopardise that by making a balls up of qualifying.... It would be hard to see anyone else getting a pick after they have all failed to get through the first round of the qualification process.

At least it was a more entertaining GP than the the rubbish we have had to endure so far this season. Rune Holta even won 2 races from the back! whilst there was a lot of close racing for the minor positions. Nicholls/Emil both as bad as each other, but a fine should suffice. No fan of Pedersens, but I thought he was unlucky to be excluded in the Semi. That sort of incident usually would result in "all 4 back" but maybe there is a policy amongst refs to try and stamp out the practice of sliding off after contact.

Seems strange that Richardson didn't ride, he seemed quite up for a tilt at qualification this year. James Wright and Danny King bow out in Austria, which means (I think) that already the Brits are down to just Harris for the Semi-Finals.

Nothing like a Parsloes/Speedyguy spat is there? Actually can see both sides. From Jason's point of view his Grandad and Dad were both riders so I can see Parsloes point of view, But looking from Neil Street's perspective Phil is only his son-in-law so I can see (for once) Speedyguy's view. If pushed I would side with Parsloes on this one. But it would help his argument if he didn't say "Jason Crump IS Neil Street's grand-father".

1. Shawn Moran - some compliment considering I'm a Cradley fan. 2. Penhall. 3. Sigalos. Always came across as a classy guy both on and off the track. But for injury would he have threatened the Hans/Erik stranglehold during the late 80's?

Guess if the sponsor is happy then things will stay the same! God knows what sort of track you were expecting, because although it was better than last year it was still poor.