salty

Very optimistic. Surely you can't be advocating a return to the old one off World Final? Whilst the argument might have a small amount of merit, it is clearly not going to happen. The FIM having sold the family silver to BSI/IMG are not going to try and claim it back, and at the same time there is still money being made from the current set-up. We can grumble all we like about the GP series, but I can't see much change in the forseeable future. Tracks will continue to laid with minimal shale by a Race Director who seems impervious to any criticism, the main Speedway press in this country will continue to sing the praises of the GP's whilst their Managing Editor is so closely tied to them, BSI will continue to come up with ridiculous ideas like the Super Prix and the crowds will continue to go. My prediction is that the blame will be laid at the local organisers and Gelsenkirchen will be quietly dropped from the rota ( and you will never hear anyone from BSI/IMG mention its name again).

Joke thread. Clearly Smolinski will retain his place in the event and rightly so. If anyone else needed to be chosen all common sense points to Sajfutdinov as he is the double Under 21 Champ and it is now being held on his own track. Holder will get his chance next year.

Don't think the roof does open?

What a farce!!!! Be interesting to see who carries the can for this one! It simply isn't acceptable for Olsen/BSI/IMG to blame the "locals" like they did after Gothenburg. Feel very sorry for all those who made the trip out there. Gollob will be happy about the location for the re-staging though. Hopefully Smolinski gets to keep his wild card spot.

By my reckoning if Tomicek doesn't ride then Kenneth Bjerre should be the next in line. Given the timescale it would make sense to promote one of the meeting reserves.

Crash was at Brough against Hackney and to quote the Speedway Handbook "his life hung in the balance following an emergency operation after a steel wire had penetrated his throat." It goes on to say he planned to return in 1970, but I can't recall hearing of him again.

Not all danes - Erik had a pronounced Black Country accent.

Freddie didn't miss the final through injury - he didn't take part in any of the qualifiers. May well be that he missed a qualifying round through injury. Holder had bike problems, the Aussie who missed his flight was Watt.

But riders like Hancock, Gollob and Adams do qualify each year by finishing in the top 8. What would you suggest? Given that there are currently 11 Gp's it would not be feasible to qualify for them at the start of each season, so it makes sense for that qualifying to take place the previous year. Every rider has the chance to enter that qualifying process and as SCB points out the GP Qualifying Final this year consisted of 16 tried and tested names, rather than the young guns who had all fallen by the wayside by the time we reached the Final (Pavlic owed his appearance to another rider pulling out through injury).

I think Steve Lawson and Tom Owen have been featured already. Good ideas on the non-riders.

My thoughts on last night - Ref got both the big decisions spot on, how anyone could argue different is beyond me. Silly move by Gollob in the semi, but he oh so nearly made a clean pass. Dryml seems to be over-riding imo, just hope he gets through to the end of the German GP without injuring anybody else or himself. The reaction of Millard to the Lindgren/Pedersen crash was appalling. To start banging on about how this could be a boost for Nicholls when he didn't know how serious the crash was (and at first sight it looked a bad one) - unforgiveable. Tatum should know better as well.

Surprised you would see it like that, I thought there was a definite upsurge in crowds in the late 80's when Russell Lanning was in charge. Getting to the Cup Final and giving Poole a run for the league title the following year gave a positive buzz around the place, the presentation was slick and entertaining and the publicity was on the up. On the contrary, before the take over and in particular the last couple of years in the British League I thought it was clear things were on the slide. Having said that I think the pressure from the GRA became more intense and the closure enforced on the Speedway for the duration of the Greyhound Derby was a good example of that attitude. Surely the trigger for the 1991 closure was the ill timed move up to the top flight?

As a spectator throughout the 80's I certainly think there was a marked improvement following the consortium takeover in the winter of 1986. Be interested to hear your reasons for thinking things had gone wrong?

We will have to disagree about the definition of a "closure". They competed in the 1986 league and also in the 1987 one - doesn't make it a closure in my mind. Different promoters I agree, but if anything the 1987 season was like a breath of fresh air and we had 4 good seasons until the move back up in 1991.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with that statement. Firstly I would dispute there was much magic at the end of the seventies. Secondly the move to the National League gave the Dons an extra few years, because it was clear at the end of 1984 they could not exist in the British League. Thirdly the National League years at the end of the 80's were well worth experiencing, with decent crowds a good team and a progressive promotion.

Think you will find the drop from the British League to the National League took place prior to the 1985 season, with the 1984 campaign being the last in the top flight until the ill fated venture in 1991.

Could you explain the significance of 1986? Surely if it died it was in 2005 or even 1991.

Thanks for the info. Hope the content is as well put together as the Cradley one.

I think one of the reasons for this is the change in format to a 20 Heat formula. Under the old system of eliminations throughout the meeting, it was 2 bad rides and you're out. The 20 Heat system whilst being fairer means that there is less chance of a freak result and consequently the best riders with the best backing are pulling clear of the rest.

Quite capable of understanding that, thank you. But the fact remains that one does not compare well with the other in terms of value for money. Just out of interest how many pages does the new Wimbledon book run to?

Well I don't know whether 86 A5 pages could be described as a book either. Just for comparison some other Speedway books that coincidentally retailed at £14.99 like John Berry's 1st Confessions book ran to over 250 pages.

I was talking about the Cradley booklet - not the Wimbledon one as I haven't seen that yet. Cradley one was £14.99 for 86 pages, which I suggested (in my opinion) wasn't the greatest value. Maybe our definitions of what constitutes a book may differ....

In a pefect world I can see a lot of merit for your idea, but unfortunately commercial considerations mean the picks aren't done on ability alone.

This system was tried a couple of years ago, but such was the outcry that the the qualifying system was re-introduced after just one year. I'm afraid the seven permanent wild cards don't pick themselves, because the criteria for picking them isn't simply the next 7 best riders. Other factors like sponsors (Pepe a few years ago), nationality (as in the case of the Brits) and a punishment for talking out of turn (Andersen 3 years ago) have affected the decision making progress.

Read the sentence again Derek. The qualification process is more open! You do not have 5 or 6 place allocated to Continental riders as in the days of the one off final. Agree that only 3 riders can qualfy, but at least you should in theory get a GP qualifier consisting of 16 of the "next best" in the world.