Ghostwalker

Where do you draw the limit (distance between fore most point of front wheel) between being in front and not being in front? 1cm? 10cm? 100cm?

I think it is a tough call, we saw last season in what happens when a rider (Miedzinski) decides to fence another rider (Emil Sajfutdinov). Very dangerous and I don't know about you but I would prefer to see passings rather then blockings. Speedway is a very fast sport were riders usually are very close to each other. A rider decides to pass on the outside when there is a gap, a second later he is moving in to the gap at the same time the other rider decides to block the passing rider. Then we have a collision, why should the passing rider back off? Why shouldn't the blocking rider keep a gap on the outside? It is just as much his fault as the passing rider's fault. The sooner we ban these blocking, the sooner the sport will be safer and more exciting.

nail in the coffin there.

As I wrote yesterday, Freddie have stated that as long as one of the current team managers for the national team have his position, he won't ride for the national team. This also means that Freddie have not been picked for the SEC/SGP qualifications and if Freddie want to be in the SGP next season, he once more have to rely on a wild card.

NC + Polsat Sport and Eurosport, are all interested in buying the broadcasting rights for the Polish Ekstraliga. https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=pl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportowefakty.pl%2Fzuzel%2F456934%2Fbedzie-konkurs-ofert-na-prawa-telewizyjne-do-enea-ekstraligi

You should have read the entire post.

He said in a statement that he won't ride for Sweden due to one of the team managers, but he did not specify further want he meant.

I never said that it should, only that Team Gb should not be given the advantage of riding at their home track every year and that semi-finals and race-offs should be moved around/alternated from year to year. as for race-off & final, we had it two years ago so it's natural that it we won't have it for the nearest couple of years. Perhaps something like this; 2015: Riga 2016: UK 2017: DK 2018: Wouldn't mind a RO/F in Germany. Obviously the seeding of the host should be removed. As for the crowd tonight, Västervik team is firmly anchored in the bottom of the standings and the track is not the best racing track either. So I would assume that those things affect the spectator size to some extent together with the quite high ticket prices.

I'm very disappointed that Sweden won't make any changes for the race off. IMO Ljung should be replaced with Lindbäck. http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/motor/speedway/article19289731.ab

I read on twitter that Berntzon's throttle handle came off in the re-start of his first heat which caused the pirouette. I don't think a MJJ with a doubtful form would be a better choice the Kildemand even though Kildemand is a bit unreliable and more likely to sustain a X.

Lebedevs are probably the biggest disappointment tonight, only 3p from 4 heats.

Kildemand should have been awarded a black flag in that heat.

Pics (not mine) from the World cup semi 2 practice at Västervik: http://galleri14.speedway-sasha.se/?_escaped_fragment_=album-263#!album-263

Lot of rain and thunder in the area around Västervik: http://www.smhi.se/vadret/nederbord-molnighet/radar-blixt-sverige-1.27021 http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page_0=11 https://twitter.com/dmu_sport/status/494100816572076032 It is expected to clear during the afternoon though: http://www.smhi.se/vadret/vadret-i-sverige/land/hourByHourTable.do;smhi_ppsessionid=71VP0Ldg0%2B81aFCmx4wJj2gF?starttime=2014-07-29%2012%3A54%3A19&endtime=2014-07-29%2022%3A00%3A00&geonameid=2664203

Why doesn't British speedway have the same rules as i.e. Sweden and Poland regarding mandatory presence in the domestic league system? In Sweden, according to the rules (*1.4), a rider using a Swedish license are obligated to be registered for a team in the Swedish league system else he/she will not be allowed to get a starting permit for riding in another countries league. In this case it would mean that if Tai wanted to ride in Sweden and or Poland next season he would have to ride in either Premier League or Elit league as well to be allowed to ride in another country.

Why he is listed as OG for Poole then? Holder has been used as a temporary replacement for Ward, just like Zagar is for Holder in Piraterna. Obviously a team should only be allowed to use their permanent riders and not the temporary riders they have used to cover for injured riders. Also as far as (judging by: I can see Pz Pawlicki did not ride the entire season for Poole last year, so that should mean that if last season's teams are used neither of the Pawlicki's should be available for Poole but instead they should be available for Piraterna due to length of service rule (3 seasons for Piraterna-Motala; 2011-2013). Poole can't have it both ways.

I would disagree, Kings Lynn and UK in general have had a semi-final for many years now. It would be about time that the UK did not have a round at all.

Actually it is a very relevant comparison. Why should speedway be different then any other sport? Why should speedway use last seasons teams? Then there still is this factor with team conflicts for riders which makes the whole idea of a champions league pretty much non existent. Why should Poole be allowed to use Chris Holder when he doesn't ride for them this season? A team should not be able to use a riders which they don't have a contract with for the current season. As I said before the CL is doomed since teams can use their best riders since they have to to ride for another team in the same tournament. Also teams and meetings should be league-style and not SWC style. @arnieg Kenni Larsen have a sligthly lower average then Korneliussen in Sweden but Kenni have rode all his meetings as nr5 except one which he rode as nr1. Korneliussen have about 3-4 meetings as nr4 and he rest as nr 3 which gives him easier heats (especially as nr4) which makes it easier to score more points,

I read in the Riga SGP thread that Riga are (rumoured to be?) interested in SWC for next year.

Skidder, surely in football, the team uses the current season's players rather then last season's players for their Champions league games?

I don't know exactly for all teams and it varies from one track/club to another. Some teams also own their own arena which means that they don't pay any rent at all. 8 years ago Rospiggarna paid 180'000SEK (about £15'400GBP with current exchange rate) / year in rent to the municipality /community in which they are located. In 2007 Smederna paid an annual rent of 144'000 SEK (about £12'000GBP with current exchange rate) to the municipality /community in which they are located. I don't have any more recent numbers but at least this gives you an estimate and as you can see the rents are definitely not free but from what I understand the rents are subsidized to some extent so. *edit I found some info from 2012 for Smederna which were in Allsvenskan (PL equivalent) that year. Also important to remember that Smederna pulled out of Elitserien in 2009, rode in division in 2010 and in Allsvenskan in 2011 and 2012 before advancing to Elitserien to the 2013 season. In 2012 they paid only 42'000SEK (£3600GBP) while a 100% rent would have costed about (2.1 million SEK, (~180'00GBP). I don't know what they are paying now but I would guess that is at least the double.

The thing is still that riders rides for several teams and in this case it strongly gives an disadvantage to Piraterna who have a team that heavily relies on Greg H, Darcy and Chris Holder. The problem for Piraterna now is that that Darcy and Holder will ride for another team. This means that the whole idea of a champions league is lost since we don't know what the strongest league team in Europe is since Piraterna can't field the strongest possible team. Instead of a lineup with Greg Hancock, Darcy Ward, Chris Holder and Bjarne Pedersen they will have to replace Darcy and Holder with Linus Sundström and Rory Schlein. Quite a big difference don't you think? So if not all teams can use their best riders, what is the point of all this?

Good work, I reposted the link on twitter. Arena looks nice, just hope they can get more dirt onto the track. I think it looks a bit sandy?

one photo can be found here: https://twitter.com/speedwaystarmag/status/491876557539909632

I don't think so, they already been at Eskilstuna twice in three weeks (last week and two weeks before tat) I don't think they make another visit so close after the previous visits. I think they'll wait to the final round to go back to Smedstadion atleast if Smederna - Vargarna still have any deciding meaning regarding play offs.