ladyluck

However, you just watch, the usual smokescreen of the dastardly track preparation of Ole Olsen will be deployed by those who refuse to acknowledge the truth. Harris would've qualified if the track had more dirt on it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It has been a while since I noticed.

Karpov is from Ukraine. Rides for Gdansk in Poland, or at least he did the last I noticed.

Best Harris can manage now is nine points. It doesn't look like being enough.

Honestly, that holds back British riders and British speedway. Riders like Harris and Nicholls before him just don't have to perform to get into the GPs, therefore they don't. Look at Holta for a comparison. Never going to get nominated in a million-years-of-Sundays, so generally goes out and qualifies.

A duff first ride at Coventry scuppered his chances last year and that could be a problem this year. Harris is always capable of throwing in a duff ride, as he did playing the "Joker" in the SWC Final at Vojens. It will be totally ridiculous if Harris gets another nomination. It'll be his fifth on the bounce.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on their character. If we take the example of Scott Nicholls, for example, we find a rider given the "wild card" opportunity this season and mustering just four points, whereas Hans Andersen in his first "wild card" appearance after being kicked out winning the Grand Prix. One thing seems certain, over the recent past knowing a nomination is a non-starter has given Holta the edge in those final few GPs, while the British riders have crumbled.

He's been there before: Vetlanda, 2006, when the qualifiers were Wieslaw Jagus, Rune Holta and Hans Andersen (who also qualified by finishing fifth in the GP series - interestingly, his qualification from Vetlanda was given priority and Jaroslaw Hampel's ninth place in the GPs was enough to qualify, although Andersen was given the No 5 race jacket). Out of pure badness, I'd be quite happy to see Gapinski, Walasek and Kolodziej reply. It would surely cause chaos in the offices of BSI Speedway. Six Poles qualified for 2011 would leave them with some tough decisions to make. However, I deem that highly unlikely. I do hope that Kolodziej makes it as I believe he has really come of age this season.

No great surprise that Jurica Pavlic is the "wild card" (his family built and own the stadium after all). This will be the second "wild card" appearance for the Croatian wonderkid, after he appeared as the "wild card" for one of the Krsko GPs (2007?).

Sweden 9 1 F Lindgren 2 = 2 2 J Davidsson 3 = 3 3 A Lindback 3 = 3 4 M Zetterstrom 1 = 1 5 A Jonsson = DNR Poland 5 1 R Holta 3 = 3 2 J Hampel 2 = 2 3 T Gollob 0 = 0 4 A Miedzinski 0 = 0 5 J Kolodziej = DNR Denmark 4 1 K Bjerre 0 = 0 2 N Klindt 0 = 0 3 N K Iversen 1 = 1 4 B Pedersen 3 = 3 5 H Andersen = DNR Great Britain 6 1 C Harris 1 = 1 2 T Woffinden 1 = 1 3 S Stead 2 = 2 4 S Nicholls 2 = 2 5 L Richardson = DNR Ht 1 Holta, Lindgren, Harris, Bjerre 2-3-0-1 (2-3-0-1) Ht 2 Davidsson, Hampel, Woffinden, Klindt 3-2-0-1 (5-5-0-2) Ht 3 Lindback, Stead, Iversen, Gollob 3-0-1-2 (8-5-1-4) Ht 4 Pedersen, Nicholls, Zetterstrom, Miedzinski 1-0-3-2 (9-5-4-6)

As things stand Hancock is merely two points off Andreas Jonsson in eighth place in the GPs, so if Hancock can maintain the form he showed in Malilla he'll be top eight come the end.

Diego Armando Maradona.

I was referring to Ht 11, although Walasek is more than capable of winning the meeting as well. He's shown good form around Vojens in the past, most notably the 2007 SWC event, when I think he top-scored for the Poles. He could just as easily blow it spectacularly. He's that sort of rider.

Walasek will probably win it. He's that sort of rider and depending on his mood, he could very easily be there or thereabouts at the end. It's a really hard meeting to predict.

The standings so far under your preference would be: 1 T Gollob (POL) 72 2 J Hampel (POL) 71 3 J Crump (AUS) 66 4 K Bjerre (DEN) 64 5 R Holta (POL) 58 6 C Holder (AUS) 56 7 H Andersen (DEN) 54 8= G Hancock (USA) 51 8= F Lindgren (SWE) 51 8= A Jonsson (SWE) 51 11 C Harris (GBR) 46 12 N Pedersen (DEN) 43 13 M Zetterstrom (SWE) 42 14 T Woffinden (GBR) 31 15 E Sayfutdinov (RUS) 29 16 J Kolodziej (POL) 10 17 T H Jonasson (SWE) 8 18= A Miedzinski (POL) 6 18= A Lindback (SWE) 6 18= D Watt (AUS) 6 21 P Protasiewicz (POL) 5 22 S Nicholls (GBR) 4 23= M Kus (CZR) 3 23= L Madsen (DEN) 3 Bjerre leapfrogs Holta and it gets even tighter in the battle for the top eight.

The addition of semi-finals and finals sorts the men from the boys. If you look at this season's GPs Jaroslaw Hampel has consistently got the job done in the twenty qualifying heats and then stuttered, especially at the final stage. Hampel should really have walked away the winner in more than just one GP this season, but he failed to produce the goods in the heat of a final, except for Copenhagen.

Good of you to bring up German. I have numerous books on World War II, all of them in English. Some of them spell Goring in the correct German manner (the two dots above the "O"), others tramsliterate it into Goering. Similarly some spell Hess (as in Rudolph) with that strange German character at the end, while others as I have earlier. There are numerous different ways that Stalin's given surname in spelled and the same goes for his first name (Joseph, Iosef). I fail to see why you bring up the Lidl example, since you clearly reference the spoken word, while this is about the written word. As it goes, I would always try and pronounce someone's name correctly.

The trouble with any front uni is that the Poles seem in thrall to the SGP series and the effects on their domestic competitions is minimal. With a smaller league programme the Poles are easily able to arrange things around the various demands of FIM events and Polish tracks get a fair share (some would say a more than fair share) of said FIM events. There was an attempt a couple of years ago by the PZM to eliminate what John D Rockefeller might've termed the "ruinous competition" between Polish tracks for SGP events, but the self-interest of clubs seems to have shot that down. Basically, it would've seen the formation of a sort of co-operative (cartel might be a more appropriate word) of tracks that would negotiate with BSI either themselves or through the PZM. Naturally, this would potentially have undermined Poland's attractiveness to BSI, but what other options do BSI have available? They obviously have television commitments to meet and it seems the only way of meeting said commitments is to have an increasing number of GPs hosted in Poland.

It would, in fact, be Janush Kowojey. However, the use of the Cyrillic script in Russia (and other nations, such as Serbia and Latvia) complicates matters. For example, in Poland you have Emil Sajfutdinow and in Britain Emil Sayfutdinov because of the different rules of transliteration. You see, with the Cyrillic script it is a case of finding a spelling that accurately reflects the pronunciation of the name.

I don't see the little dotted "A" and "O" on that keyboard layout and anyway, on a computer it is a simple process to change the keyboard setting to whatever you want. You just go into the control panel and select a different keyboard setting.

Andersen's strong criticism came after the nominations were announced, as far as I recall, with the suggestion being that his criticisms might affect possible future nominations. That season BSI had seven nominations to play with, as there was no GP challenge. As it transpired, Andersen hardly suffered as he won as a GP "wild card" in Copenhagen and then assumed Rickardsson's place when he retired. Now, however, he's back among the also-rans, needed a nomination for this season and is hardly secure in the top eight. Looking at the current standings it's all getting very tight in the fight for a top eight place. Hancock's fine showing in Malilla sees him now just a couple of points behind Jonsson in eighth place, with Harris in there as well.

Didn't they hire a light aircraft complete with banner to fly over Leszno's stadium during a meeting a few years ago?

It has happened on several occasions. Richardson was given a nomination for 2006 ahead of the higher scoring Hans Andersen, for a start, as well as Chris Harris being nominated ahead of Grzegorz Walasek and Sebastian Ulamek for 2010. BSI had little shame in doing so in the past and I can't see them having any shame about doing it in the future.

It's missing from Ulamek as well.

Not my lucky day, what with one thing or another. Should really have checked, rather than trying to list the riders from memory. However, returning to riders names and that "L" with the dash, it's somewhat interesting that the FIM see fit to place the double dots in the Swedish names but can't be bothered with the "dashed L" in Kolodziej's name.

BSI were rash in introducing Woffinden into the GPs. Whether people like to acknowledge it or not, it had to have been done in the hope, perhaps even expectation, that he'd replicate the impact Sayfutdinov. He hasn't come anywhere close., nor was he ever likely to. Sayfutdinov had tangible achieevements to his name, such as two World Under 21 championship. Woffinden should really have been in Daugavpils yesterday. However, to ditch him after just a single season might also be harmful to his career. It's a difficult situation, caused entirely by BSI and to a lesser extent Sky, who have relentlessly pushed Woffinden.