ladyluck

Massively disappointed with the Russians tonight, Gafurov excepted. I expected them to do so much better, but they seemed to be left stranded at the gate most of the time. It was no great surprise to see the Australians bow out. I expected them to have too many weak links without Adams or Crump to hold them together. However, I did expect Schlein to be the weakest of weak links whereas he turned out to be, in my opinion, Australia's most effective rider tonight. Credit to him for that. As for the meeting generally, it just seemed a little flat. There was some good racing, but once Holder fluffed the Joker ride the outcome was never really in doubt. Yes, it went down to a last heat decider between the Swedes and Danes, but nothing really counted on it. Both teams were through.

They may not have been in a position to do so. For example, they may fall six points adrift when one of their "big guns" is already scheduled in the race, whereupon it is likely he will take a "Joker" ride, although for preference that is best taken while riding as a Tactical Substitute. However, if you look back to the 2006 race-off you will find that both Gollob and Hampel (maybe Ulamek too) took extra rides for the Poles at Reading. Be assured, if you are six points behind the leading team you can use Tactical Substitutes.

It's not, strictly speaking, true, since as soon as you fall six points behind the leading team you can use "tactical changes". So, if a rider is injured, you can replace him with any of the other four riders. Russia did this in 2007 when Sayfutdinov wasn't available for the race-off and they only had four riders. Darkin was named in team, but wasn't there, so as soon as his first ride was out of the way, Russia was six points behind and the other four replaced Darkin in his remaining rides.

Yet fourth under Middlo was okay and nothing to do with Middlo.

I thought the Australians would win, but they didn't. They didn't ride well and got exactly what they deserved out of the meeting. I certainly did not question the choice of track, remembering all to well Coventry 2008 and the so-called "track specialists" team of Lynch. In view of the previous, I don't believe I'm seeking to have it both ways. The King's Lynn round was weak, containing only two GP-winners in Harris and Holder, whereas the Gorzow round contained maybe five. In all honesty, there only looks to be one really strong team in this year's SWC and that is Poland.

Why is no one mentioning the Russians? Victors at Vojens last season, after all. Okay, they're missing Sayfutdinov, but they still have riders capable of "mixing it" with the likes of Denmark, Sweden and Australia. They'll put themselves about and it would not surprise me to see them on Saturday.

Comparing this season to last doesn't really work. This season's Australian team were without their top two riders, while last season the Poles were also kicking around, not a weak Swedish side. Credit to the British team for beating their opponents, but their opponents were uniformly weak. Add Crump and Adams to the Australian side, together with the Polish team that trounced everyone on Sunday and you get a very different story. This is not the time to be papering over the cracks and pretending everything is suddenly right with the speedway world, lest Saturday brings an awful encounter with reality. Remember how everyone exalted at Britain's Coventry showing in 2007? A Nicholls maximum and Harris not far behind him? Where did that lead to at Leszno?

The race-off and final in 2007 has to be the best. In fact, apart from a rather dreary affair in Vojens, the 2007 SWC was an outstanding collection of meetings.

It was just as embarrassing as Lyon trying to argue that Stead shouldn't have been excluded in his final ride? What does the infield being composed of concrete have to do with anything? If a concrete infield is such an issue, don't stage meetings where there is a concrete infield.

Aren't those two sentences contradictory? How could you tell someone something without actually going and speaking to them? Telepathy?

I think the main reason Russia are coming to the fore is that their young riders are now getting experience in the Polish leagues, which then leads on to the Swedish leagues. Sayfutdinov has been at Bydgoszcz since he was sixteen.

If the Australians can get Adams or Crump to replace Schlein then they have a chance. The Swedes will be much better around Vojens and Jonas Davidsson is a SWC specialist. The return of Jonsson will also make them a much harder nut to crack. I think Sweden will make the final. If Australia get Crump or Adams back, so will they. I can easily see the Danes missing out.

I share Shovlar's opinion. The meeting was dreary early on, with only the close scores between Britain and Australia to maintain any interest. However, after the interval the racing was excellent. Great Britain rode extremely well, but realistically the opposition was very weak. If Australia don't get Crump and Adams back for the race-off I can't see them in the final. Schlein just isn't good enough and Ward looked out of his depth on occasions. Perhaps a little less time spent messing around in the pits and Australia might've gone through to the final. It's fine to prance around showing off in front of the helmet camera when you've a meeting in the bag, but the meeting wasn't in the bag and the Australians ended up looking foolish. Sweden, if they have Jonsson back will be a much tougher proposition in the race-off and I can see them as finalists, with either Australia or the Danes missing out. Before every one gets too carried away, it's worth considering that passing Rory Schlein is one thing; passing a Gollob or Hampel is an entirely different matter altogether.

Russia were finalists last season.

My atlas has Bavaria in Germany, not sure about your's.

Jaroslaw Hampel leading the world championship. Tomasz Gollob second in the world championship. It's rather hard to argue against a statement that the Poles are the best when you look at cold, hard facts. Kolodziej isn't in the GPs, but as a "wild card" in Leszno he made the final and he is currently second in the Polish league averages (a much stronger league than the Elite League). The Poles would've won easily without Holta and could have replaced him with riders of the calibre of Ulamek and Walasek (both of whom finished ahead of the Britons in last season's world championship), not to mention Protasiewicz, Balinski and Kasprzak.

The Poles didn't do too badly at Peterborough last season. In fact, they won. The obvious reason for having the Poles in Poland and Britons in Britain is to attract a decent crowd.

And not so very long ago that the Americans were finalists, while I think they may have made the race-off in 2006.

I think Olsen handles the temporary tracks, meaning Gothenburg too.

The second round of races were the key. The poles marched on while Klindt went from first to last and Bjerre also ran a last (I think). That killed off the Danish challenge. After fives races the Poles only lead by a couple, after ten races they led by twelve points. Once the Joker was nullified, the Danes were dead. They made no tactical changes, meaning the out of touch Iversen took all his five rides, as did Klindt. I guess the Danes accepted fate. The Poles won nineteen of twenty-five races.

Come on, Mr Rising, it's one thing for Nigel Pearson to struggle to pronounce Janusz Kolodziej (Yanush Kowojey, I am informed), but a trained journalist should be able to spell it correctly. Personally, I thought the best GP at Prague was the one with the rain delay and then the top surface removed from the track. That produced some fine racing and none of the ruts that usually appear at the Marketa.

Now I guess they are satisfied staging a GP. In addition, 2006 would've been projected as possibly Rickardsson's last season (which it was, although he bowed out before the SWC) and since then Sweden haven't been as competitive as before.

It was by no means a dreadful meeting. Some of Kolodziej's moves were very sweet and Gollob's antics were entertaining (pointing at Ales Dryml and then that superb move in Ht 25). The only problem was the meeting started slowly and just as the racing improved the Polish steamroller kicked into overdrive and the meeting was not really competitive. There was very little fight from the Danes and the Russians were not the same without Sayfutdinov, while the Czechs were woeful. Had the scores been competitive, the meeting would probably have recorded more positive comment. It wasn't bad; it was just there was only one competitive team out of four.

A very fine meeting that was, too, including that superb race between Adams and Gollob (with Smolinski buzzing around) in the final race. I could not recall if Sweden staged on in 2006, but I guess that was also Vojens. I remember one event was at Rybnik in 2006 and the race-off and final were in Reading (then owned by BSI). Since then it has been all Denmark and Poland, with no end in sight.

A further thought regarding the suggestion of a three team tournament format would be that it would increase the number of teams from eight to nine, since you would really need three meetings and nine teams to get a proper final. There would also be no scope for a race-off, with just the three winners progressing. It would also, at this moment in time, massively favour the Poles, who have a ridiculous depth of talent available.