ladyluck

Would be just eighteen heats and I think BSI Speedway would want to get at least twenty out of a meeting. And to make a meaningful tournament out of it the weaker nations would still have to be involved in the early stages.

It's not so very long ago that the Russians were down with the Czechs and Finns. Look at them now. The Lagutas and Sayfutdinov, with Tarasenko coming along means that 3-4 years down the line they could be genuine contenders. I think the current system is okay, but the venues are becoming stale. It just seems to be three nations staging events year-on-year, with only two nations seeming to want to host the race-off and final. Britain seemed to want to host 2009, but Leszno was already a done deal, so we're alternating between Vojens and a Polsih track. Doesn't Gorzow have the final next season? When was the last time Sweden hosted an SWC meeting? I'd look at going back to a single host nation, but that would probably also end up being Denmark and Poland alternating, or even just Poland year-on-year.

While the stadium might be in the centre of the town, Poole itself is hardly a convenient location, And Holder, Ward and Watt are hardly novices around Wimborne Road, are they? Furthermore, if you get a bad draw and a preponderence of gate 4s early on you are finished anyway. Maybe King's Lynn have more even gates that at least gives all the riders an equal opportunity? If you are off gate 4 at Poole you might as well ask for a miracle.

This looks like a great opportunity for Britain to make the final direct and I think that is their best chance. If it goes to the race-off, they could miss out. However, there should be no reason to fear the Australians or Danes. A good start is essential, otherwise chins could drop.

Jeden pivo prosím. It would be a nice tradition if the final round were always to be staged as part of the Golden Helmet weekend in Pardubice. There is probably always going to be at least one round staged in Poland, whether anyone likes it or not. The Poles have a lot of FIM approved tracks and the willingness to stage these meetings. The Poles seem to fight over the right to stage GPs, which is why they have three at the minute, with Gorzow and Zielona Gora also interested. I think some people (well, possibly one person) here is being very disrespectful. Ward has hardly set the world alight this season, in stark contrast to last season. He seems to have been dropped by his Polish club in favour of Michael Jepsen Jensen and is sitting at reserve for Poole. Bogdanovs is a more than useful rider.

Nicki Pedersen hasn't been at his best this season either, although I'm not sure if he was at the race-off last season after clashing with Laguta in Vojens. Only Bjerre of the Danes has showed much of anything this season. I don't totally discount Denmark, I just understand why people are tipping the Poles. Most British riders seem to be diminished when they pull on the country's racing jacket, or haven't you noticed some of Britain's abject displays in recent seasons? However, your analysis does tend to hold true for the Poles.

Isn't Olsson's mantra to leave it in the hands of the usual track staff, which for Vojens would mean Ole Olsen, or has he stepped down from active involvement at Vojens as well? The Poles do have something of an embarrassment of riches. Back in 2008 I seem to recall Wieslaw Jagus doing well for the Poles, while a year earlier Grzegorz Walasek top-scored in the SWC event at Vojens. Jagus hasn't been in such good form this season, but Walasek plugs away. Then you have the likes of Kasprzak, Ulamek and Protasiewicz.

Hurrah for my "dark horse", I think.

Pavlic wins Ht 1. Not much mention of him in this thread, but he's been in good form for Leszno, after losing his way a little last season.

The Poles are certainly not as strong as they once were, the result perhaps of changes made ahead of the 2006 season, when the "one foreign" rider rule was swept aside? That saw the likes of Sayfutdinov, Holder, Woffinden and so on taking rides that would previously have gone to Polish youngsters. The "foreign" riders are also encroaching on the Danish league, while Sweden's leagues are dominated by "foreign" riders. The "turnover" of riders also isn't so great these days. In years gone by we could've expected a Hancock or a Gollob to have bowed out, but now they seem to be able to go on indefinitely.

Good luck to the British riders. Oh, there aren't any. I can see Laguta winning this, although he'll have to keep an eye on the likes of Janowski, Mroczka and possibly Dudek, while Bogdanovs would be my "dark horse".

The Poles pushed them all the way at Vojens in 2008 and Denmark seemed set for domination around that time. It's all gone pear shaped for the Danes since then and they didn't even make the final last season, in spite of hosting one of the "semi-finals" (Russia won at Vojens). Only Bjerre has really shone for the Danes this season, so it's easy to see why people are "bigging up" the Poles. Gollob and Hampel are leading the world championship charge, while Holta is comfortably in the top eight.

Fair enough, but Sir Stirling Moss was never a world champion while other lesser drivers have been. And in terms of speedway the dynamics have changed with the advent of the GPs. No one can know whether Gollob would've emulated Szczakiel under the old system? One night in Poland worked for Jerzy, why not for Gollob? He's won GPs at Wroclaw, Bydgoszcz and Torun. The world championship is important, of course, but to my mind so are GP wins. Winning a GP certainly counts for more than winning the Intercontinental Final.

Drogi or drugi? Drogi means valuable, while drugi means second. As for Bartku, I have no idea. Perhaps you are mishearing?

Poland's only world champion, to date, although that looks like changing this year. Big question is Gollob or Hampel? You really have to give Gollob a lot of credit. It isn't so long ago that he was being written off in some quarters. Yet in the last three seasons he has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance, winning in the most unexpected of places, such as Malilla, Copenhagen and Terenzano. He even made a decent fist of Cardiff this season. Gollob has also won something like eighteen GPs, while Britain has managed a combined total of four (to put this abject performance into its proper context, Tony Rickardsson once won six in a season).

They kept asking Nicholls back and Harris completed last season fourteenth out of fifteen, showing very little, other than a last race win in Bydgoszcz (having finished stone last in his other four) yet he was asked back. Hancock also keeps the stars and stripes flying in the GPs. I think they might be loathe to lose their American presence. BSI's parent company is, after all, the American IMG.

Jonsson's career appears to be stalled and he's one of the guys who seems to hold the qualifying tournament in contempt. Okay, he's won a few GPs, but he's never really been a contender. I think the highest he got was fifth. It might not harm his career to spend a season pondering on his failures. Interesting times indeed, but they've always found a way. You mention Sayfutdinov, but he is a given for 2011, the interesting one outside the top eight is Hancock. Adams saved BSI a tricky situation when he voluntarily stepped down, if Hancock wants to carry on it would surely be difficult for BSI not to nominate him. Apart from anything else, he keeps the stars and stripes flying at the highest level of the sport. If no British rider makes it through via Vojens, imagine the furore another Harris nomination ahead of a multi-GP-winning ex-world champion would bring?

Either way, if they'd showed a bit of sense they could easily have taken advantage of making good starts to team ride Woffinden out of it and both gained an extra point. As it turned out, they decided to head for Cardiff Bay on turns 1-2 and left Woffinden acres of room to execute a sweet cutback. A place in the semi-finals could have hinged on that, as Nicki Pedersen just scraped in. Time and again you'll see the Poles looking out for each other. I recall one time Gollob struggling for the semi-finals and just making it after racing Hampel in the last qualifying heat.

It does British riders no favours. Look at the example of Scott Nicholls. A few years ago he showed genuine promise, but he lost his way and yet survived in the GPs season after season. Perhaps if he'd been dropped around 2005 or 2006 it would've put him back on the right track? Being omitted from the GPs certainly didn't do Hans Andersen's career any harm in 2006 and nor has being shown the door done Jaroslaw Haampel much harm. Harris appears to have gone the same way as Nicholls. It might also do serial-drifter Andreas Jonsson a bit of good and his compatriot Fredrik Lindgren (who, like Harris, has never even qualified for the GPs).

Not according to the Sunday Times, which apparently reports a disappointing crowd of circa 32,000, while several attendees have similarly posted their impression of a reduced attendance.

Not sure about Linus Sundstrom, but Thomas H Jonasson is older than the likes of Woffinden.

It will never change so long as a guaranteed two places in the series exists.

He spoke of coming back to Cardiff next year during an interview.

Why blame the promoters? As Paul Weller sang: the public gets what the public wants. Whenever a team is struggling the supporters cast around for a young Pole, or Dane, or Swede (although there are increasingly few of them) as the solution to the team's problems.

The Danes were remarkably stupid in Ht 19 where they could easily have team rode Woffinden out of the heat instead of knocking seven colours out of each other while Woffinden steamed away. But credit to Woffinden, it was a sweet move on the first two turns, but was made very easy for him. You have to think that Gollob and Hampel would have taken the pragmatic approach. Plech might've made the run-off but for a bit of truly bizarre refereeing in his final heat. Just looking at the all important top eight and it's all the Poles, all the Australians and all the Danes, while both the Swedes and the Britons are missing. It's not just Britain that looks to be facing a bleak future. The Swedes aren't in much better shape, in spite of their much-vaunted system. However, a glance at the Swedish league gives a clear insight as to why: most of the clubs have two or three Poles.