pandorum

Pity that as it looked great...big crowd....who made a bit of noise.... well organised and even had an English announcer. We would have had a poorly organised meeting with, nobody there, a PA system from the 18th century and would have not been able to find the Russian anthem so played Ra ra rasputin by Boney M instead. Well done Russia

It's stupid to bang on about it should be the top 16 QUALIFIED riders. How do you decide this? In the old system at least 5 riders qualified without coming into contact with the top riders in the world by virtue of the Eastern European rounds. Throwing it open to everybody would be a nightmare. There are hardly enough days to decide the EL and PL without there being a series of qualifiers for a GP series most riders would not be ready for anyhow. The SGP is a business run to turn a profit and as such a decision is made who the wildcards go to on the strength of entertainment value. They basically do a decent job of it and most of the line ups are quality riders. Some silly qualifying system would likely exclude good riders and favour riders who are not even ready for the GP let alone good enough for it. As well as disrupt the leaugue systems. Living in the good old days is stupid and pointless. Fairness never had anything to do with it before and does not now. It was all about appeasing federations then and it is now replacing the 'federations' with 'TV companies'. The useless East European riders have been replaced with useless UK riders and they should not be allowed a free ride like in the good old days. Qualification is a lottery whereas desererving a place can at least be based on good common sense. The system works quite well...leave it be.

anybody know the teams....nasty crash hope they are OK

short answer NO.....long answer fill that in yourself Harris deserved to be there this year as he made the top 8. But 2012 ...you are having a giraffe. Artem Laguta is awful but deserves a place as he qualified. Same as the three who did the same in the QR final. The Brits don't take that route seriously as they know one will get in as a charity pick. This needs to stop. Let Brit riders earn a place and maybe one might rise from the dross and do a Havelock or Loram and win the world title. I like Bomber he is a good rider but deserves nothing that he does not earn. Lots of young riders deserve a pick over him. Hancock, Pedersen, Emil, AJ would all deserve a pick if they had a bad season but none of the Brits fall into that catagory. Brit speedway is run badly and until it wakes up will never have a world champ again. Wild cards for Brit riders should be made on how much the riders deserves it rather than thier nationality. Wuffy and even that crazy man Barker have shown promise this year. Ben was the best Brit in the SWC. So maybe 2013 might be the year for one or both of them. But they gotta earn their place. Having charity pick Brits in the GP has not worked as mostly they stunk the GP out. Yes worse riders have gotten there but mostly they earned a place by qualifying. It's not about who the top 16 are because nobody can come up with a criteria for gauging that. It's about common sense. The people who do the picking know who is worth a punt the same as most speedway fans. Darcy ward is an obvious no brainer the same as Emil was....Wuffy merited a pick when he got one but does not for 2012. The SGP is not about the fielding the top 16 riders in the world. it is about making an entertaining product that makes a profit. The old system NEVER had the top 16 and this one does not either. Babbling on about the old way of qualifying is stupid. The good old days that never existed except in some peoples minds. Entertainment is what it is about and making a profit from that. Mistakes have been made and lessons learnt. having a Brit was thought worthwhile once but now it's detrimental as the Brit challenge is non existent. Chuck in some good youngsters like Ward and Vaculik and maybe Wuffy or Barker in 2013.

So you are saying a Brit rider is in the worlds top 15

What a horrible crash....we are lucky that the TV people did not go overboard and show it endlessly

Ward deserves a pick without doubt. So does Jonasson so how can they hand a pick to a Brit rider????? To do so would be a travesty.

Could some kind soul PM me with a link for tonites stream as I have to watch on my lap top

Anyone know any good streams for tonite as I have to watch on my lap top.

I want Victor Golubovski to get in as he has a cool name Looking at the paucity of the line up he might as well get in for what most of them will do next year. Says a lot that the Brits will have to depend on charity again and frankly they don't deserve ONE pick as none of them are any better than old Vic would be. There are dozens of better riders in world speedway that deserve a place in GP than our shower. Might wake them up if they don't qualify on charity picks.

INCREDIBLE! wELL DONE POLAND

Brits dissapointing. Bomber and Barker deserved their places but the rest were as effective as Russia's #5 on Monday night. As far as Bridger goes a blank space would be preferable. Should never have gotten ride #3 Russiamns even more dissapointing. Expected a really tight battle for 2nd but it never really happened. Should be a good final though.

A) nope B ) nope C) nope Did not know I would have to take a quiz Maybe the most sensible thing the guys could do is stop pretending that there are more people in the stadium than there obviously are (like Cardiff) and just say as you say there is a healthy crowd.

I am sure it was but it wasn't 'packed out' as the commentators said. There were parts of the ground where one could easily swing the cat and there were parts where it was more difficult but 5000 in a 7000 stadium isn't packed out. Yes there was a good crowd but it wasn't full and that is what they kept saying. Then it would have been packed out Another thing I found quite disturbing was that I was able to understand Tomas Gollob better than Chris Harris and that can't be right can it?

He was no worse or better than any of the previous managers (including himself). What exactly did people expect him to do? Win the SWC? He is like his footbal equivalent. Lumbered with a lot of reasonably talented people who can never perform as a team.

Great news and who cares if the FIM end up looking like idiots. They are idiots. SWC has never looked that proffesional anyway and lets not forget the only other 'sport' that plays 'Jokers' was called 'It's A Knockout' and that was hardly proffesionally run. The whole structure of the sport is frankly laughable anyway. All I want to see is good riders competing for the world cup and could not care less if the sports top knobs look powerless. Speedway rules have never been that sensible anyway with the most glaring example being the rule or non rule governing what happens at the first bend of a race. The Emil situation is no more farcial than usual for speedway and if a bunch of pointless clowns had kept him out of the race off it would be the fans who would suffer as well as the sport. Excellent news both on Emil and the FIM looking like the clowns they are

According to the SGP site there were less than 5000 there. A lot of empty space on my TV view. KL holds about what 7000? So NOT packed out at all as the commentators said.

Enjoyed the meet and GB did well. Of course they won't get in the final but a good battling display would be nice. Good to see the signs are Russia will compete rather than just be there. They have an outside chance of winning the event. Gizatulin will be a better choice than Artem Laguta. Should be a cracking meeting. Pity Scotty is sitting it out but understandable. One thing I found strange about the TV meet on Monday was how those insane commentators kept saying it was a packed stadium when it obviously wasn't. Did they think they were doing a radio show.

I see no difference between what Emil has done and what Lee R did. I think they are wrong but can understand why they did it. Britain could barely field 5 riders at the start of this season as both Bomber and Scott were thinking of doing what Lee did. The Brit under 21 team rode with 4 riders a year or two ago. Should they have been banned? It's a massive dissapointment as Russia are one of the teams that could have won the SWC but they will be lucky to qualify with this team. The SWC needs to sort this issue out and ensure this does not happen again or the sport will look mickey mouse to an observers I meant MORE mickey mouse of course.

I seem to recall a similar situation involving the Brit under 21 team fielding 4 riders and they were not banned from anything. It is of course a disgrace but no good attacking the Russian riders. Our own speedway authorities are lucky we can find 5 riders to take part in the SWC. It's time that a properly formatted FIM system was agreed to allow riders to be compensated for travel etc at these so called BIG events. Emil is wrong not turning out on monday but he has the same kind of point Lee Richardson has and that Scott and Bomber were considering before they finally agreed to turn out. Asking riders to pay to represent their country is idiotic and shows what a silly little sport speedway is. Sky must be fuming and if the Russians get knocked out as I think they will then the SWC will be seriously devalued. I was looking forward to seeing the Russians as I thought they had a chnce this time round. Of course I would love to see the Brits win but I am not simple and know that would never happen. But this kind of thing is so annoying as it should have been addressed by all involved months ago and resolved with at least some kind of compromise. Speedway: ridden by heroes. Run by idiots.

A slight knock? Great meeting and Nicki always adds to the entertainment although should have been excluded three times ....twice in one race That Danish kid did well and Laguta was unlucky. Harris will not get a chance again in the GP so he either shapes up or ships out.

He probably thought after Nicki sent him into orbit jump off or die...hmm...jump off. I love watching Nicki but he can dish it out but can't take it.

That's true as that was an unpredictable format that threw up all kinds of interesting permutations. Probably too many riders to pay for so thats why they dumped it. Getting rid of Ole has certainly been a step forward.

Yes he has done well this year but overall he has been lamentable in GPs so does not deserve a pick. Of course he is in the top 8 and hopefully maintains that after Saturday as after Mondays heroics the man should be there but has to EARN his place to be able to say that he has a right to mix it with the top riders. Brits this last few years have been a joke in GP and think that they can just waltz in because the TV coverage needs a Brit or two. This needs to stop. Let our riders be there because they deserve it and have earnt thier place rather than get it by default due to being British. We will never see a Brit World Champ until the charity stops and our riders realise that they have to earn thier places by hard work. Chris has done well at the end of the season and nobody can deny his right to be in the GP if he earns his spot. Artem Laguta will likely struggle next year but he earned his place so nobody can deny his right to be there but our riders just get a spot because Sky TV needs a Brit. Tai has done well this year and has leanred a lot. He does not deserve a pick but hopefully can use what he learned to qualify for 2012. Scott and Ricko do not deserve anything GP wise. There are better riders than them in the queue who will miss out because of nationality. I would rather see one deserving Brit who had earned thier place by struggling to qualify properly doing well in 2011 than two charity cases making fools of themselves. Good luck Chris Harris tomorrow I for one will be rooting for you. I hope you do it and I hope next year our riders know that qualification will be their only route to GP. Then we might see a Brit on the top podium.

cheers 2 I will check it out on Saturday