Brummie Boy

Turn Two, must admit your proposal does sound a much better option.

Who would you have signed instead of Kyle? We had to sign someone following Danyon's prolonged absence.

Hampel £200 less

For the Finnish GP: Kasprzak £50 more Zagar £100 more MJJ £50 more

Kasprzak 11 - 13 £200 less

Not sure where you have gathered that, as from what I have heard and seen his bikes and equipment appear to be first class. Provided Martin gets into next year's GP; BSI may yet decide to use Iversen's spot to get someone like Gollob back in, I think Smoli will do justice to his inclusion. Maybe not a top eight, but probably there or there abouts. He can ride both big and small tracks (except those odd ones like Eastbourne and Lakeside) and should regularly score points. Given the right backing from his German sponsors he should definitely be competitive equipment wise.

Last night I just happened to watch a bit of an interview on TV, it was with one of the past senior administrators of Rugby League in the UK. He mentioned how in his time the attendances have significantly increased at rugby league matches, now called the Super League, due to the modernisation of the sport. I thought I would take a quick look at whether RL have made many rule changes recently. See link to changes made for 2013: http://www.therfl.co...-2013-confirmed Read a couple of those and try and understand them. Funny these changes do not appear to be putting fans off the game, just the opposite, crowds are on the up. Super League is attracting national sponsors like Stobart's and Heinz. Sky sports televise matches and seem happy to continue. Speedway is like all sports, they have to change and innovate if they are to continue. Most of the major rule changes being complained about seem to relate to the double points rules and the league points system. However, these have been made to make the matches more entertaining and to keep the league title race alive for longer. This has been done mainly to try and bring more casual fans into the sport. I find the statement that fans have stopped attending speedway because they cannot understand the rules to be ridiculous. There are many reasons why attendances are falling, but I don't agree the rules are one of them. The only rule speedway has a problem with is the guest rule (and yes a new fan may find this strange), but this has been in existence for as long as I have been watching speedway and unfortunately there is no other answer to replace missing riders. The fact that riders are missing far too often is another matter.

Got to agree with Bwitcher on this one. Its not the rules that are the problem it is the ability or the willingness of promoters to manipulate them which is the problem. Your average fan of any sport only really understands the basic rules of the sport. The basic rules of speedway have not changed that much over the 45 years I have been watching the sport. Team made up of 7 riders, scoring 3,2,1 points depending on position in the race. Four riders in a race and they have to turn left at the end of each straight for four laps of the track. What more do you need to know. Okay so a few things have been tried on double points, tactical substitutes, etc, but not that much. And let's face it for most casual fans they want to see a hard fought match, close scores and possibly a last heat decider. Does a new fan of the sport want to see the home riders winning every race, races over by the first bend and the matches effectively over by the 8th or 9th heat. Of course not. Would you prefer that we go back to riders rolling at the starts and the top riders picking the best gates every race? Rules governing the make up the teams are the ones that change the most (or get manipulated the most), but most casual fans are not that bothered about how the team gets put together. Who really understands the new financial guidelines coming into football as regards who a club is able to sign. I even seem to recall even footbal trying a golden goal rule in some matches and how satisfactory is it to decide a cup final on penalties!! However, the new world of TV money has forced all sports to change (rightly or wrongly, but that's life). How complicated are the rules for Formula 1 racing? They change the rules governing the engines and car design every season, Who understands all these rules? However, the sport is still as popular as ever. It is only the fanatics of any sport that want to get into the detail and the pureists who inisist on resisting any change. Sport will always change as new ideas come along or the world in which they operate changes. Stop complaining and running down the sport we all love. If you don't understand the rules then buy a rule book or ask someone.

Undoubtedly. But that was being widely contested by many posters on this forum (mainly due to Tai's previous attitude and issues) until Tai's recent showings in the GPs. However, Tai must have taken a long hard look at himself and decided to focus on proving himself on the track. I have not heard many negative comments about him recently. It appears that Darcy is also starting to take a slightly calmer approach to life in the last month or so, probably as a result of the bust ups he's had in the last year. Both Craig and Ben need to sort themselves out and get these stupid petulant streaks out of their system. They both have talent but need to be harnessing any agression in a controlled way on the track. If they don't then they may never achieve what they are both capable of.

When was that?

If we had choice of track, it should have been Coventry. Only Iversen of the Danes seems to have any consistent success round there; add the fact Woffinden, Harris, (Nicholls - if he could have been persuaded to ride) + either Kennett, King or Barker know and ride the track well and I think we might have had a better chance of going straight to the final. Not sure how Craig Cooke would go round there.

Kim Nilsson now seems surplus to requirements at Lakeside and could do a good job for a Premier League side.

Great thing about last night's performance was that Tai got a lot of his points from the back. Bikes look fast, but Tai was prepared to get in there and mix it with the top GP stars, give absolutely no quarter and beat them. I hope he goes on to have a great GP season, whether he continues in this viein only time will tell, but thanks for some great entertainment last night. Now where did I put those throat lozenges....!!

Enjoyed the Eurosport coverage of the GP, in fact I thought it was far better than Sky. Liked the Wade Aunger / Steve Johnson commentary and none of those tedious cut backs to the studio for comments by Keith Huewen, who even after a few years of presenting speedway still seems to know less than the average speedway fan. Nigel Pearson was okay on Sky, but I was a bit fed up of his OTT yelling and screaming during racing and the constant repetition of the same facts or latest piece of gossip. Good straight forward presentation from Eurosport. Good job.

My £100 for World champion goes on Freddie Lindgren

Lindgren £100 more Lindback £50 more Jonsson £50 less

Let's not bother! Happy with the GPs being on Eurosport; it will save me £25 a month with not needing to add the Sky Sports package March to October.

Love the current format and the racing was very good last night. Only change would be to make the use of the joker only possible when 10 or 12 points behind. I think the current six is unfair on the team riding well and leading, especially when gate positions can have such an influence. One team might edge ahead, but might in the normal course of events lose the advantage with then having the less favourable gates. Also, six seems unfair when the team using the joker can go out and score six points and in the same race the leading team may finish last and lose all their advantage.

I was looking forward to 2011, but not so much now if this rumour turns out to be true. Saw some good racing in the PL in 2010 and I liked seeing different teams each week. Riders may be better in the EL, but does not follow that the quality of racing is better. In fact, the EL meetings on Sky were so poor in 2010, I stopped watching on a Monday night until the play-offs.

Wackie, you're not alone in these thoughts. Really beginning to wonder why I bother with Sky Sports, as no sooner the GPs start to get interesting and they start pissing about with the schedules.

Freddie Lindgren as captain for Vojens

I would have thought that those who have Nikki in their team (me included) would have picked up the points of whoever replaces him in this meeting. Seems only fair to me. Sayfutdinov as captain for this meeting please.

Why do we always hear that we should be more tolerant and accomodate the idiots and the drunks, why not a little less tolerant and tell "the minority" that they either behave like civil human beings and respect other people's entitlement to enjoy themselves. If they can't act more civil then I say let's be more intolerant and lock them out.

I don't know about Scott, I would have thought Emil heard the bells. Scott maybe having a tough time on the bike at the moment, but there ain't nothing wrong with his right hook!!

I'm sorry, but you expect to get drunks in a pub (the number normally depends on the type of pub) or on a drink yourself rubbishless holiday, but you don't expect to have to put up with it at a major sporting event which has cost a small fortune to get into. Perhaps instead of putting the families in a special area next year they could put sawdust down on part of the terracing and corral all the drunks their own area. Probably because they didn't buy the cigarettes in the stadium.........