nw42

Thanks again, must brush up on my Polish, jinqueer (sp) is the sum of it at the moment.

thanks R & R but that link is showing football. Edit, ok, just seen your other post, I will sit and wait patiently, cheers.

Any chance of a link to a stream please, can't find my way round that Polish site, are there streams on there too or is it Sopcast (which I cant get on on my mac? Pm is fine, cheers in advance

Thanks for that folks, much appreciated.

Just got in so a bit late but any chance of a link please?

Thanks Paul, problem is I can never manage to navigate that site, obviously the language barrier being the biggest obstacle, also do I need to download anything beforehand to watch sopcast? Could do with a few lessons in this as it's about the only thing I use the mac for, other than work of course.

Done, cheers

Would also appreciate a link please. thanks in advance

maybe a bit of tyrepacking.

just started for me, seems ok, track looks reasonable from what I can see, hope I'm not wrong. Lets Dance edit, just seen the track from another angle, looks sloppy, no rain falling atm tho, fingers crossed.

Cheers for that link but I couldn't get it to play, page opened fine but the vid wouldn't start. I use a mac, not sure if that makes a difference, any advice appreciated, do I need to register on there maybe? Have had a similar problem trying to watch skyplayer(?) on my mates account (with his permission of course), the screen just froze at the start of play and that was it. I don't have a problem with streams etc, other than the usual bit of buffering now and again. thanks in advance

Thanks MP, used your racecard regularly for a while now, always intending to say thanks but never remembering after the event, so a big thankyou. Started using the 'advanced one' and it does give a better insight while the meeting progresses, the gate stats for instance, gate 3 delivered the most points during the meeting proper, something I would never have noticed without the card. Also had my first go at having a flutter on the speedway, had 4 bets and 2 came in. I had Crump to win outright, so I was feeling chipper after 20 heats. Thanks again Paul.

Might be an idea to pm these links in future, then we won't find as many of the streams getting closed down. just a thought, pm sent bee.

I have just given this some more thought, what defines greatness for me? Not sure how many will relate to this but I whenever I have watched speedway, either live or on the screen there are times when a rider pulls a move that actually has me leaning over in the chair without realising, almost replicating their movements because I am so engrossed in their skill. I can distinctly recall this happening when I was sat in Lstand @ Hyde Rd and PC was in full flight, I still find myself doing this when watching Gollob, obviously not every time he races but many times over the years, maybe that's my greatness barometer. Agreed, Chris Morton is another but as you say he didn't scale the heights in terms of the world stage.

I don't speak for everyone but I'm quite capable of making a judgement whether or not it is within 24hrs of his latest performance, I have memory of many fantastic performances to add to the pot when considering where he stands in terms of greatness. 30 years on I can still recall some of Peter Collin's enthralling races and I get that same thrill when I see Gollob race and he is on song. That's what speedway is all about for me, thrills. Obviously I would never suggest Mauger wasn't a great but that is purely based on his haul of trophies, I never considered him exciting to watch, he was immaculate, Olsen & Nielsen fall into the same category for me. I would include Mark Loram in my list of greats but not Gary Havelock(no offence), yet they both won World crowns, it's not just about trophies for me, it's about value for money, it's about riders who appear to be at one with the bike, who ride lines that other riders don't even know exist and most wouldn't attempt if they were aware of them. What Gollob did on Saturday wasn't just about his riding, it was the way he played the captains role, he inspired his team by his attitude, they were all just pulled along by him when it looked like slipping away, I already had him down as a true great but he went up a couple of notches for his captains job, it was the first time I had seen this side of him, I know the manager was also instrumental before anyone feels the need to remind me but it I think it was Gollob who turned it around.

There are one or 2 posts earlier in this thread that appear to cast doubt on the integrity of the Poles win. As you say, sour grapes, it was a great fightback.

I agree with that wholeheartedly, he took the meeting by the scruff of the neck and turned it upside down in those 2 heats. Chris Harris has shown similar inspirational qualites in domestic racing and if he can continue to improve we may well one day have our own version of Gollob, now that would be nice, it may be 10 or so years away though.

That's true, he was fast everywhere, although I would have thought Ole will have had the better of him at Monmore on most occasions. If you were to ask fans who attended regularly back then at any track up and down the country who they would look forward to seeing visit their home track I reckon it would be PC, not Mauger, or Olsen, now I wouldn't imagine that anyone would have an argument against Peter being seen as an all time great, why did everyone want to see him, because he was a proper racer, just like Gollob. There's very rarely a dull moment when Gollob is on the track, you never know where he is going to come from if he's behind, he is a great speedway rider.

Maybe you would have said the same about Ivan Mauger at the time, all he had was fast bikes and was quick out of the gate, he wasn't a thrill merchant by any means, just immaculate. Now Gollob has fast bikes, can gate too but if he misses the gate he just hunts down his opponent in the most thrilling way, there isn't another rider that generates that excitement so consistently for me, that makes him one of the greats in my book. My favourite rider over the years has to be Peter Collins and when Gollob is in full flight he gives me the same thrills as PC did back in the day.

National pride, riding for the flag maybe.

Correct, the most decorated, successful rider on show tonight said something along the lines that it was a priviledge to ride in such a competitive meeting, surely if there were any suspicions of cheating he would have been the first to mention it, he can whinge with the best of them when he wants. Agreed re the joker, it enhanced the entertainment value of the meeting, even though the Scandinavians failed in theirs it still made the middle of the meeting interesting.

Can't agree with that, he is amongst the best riders I have watched since the late 60's, it's not just fast bikes, he is an extremely gifted rider imo. I could watch him race all day long. Can't understand what exactly you think the Poles did tonight, are you suggesting they swapped bikes? Can't see that going unobserved in the pits. Please explain what you think they did. There are non more competitive than the Aussies and Jason Crump didn't seem to have any complaints there at the end. That was a fantastic meeting, best I've seen for ages.

Not sure why anyone's complaining about this meeting, I'm finding it really interesting, 15heats gone and the result is still in doubt, ok the Poles may pull away now, maybe not, I reckon this is as closer than we have a right to expect. Nearly all the predictions were for a Polish walkover, well it certainly isn't that. If the next 10 heats deliver as well as the first 15 I'll be happy, not bothered who wins, just grateful for a decent stream of a good meeting.

I think they were referring to the earlier part of the thread where I think there was discussion about whether or not the Aussie was trying to throw the race by almost coming to grief on the 3rd/4th turn, was it Troy Batchelor? You are right though, there's always been riders who seem to hit the deck easier than others, just like there are diving footballers, it's cheating but not always easy to detect, that's where it boils down to opinions. The problem is that some of the opinions expressed go too far by hurling personal abuse, it's quite embarassing to read some of it when considering it is spouted by people who are old enough to know better, proper playground mentality. I'm sure you are right about the Americans and laying the bike down, it should be part of every riders training really, it may save a life sometime considering it's the quickest way to bring the bike to a halt, look at last night, but for the skill of the Russian it could have been very nasty for Scott Nicholls, there are plenty of other instances where the skill of the rider following a faller has avoided serious injury for both. The problem is that, as you say, some riders use their laying down skills to their advantage, I don't know how you could stop them though.