Conkers

The Hitmen and The Heathens are possibly two of the strongest teams in the league, and the Heathens are the only team to take point from Buxton this year, so I'm taking nothing for granted! It will be a good match regardless of the result

What is the weather like in the Midlands as it hasn't stopped raining since yesterday in Manchester

Well seeing as Iris123 and Jacqueline are e-mailing me about Inzell, I booked the first of my trips this morning - ironically to Inzell, and as we are almost in September, so time to look ahead to the Ice Racing season which starts in December. The provisional dates for the Individual World Championship were announced in March, but as that thread has dropped down the order, here they are again: 09/01/2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Q. Round 1, St Johann, Austria 16/01/2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Q. Round 2, Saalfeleden, Austria 21/01/2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Q. Round 3, Sanok, Poland 05-06.02.2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Final 1, Krasnogorsk-Zorkiy-Stadium, Russia 12-13.02.2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Final 2, Togliatti, Russia 12-13.03.2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Final 3, Assen - DeSmelt, Netherlands 26-27-03-2011 FIM Ice Racing WC Final 4, Inzell, Germany I was talking to Referee Dave Dowling at Buxton, who says the new Inzell stadium looks impressive and it's still not finished, so I'm looking forward to that round. The team Final is set to go to Berlin on the last weekend in February, and I am told that there are a group working on a just for TV series to try and raise the sport's profile. As soon as I have other dates I'll post them, but if anyone has any fixtures then please post them. Ron from Eurorider will be running his popular Assen trip as usual, the link is in my signature.

I've just had a message from a friend in Germany regarding the SWC Final re-staging. If you missed the Final re-staging on Sunday because of travel or any other reason you should send an e-mail to aj@speedevent.dk who are offering another ticket for any event at Vojens for the remainder of the year. Now before you all assassinate the messenger, and lose sight of the squirrel, I am simply passing this information along. I know that for the vast majority of British Fans this is an non-starter, as a free ticket for Vojens wouldn't even begin to cover the travel costs, but the contact details may go someway to helping you recover the cost of your tickets to the event which you missed.

Well done Mikey Buman - saw him ride a few years ago and he was outstanding. One of the best NY riders around

The Buxton Hitmen Twitter team should be in attendence for live updates

Naaaaah!

Well done to Stefan. After watching him ride the last two weeks in Assen and Berlin, he struck me how aggressive he was, especially last week in Berlin.

Results from Berlin Saturday: 1 Antonin Klatovsky 0 2 0 0 2 4 2 Günther Bauer 1 2 1 2 0 6 3 Nikolai Krasnikov 3 3 2 3 3 14 4 Franz Zorn 2 3 3 2 2 12 5 Jan Klatovsky 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 Nikolai Kaminsky 2 1 1 0 1 5 7 Stefan Svensson 1 x 2 1 3 7 8 Ivan Ivanov 3 1 1 N N 5 9 Danil Ivanov 3 3 3 3 1 13 10 Grzegorz Knapp 0 0 1 1 3 5 11 Vitalli Khomitsevich 2 2 2 3 1 10 12 Antti Aakko 1 0 3 3 2 9 13 Pavel Tschajka fx N N N N 0 14 Igor Kononov 2 3 0 2 3 10 15 Harald Simon 1 1 2 1 1 6 16 Dmitri Khomitsevich 3 2 3 2 2 12 R17 Per-Anders Lindström 1 fx ef 1 R18 Rene Stellingwerf fx fx 0 0 D Final: Antonin Klatovsky, Nikolai Kaminsky, Jan Klatovsky, Per-Anders Lindström C Final: Günther Bauer, Harald Simon, Grzegorz Knapp, Ivan Ivanov (ns) B Final: Igor Kononov, Antti Aakko, Stefan Svensson, Vitalli Khomitsevich A Final: Nikolai Krasnikov, Dmitri Khomitsevich, Danil Ivanov, Franz Zorn Sunday: 1 Antonin Klatovsky 0 N N N N 0 2 Günther Bauer 2 1 2 1 2 8 3 Nikolai Krasnikov 1 1 2 3 3 10 4 Franz Zorn 3 0 3 2 3 11 18 Rene Stellingwerf 0 2 0 1 0 3 6 Nikolai Kaminsky 3 0 2 2 1 8 7 Stefan Svensson 2 2 2 2 2 10 8 Ivan Ivanov 2 N N N N 2 9 Danil Ivanov 3 3 3 3 2 14 17 Per-Anders Lindström 0 0 fx N N 0 11 Vitalli Khomitsevich 1 3 1 3 3 11 12 Antti Aakko 0 3 1 1 0 5 10 Grzegorz Knapp xt 1 1 0 1 3 14 Igor Kononov 3 2 3 3 2 13 15 Harald Simon 1 2 1 1 1 6 16 Dmitri Khomitsevich 2 3 3 2 3 13 R5 Jan Klatovsky 1 1 0 0 2 D Final: Grzegorz Knapp, Jan Klatovsky, Ivan Ivanov (ns), Per-Anders Lindström (ns) C Final: Nikolai Kaminsky, Antti Aakko, Harald Simon, Rene Stellingwerf B Final: Vitalli Khomitsevich, Franz Zorn, Stefan Svensson, Günther Bauer A Final: Danil Ivanov, Nikolai Krasnikov, Igor Kononov, Dmitri Khomitsevich FINAL STANDINGS: PSN Rider C Total R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 211 (25 25 16 25 25 0 25 25 25 20) 2 Danil Ivanov Rus 184 (20 20 25 18 18 0 20 20 18 25) 3 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 152 (18 16 18 14 20 0 16 14 20 16) 4 Igor Kononov Rus 147 (12 18 20 16 13 0 18 18 14 18) 5 Vitalli Khomitsevich Rus 120 (8 14 14 20 14 0 14 11 11 14) 6 Franz Zorn A 119 (16 6 13 11 16 0 12 16 16 13) 7 Stefan Svensson S 99 (14 12 9 10 7 0 10 13 12 12) 8 Antti Aakko SF 95 (13 13 8 8 10 0 13 8 13 9) 9 Günther Bauer D 93 (9 9 12 12 11 0 7 12 10 11) 10 Nikolai Kaminsky Ukr 75 (7 11 11 7 6 0 9 9 5 10) 11 Pavel Tschajka Rus 67 (10 10 10 13 12 0 6 6 0 0) 12 Ivan Ivanov Rus 62 (11 3 7 3 9 0 11 7 7 4) 13 Harald Simon A 47 (0 7 0 9 4 0 5 5 9 8) 14 Antonin Klatovsky CzR 43 (6 5 3 4 5 0 4 10 6 0) 15 Grzegorz Knapp Pl 36 (0 8 0 6 0 0 8 0 8 6) 16 Jan Klatovsky CzR 34 (5 4 4 5 3 0 0 4 4 5) 17 Sven Holstein NL 23 (3 0 6 0 8 0 3 3 0 0) 18 Per-Anders Lindström S 15 (4 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 3 3) 19 Rene Stellingwerf NL 7 (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7) Just got back to Manchester after catching the 9.20 flight out of Berlin. Can I echo what Doug has said, we had a great time, and it was good to catch up with Bluejam. Some great racing this weekend, and despite the rain turning the track into a fog bound lottery for a couple of races, there was some great racing. My personal favourite moment was Stefan Svensson suddenly riding very hard against the Russians! Great stuff! Krasnikov has also become more approachable and smiles a lot more, and has become more co-operative to us snappers. Sorry I didn't post the results sooner, but I'm afraid beer got in the way Saturday and the stadium had no wifi. I managed to do my report and pics in the airport, but wasn't able to send them as my flight was called. So the forum had to wait until now. Oh and thanks to f-s-p for the beer, mine went down a treat!

Well that is a surprise. (Written without a hint of irony. Honest!)

Draw for Berlin - Sat 20 & Sun 21 March 1 KLATOVSKY Antonín ACCR Czech Republic 2 BAUER Gunther DMSB Germany 3 KRASNIKOV Nikolay MFR Russia 4 ZORN Franz OeAMTC/OSK Austria 5 KLATOVSKY Jan ACCR Czech Republic 6 KAMINSKYY Nikolay FMU Russia 7 SVENSSON Stefan SVEMO Sweden 8 IVANOV Ivan MFR Russia 9 IVANOV Daniil MFR Russia 10 KNAPP Grzegorz PZM Poland 11 KHOMITSEVITCH Vitali MFR Russia 12 AAKKO Antti SML Finland 13 TSCHAJKA Pavel MFR Russia 14 KONONOV Igor MFR Russia 15 SIMON Harald OeAMTC Austria 16 KHOMITSEVITCH Dmitri MFR Russia Reserve Rider 17 LINDSTROM Per Anders SVEMO Sweden Reserve Rider 18 STELLINGWERF René KNMV The Netherlands Lindström and Stellingwerf will replace the bottom two from Saturday on Sunday, and the riders they replace will be reserves. Unless it's Bauer, as once again it's all about Bums on Seats (although the place is all standing). Wonder if someone will post the results of the German Championship, as there are at least three forumites there!

So that's what you were on about - I was being asked for pictures for a style magazine by that woman on Saturday night.

Yes you're right Rob, there was a glitch in my spreadsheet which I've corrected. I must also remember to be consisten with my spelling which is why Kaminsky's points went wrong! Thanks

World Championship R8, Assen 14.3.2010 1 Antonin Klatovsky 1 0 1 0 1 3 2 Igor Kononov 3 3 2 2 3 13 3 Franz Zorn 3 3 3 2 2 13 4 Vitalli Khomitsevich 2 2 2 f 3 9 18 Per-Anders Lindström fx N N N N 0 6 Günther Bauer 0 2 1 3 2 8 7 Stefan Svensson 2 1 2 0 2 7 8 Nikolai Krasnikov 2 3 3 3 3 14 17 Jan Klatovsky 1 0 0 1 0 2 10 Antti Aakko 1 1 1 3 f 6 11 Nikolai Kaminski 3 0 0 1 1 5 12 Dmitri Khomitsevich 3 2 3 1 3 12 13 Danil Ivanov 2 3 3 3 2 13 14 Sven Holstein 0 1 0 2 f 3 15 Ivan Ivanov 1 2 1 2 1 7 16 Pavel Tschajka 0 0 2 f 1 3 R9 Harald Simon 1 1 2 R5 Grzegorz Knapp 0 0 0 D Final: Pavel Tschajka, Harald Simon, Jan Klatovsky, Sven Holstein (f) C Final: Antonin Klatovsky, Nikolai Kaminski, Antti Aakko, Ivan Ivanov (ef) B Final: Dmitri Khomitsevich, Stefan Svensson, Günther Bauer, Vitalli Khomitsevich (f) A Final: Nikolai Krasnikov, Danil Ivanov, Igor Kononov, Franz Zorn (ef) Standings: 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 166 2 Danil Ivanov Rus 141 3 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 116 4 Igor Kononov Rus 115 5 Vitalli Khomitsevich Rus 95 6 Franz Zorn A 90 7 Stefan Svensson S 75 8 Antti Aakko SF 73 9 Günther Bauer D 72 10 Pavel Tschajka Rus 67 11 Nikolai Kaminsky Ukr 60 12 Ivan Ivanov Rus 51 13 Antonin Klatovsky CzR 37 14 Harald Simon A 30 15 Jan Klatovsky CzR 25 16 Sven Holstein NL 23 17 Grzegorz Knapp Pl 22 18 Per-Anders Lindström S 9 Lindström fell in his opening ride after leading, but was pushed by Svensson, and took out Kaminski. Per-Anders has aggravated his knee injury and may miss Berlin. Sven Holstein fell in the first corner of the D Final. Referee said all 4 back, but Sven appears to have injured his collarbone and his leg, and looks doutful for Berlin. If neither ride, Knapp and Simon will ride and Posa and Fürst will ride as reserves. On a personal note it was good to have a drink with Lucifer Sam and Full Throttle and to see other Brits there. A great three days racing in Assen, but now my work begins, as I sit in CitizenM at Schipol compiling my report and sorting 1200+ pics!!!! EDIT Scorechart corrected

World Championship R7, Assen 13.3.2010 1 Antonin Klatovsky 0 1 0 1 0 2 2 Igor Kononov 3 3 2 1 3 12 3 Franz Zorn 1 3 2 3 2 11 4 Vitalli Khomitsevich 2 1 2 3 3 11 5 Grzegorz Knapp 1 2 1 1 2 7 6 Günther Bauer 2 1 1 0 1 5 7 Stefan Svensson fx 1 1 2 2 6 8 Nikolai Krasnikov 3 3 3 2 3 14 9 Harald Simon 1 fx 1 1 0 3 10 Antti Aakko 2 2 0 2 2 8 11 Nikolai Kaminski 0 0 3 f 1 4 12 Dmitri Khomitsevich 3 2 3 3 fx 11 13 Danil Ivanov 3 3 3 3 3 15 14 Sven Holstein 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 Ivan Ivanov 2 2 0 2 1 7 16 Pavel Tschajka 1 0 2 0 1 4 17 Jan Klatovsky R18 Per-Anders Lindström D Final: Pavel Tschajka, Harald Simon, Antonin Klatovsky, Sven Holstein C Final: Stefan Svensson, Nikolai Kaminski, Grzegorz Knapp, Günther Bauer B Final: Vitalli Khomitsevich, Antti Aakko, Franz Zorn, Ivan Ivanov A Final: Nikolai Krasnikov, Danil Ivanov, Igor Kononov, Dmitri Khomitsevich Overall: 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 141 2 Danil Ivanov Rus 121 3 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 102 4 Igor Kononov Rus 97 5 Vitalli Khomitsevich Rus 84 6 Franz Zorn A 74 7 Antti Aakko SF 65 8 Stefan Svensson S 62 9 Pavel Tschajka Rus 61 10 Günther Bauer D 57 11 Ivan Ivanov Rus 44 12 Antonin Klatovsky CzR 27 13 Harald Simon A 25 14 Nikolai Kaminsky Ukr 24 15 Grzegorz Knapp Pl 22 16 Jan Klatovsky CzR 21 17 Sven Holstein NL 20 18 Per-Anders Lindström S 9 Lindstrom and Jan Klatovsky will ride tomorrow, replacing Knapp and Simon. Holstein can't be replaced as he is the home rider and it's all down to bums on seats! EDIT Updated rider status and mistake in the score chart

May I add my greetings to that. I just hope he's in Assen this weekend - even as a spectator. I've been going to the Ice since 1985 and I've yet to see a World Championship without him competing. This will be the first World Championship event I've been to where he's not ridden.

More than likely Inzell and Assen, but depending on finances...... Draw for Final 4, Assen 1 Antonín KLATOVSKY - Czech Republic 2 Igor KONONOV -, Russia 3 Franz ZORN - Austria 4 Vitali KHOMITSEVITCH - Russia 5 Grzegorz KNAPP - Poland 6 Gunther BAUER - Germany 7 Stefan SVENSSON - Sweden 8 Nikolai KRASNIKOV -Russia 9 Harald SIMON - Austria 10 Antti AAKKO - Finland 11 Nikolai KAMINSKI - Ukraine 12 Dmitri KHOMITSEVITCH - Russia 13 Daniil IVANOV - Russia 14 Sven HOLSTEIN - Netherlands 15 Ivan IVANOV - Russia 16 Pavel Tschajka - Russia R17 Jan KLATOVSKY - Czech Republic R18 Per Anders LINDSTROM - Sweden As in previous rounds, Reserves will replace the two lowest placed riders on Sunday EXCEPT if it's Sven Holstein, who will ride even if he's in the bottom two and the rider above him will drop to reserve, as it's all about Bums on seats. Roelof Thijs Bokaal meeting, Fri 12th March René Stellingwerf Netherlands Sven Holstein Netherlands Florian Fürst Germany Christoph Kirchner Germany Max Niedermaier Germany Stefan Pletschacher Germany Henri Malinen Finland Jussi Nyrönen Finland Jo Saetre Norway Johann Bruckner Austria Martin Leitner Austria Martin Posch Austria Mario Schwaiger Austria Mirosław Daniszewski Poland Michał Widera Poland Stanislav Arkhipov Russia Andrei Gavrilkin Russia Sergei Karatsjintsev Russia Andrei Shishegov Russia Andrei Diviš Czech Rep. Lukáš Volejník Czech Rep Tommy Flyktman Sweden Robert Henderson Sweden Paweł Strugała Switzerland res.1 Josef Kreuzberger Austria res.2 Reinhard Greisel Germany 24 heat GP Knock out format Arkhpov won this last year but there are both the European and U-21 European Champions in this meeting and both have beaten Arkhipov this year.

Hmm Innsbrück not on the list. Wonder why?

Both Google Translate and Babelfish are refusing to translate this page Jacqueline, any chance of a rough translation? It appears to be a loaded as a jpeg and the translation sites can't read it. (Yes I know, I really DO need to learn a bit more German than ordering beer! )

Russian Elite League R4 Ufa 28.2.2010 SUNDAY Round 4 Togliatti 25 (Ivanov 14, D. Khomitsevich 11, V. Khomitsevich DNR) Ufa 24 (Krasnikov 15, Bulankin 6, Baltachev 3) Sterlitamak 21 (Kononov 15, Shishegov 4, Ryabokon 2) Lukhovitsy 18 (Drozdov 8, Makharov 5, Tschajka 5) Kamensk-Ural 16 (Krysov 10, Golosheykin 4, Taushkanov 2) Saransk 13 (Bazeev 8, Lushnikov 4, Abroskin 1) Uchaly 8 (Safin 7, Lidzhiev 1, Aznaurov 0). STANDINGS (after 4 Rounds) Togliatti 30 CHAMPIONs! Ufa 26 Sterlitamak 18 Kamensk -Ural 15 Lukhovitsy 13 Saransk 8 Uchaly 6 Bulankin was injured in Heat 35 and had to withdraw but Ufa apparently struggled on their own track this weekend

A really interesting piece, but I really must start learning German properly, rather than rely on translation sites! However, it looks like the Promoter is blaming the Stadium owners. So going on the time scales for this track, the next Ice Racing in Innsbrück should be in 2045! Now my annual query: Apart from Rob, Jacqueline & Lars, Jesper and myself, who's going to Assen? And who will be in Berlin the week after (apart from Doug, J&L and me)?

I sent Jacqueline a text about the restaging dates, and I'm told that the Olympiahalle track was unavailable on the 22nd/23rd February so the proposed restaging dates couldn't have been fulfilled! As I said I intend to find out when I go to Assen. But I hope this helps. RUSSIAN ELTE LEAGE R3, UFA 27/2/2010 Mega-Lada Togliatti 28 3. Dmitri Khomitsevich (1,2,2,2,3,3) = 13 4. Danil Ivanov (3,3,3,3,1,2) = 15 16. Vitalli Khomitsevich DNR Bashkortostan Ufa 23 1. Dmitriy Bulankin (0,2,3,2,) = 7 2. Nikolai Krasnikov (2,3,3,3,2,3) = 16 15. Sergey Baltachev ( fx , 0) = 0 Lukhovitsy 21 5. Ilya Drozdov (3,0,2,2,2,1) = 10 6. Sergey Makarov (1,3,3,3) = 10 17. Pavel Tschajka (0,1,) = 1 Kaustic Sterlitamak 17 +3 9. Andrey Shishegov (2,2,1,0, f) = 5 10. Igor Konanov (3,3,3,0,1,2) = 12+3 19. Nikolai Ryabokon (ef) = 0 Kamensk Ural 17 +2 11. Daniel Golosheykin s (1,2,1,1,0,3) = 8 12. Eduard Krysov (0,3,2,0,2,2) = 9+2 20. Eugene Taushkanov DNR Mordovia Saransk 12 7. Maxim Lushnikov (2,0,0,2,1,0) = 5 8. Yunir Bazeev (1,1,1,3,0,1,) = 7 18. Aleksey Abroskin DNR Miner Uchaly 8 13. Dmitriy Lidzhiev (1,0,1, fx , 1,0) = 3 14. Alfred Safin (0,1,2,0,1) = 4 21. Vyacheslav Aznaurov (1,) = 1 Kononov beat Krysov in a run off for 4th place points.

I had a chat with Jacqueline on Saturday regarding the events of last weekend, and there was talk of the riders refusing to ride if the track was unfit. I'm trying to find out why they only ran one day, but I suspect the Jury decided that in view of the fact the track was poor and the riders refusing to ride they made the decision to cancel the second day. If you can hang on until Assen, I can ask some awkward questions of the FIM then and see if we get an answer, then we can discuss/argue about it over a pint?

Just had this from the promoter of the Polish ce Meeting at Poznan on Sunday Looks as if it was a natural Ice Track. Oh well next winter maybe.

But Jesper, this IS the FIM we are talking about!