Chris Brown

Just back from a real Men v Boys encounter. Stoke were spirited of that there is no doubt and never gave up with the IOW are a class apart. Ellis was stunning, Perry also and Darryl Ritchings is a vastly improved rider. Also thought Ben Hopwood were carrying a lot less timber which clearly made a difference. May be I could learn from him !!! So a very impressive IOW performance, boosted by RR being the only Maximum rider tonight.

Sods law I had Freddie at 25/1 and KK at 40:1. Win only though

Clearly you need to ask Emil because apparently he must think its great Alternatively ask Freddie Lingdren why on a perfect track he stupidly fell off on his own Sadly there are people who think BSI are beyond criticism but I agree with you entirely, its completely and utterly indefensible but looks like some influential people are defending it

Sorry but when 38,500 people pay around £60 each to attend a high class event then there is no excuse and quite simply the track HAS to be right. So BSI will walk away with their £2m+ gate receipts and rely on our top Speedway reporters to tell us that it was OK because the winner had no complaints. It is totally unacceptable for the organisers to prepare such a poor track and to be honest its even worse for apologists for them to try and defend it. This is a big bucks business and people are expected to pay top dollar for this crap. Its not defendable and still these people slowly destroy our beloved sport and the Editor of only speedway publication defends it Philip, I admire your loyalty to the money men in the sport but you can't defend that, people have paid £2m+ in admission charges and more than that in hotels, transport etc etc and these people are frankly taking the p**s. You defending them is I suspect not what people want to hear Just an opinion of someone who has fallen out of love with this sport and can see many more going the same way if we think that crap is acceptable Lets hope the organisers listen to likes of yourself. Maybe we need to shout it out BEEN FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS AND WON'T BE GOING AGAIN Still not sure they give a toss about your money anyway

Fair point. You surely rent a stadium of that size for a set number of days, arguing as some have that there is been nothing there for 2 weeks so there has been time is only relevant if you are renting it for 2 weeks. Any sensible business would only rent for the minimum time needed Having said that its clear there has been a grave error made which has seemingly almost seen the worst possible circumstances and while I understand why BSI have said nothing, they would have been made to look extremely stupid and incompetent has there been an issue and the meeting had to be cancelled whether be this morning or later in the day Anyway, seems its going to be OK, I guess 5pm will tell us that so lets hope it goes ahead and importantly is entertaining for the people paying £60/£70 each on average for tickets. For that money there can be NO excuse for poor track prep regardless of any external influence Let wait and see

So were it not for the pesky speedway forums they would have managed to cover up their incompetence and nobody would be any the wiser. Having said that, I am really pleased for the people in and on their way to Cardiff. Lets hope they have a good day and these people who some will have you believe act in the best interests of our sport can get away with fleecing everyone again. Just an opinion

Philip, I am encouraged to hear the BSI recognise that it sits with them. What is disappointing is that on their Twitter feed and on their website you would never know there is a problem. The only info is coming from you and the riders. For me that is a disgrace, its not for you to have to report what is going on. In fact at 11pm last night their Twitter feed was going on about whether everyone was excited. A bit of honesty would not go amiss, rather than treating the poor people who are paying a small fortune for their weekend being treated like fools and leaving press to tell people what is happening. The fact that you say you are going at 8am and will report back, do they not have a media outlet ?

This photo taken at 11.50 tonight shows how much work is neededhttps://twitter.com/nickipedersenDK/status/340601624894529536/photo/1

11 points from gate 4 in 20 races. Almost makes it a 3 rider race Racing at Prague feels great if you are there as its fast and you are close to the track but on TV it's dreadful

Tell them you won't pay their £9.99 and you will get it cheaper. I pay £7.99 because I told them it was too expensive. To be honest for the crap they put on £7.99 is a rip off too but hey ho

Crikey I have read some rubbish in my time but this is a bit special. Where so we start 1. The law of the UK says that in order to have a permit to enter our great country you do not behave in the way he has. I could not care if he is a speedway rider, footballer or bricklayer if he does not qualify to be here then tough. Its simple really, behave properly and you will have no problems 2. Saying he did not harm anyone is staggering. Was that because he is a great motorcyclist while on drugs or luck.? I reckon the 2nd one myself. Drink driving is totally unacceptable whether you crash into anyone or not, are you advocating only drink drivers who hurt someone are punished ? For sure he needs help but I think we all know that nothing is going to change. If the recent court case (yes he was found not guilty) which could have had caused untold damage to his future life was not enough to frighten the life out of him then I suspect nothing will. Clearly that taught him nothing and therefore I suspect a bot of drugs and running the police doesn't bother him at all. After all his UK mentor thinks is OK anyway At some point he will self destruct, sadly that is as sure as night following day

While you may be right on that part of the argument and I suspect you are. Do you really beleive that being caught taking drugs was the issue ? That is really not the crime. The crime was riding a motorcycle while under the influence of drugs and trying to outrun the Police while under the influence Why on earth ANYBODY would even consider defending his crime is completely beyond me, for goodness sake he rode a motorcycle on a public road while on drugs and tried to outrun the Police. How bad does it need to get for some to realise that that is NOT normal Now, do you want to tell us that there are others doing that as well ??? Must have been lost in translation. If he didn't say what he is being quoted as saying I suspect we should all wait for the lawsuit and the apology to be printed in the Bournemouth Echo I guess we need to watch this space.................................or maybe the journalist is right and he did indeed say what was printed.

I get a Duh! From the chap that hasnspent the last 24 hours trying to convince us that Middleditch has said nothing wrong ! I think that deserves a great big DUH ! I still wonder if all this 'Ward needs help' stuff will be taken out of his hands when he walks up to the desk at Heathrow. People who were guilty of what he done would not be allowed entry to Australia so I see no reason to accept them here Very sad but unless something radical happens he isn't going to change, why should he, those around him think he is doing just fine. Thanks goodness for Matt Ford actually being the voice of reason here

I am sure it has but why would the Bournemouth Echo do that ? If it was a red top I can understand but the Echo get great mileage out of the speedway down there and therefore it would be a surprise if they have twisted the words It will of course also be interesting to see what view the authorities have of a conviction of this sort and whether entry to the UK is permitted. I suspect if it was the other way round the Australian authorities would be reluctant to let a Brot in. And before anyone comments, it matters not whether he is a speedway rider, politician or a bricklayer, he should be treated the same. He surely must be in last chance saloon though

But this has NOTHING to do with sticking up for your team. Middleditch's comments are not defendable, its got nothing to do with which club. The fact is the Team Manager of a club who is also the Team Manager of our national team has said that in his opinion most kids are getting stoned on drugs, getting pissed and riding their bikes and trying to outrun the cops To quote the normally very pro Echo, “It is what most young people do these days isn't it? He wasn't racing or putting anyone else's life at risk on the track." Its a scandalous thing to say and why anyone would even start to consider defending it is beyond me

Whoops, the R is not even next to the S on the keyboard You get the point though

Not sure about GPs not being televised having an impact, not sure they will. No EL certainly will because the brain dead promoters will simply up the admission price to cover the £100k they lose through TV revenue, therefore making the sport more expensive than it already is People will want something in return and the point made about grotty stadiums, poos presentation et al all contribute to this

Well you can take it to the extreme if you wish but it is an option. Lets say 500 cars park each week and pay £1, I am sure that Stadia UK would accept lets say £300 a week additional rent and forgoe the car parking hassle. Just making it as a suggestion rather than the excuse for parking charges being that it goes to the stadium owners. There are ways around that. Your bar suggestion is just being stupid and is a completely different scenario Good to hear the season ticket saves ou, Shovvy always said you saved nothing but got your seat in the grandstand...............which costs the promoter nothing. There should be a benefit of a season ticket As a comparison though of saving £1 per meeting by stumping money up for months in advance, my Oxford United season ticket costs me £240, each game is £17, so I get each game for £10.50, for me that is the sort of saving you should be getting for committing money up front rather than a 6% saving, it costs more to borrow the money than 6% Just an opinion of what is good and bad value The point The Know is making is sound though, its simply too expensive for a family to go every week and getting them into a habit of going by stumping up for a season ticket would need more than a £1 saving, miss one meeting due to holiday and you have lost money on the season Exactly when each club loses its SKY money what will its response be. Will it be to go out and find new revenue, will it be to cut its rider costs to fit a budget or will it be to put the price up £2, increase the price of a programme and develop some sort of raffle or 100 club to fleece the fans further I suspect we all know the answer

But that revenue is only been given away to offset a cheaper rent. I say pay the extra rent to compensate the stadiumn owner and givem parking for free Easy for me to say I realise but given the fans something back rather than always charge them more. I am right in thinking that a Poole season ticket saves you not a single penny of normal admission prices ?

Its always disappointing to see clubs simply put up admission prices, in the case of Dudley this is a 10% increase which in todays climate is ridiculous. Rather than just bumping up prices and ensuring their loyal fans supplement their profitability would 'promoters' not be better off PROMOTING and find new revenue fot their club rather than piling any costs they chosen to increase onto their loyal fans. I realise that new revenue is not easy to bring in, and therefore the way to increase profits/reduce losses is to reduce your costs, NOT to put up prices Not having a pop at Dudley here because they are not alone for sure but this is lazy promoting. Speedway is in a strange position where is has a captive audience in that there are some loyal fans that will always go regardless of prices (within reason) but also there is a very competitive side in that its competing with other leisure activities for people's leisure expenditure. Simply sticking 2 fingers up at the loyal captive fans is the wrong way of going about covering additional costs/generateing profit in my opinion Its happened for years though, why should it change And I haven't mentioned charging for parking, that is an even bigger scandal especially at stadiums where the only realistic way of getting to them is by car (Eastbourne and Peterborough are prime examples)

Glad to read someone saying it was NOT 1st bend bunching, so many have suggested that but for me that was NOT a case of 1st bend bunching Not one to show any sympathy generally for referees but what an impossible position for Craig Ackroyd, if we were really honest in his position how many of us would have taken the option he did. Personally I think he got it wrong but I think we all have to understand why he made that decision You can call it bottling it if you wish but I think it was more a case of just getting it wrong. Rather him than me and the title should be decided with ridersd on the track and not by refereeing decisions Somebody needs to get hold of the morons that were all around Holder on the track though, what on earth were they all doing there ? they did him no favours

Probably right, my argument was all the way through that had he qualified then he would have deserved it. Others on here seem to not agree with that view A Pardubice rider getting a Prague wildcard..........not a chance

Had a text from him yesterday. Not sure he is too worried about not qualifying but seems to like the idea that as 1st reserve the chances are he will get to do a few rounds

Its just another example of why this is not a true World Championship but a circus designed to make money for BSI/IMG or whatever they are called these days. I know the Speedway Press will defend them but rules are in place and they are OK to ignore them..............when it suits. Sadly speedway appears to be of secondary importance these days. Sill as long as the Press can travel round the world on jollies I am suire it will be fine

Good to see Ales Dryml crowned European Champion today after the disappointment of missing out last night Reportsa in Czecho suggest that if another rider pulls out of the GP series then it will be Ales that steps in and not No 10, 11 etc in the current series. Not sure if this is the case or not but am sure someone willl know Edit. In fact what they are reporting is that rule 077.8.5 says Should a rider or riders Who Have Qualified Directly, Either by being in the top 8 of the Final Overall Grand Prix Classification or in the top 3 of the FIM Grand Prix Qualification system, Withdraw prior to the start of the Grand Prix season, the first rider or riders available on the official Grand Prix Qualified Substitute sheet Shall replace him or Them. Zdroj: http://www.speedwayfakta.cz/mezinarodni/grand-prix/ales-dryml-prece-jen-v-grand-prix-2013/#ixzz27z0HWshS Does this open up a hornets nest as it was reported earlier that Andreas Jonson would get Crump's place, this seems to contradict that