TheReturn

I don't care how close it helps the scores stay, the joker is a pathetic ruling that penalises the team that is winning. Show me any other sport where a successful team is constantly penalised (i.e. averages, league title team usually needs to break it up. Joker last night, Denmark did not get to use it). Joke rule for a joke sport. Lets get back to basics... four riders racing for points (not riding to drop points to bring in the joker).

Read a quote from Middlo somewhere whuch says the SWC is not the place to blood young riders, or words along those lines.

You are missing the point. A great manager is a master motivator. In his selection and dropping tactics alone, Middlo came up short and failed. Every time the TV panned to the Team GB team in the pits at Kings Lynn and last night, I did not see much motivational talking going on. Rosco is not my cup of tea, but he does seem to do more with the motivational side of mnagement that Middlo. Look at Poole, they win by buying the best riders, and from what I can tell, the promotor chooses the riders, more than Middlo. Yes we are short of talent, and anothe rmanager may not have had the same result, but it is fair to say that the Team Management made some obvious mistakes this week.

Well and truly stuffed? We got beat. narrowly, not stuffed.

But he could have picked a better team at KIngs Lynn, by not selecting the out of form Kennett. We could all see it, and we are nothing more than 'idiot BSF fans', so him being a speedway man should have known it, and picked another rider. I am not saying another selection would have helped us qualify, but it proved whoever picked the team for KIngs Lynn failed. The handling of Cook seems inept too.

And promoted constantly by Pearson.

The joker rule is pathetic, speedway should be about winning races, not allow a team to benefit by deliberately dropping points. Pearson is not doing much to hide his love of the US team tonight. God help us if they do win.

Stop moaning, it adds to the atmosphere.

Any success tonight and at the weekend would be in spite of Middleditch, not because of Middleditch. Awful selections on Monday, and man motivation skills 'seemed' to be lacking. Although I accept I can't see eveyrthing that goes on, hence why I put 'seemed'.

Harsh on Cook, and I feel Team GB management have made huge mistakes, but right now lets all get behind Barker and Bridger and support them.

Do you not think the selection of the latter is why the former is occuring.

What does being a nice guy have to do with anything?

Based off his rider selection and rider motivation skills over the last couple of years, if he could not obtain the right license then I am afraid trhe BSPA should look for other options.

Rather unfair and unnecessary thing to say. Can only blame Middlo for picking an out of form rider. Middlo is at fault tonight, not Eddie.

Rubbish, he is the best we have had for some time. He seems fairly knowledgeable for what I assume is a 'non-speedway fan'.

If I was standing next to Sophie I would be slurring my words too.. Mmmmm

Did Middlo really just say there are 3 or 4 teams in with a chance tonight?

Indeed they can. But not sure those fans that cheer for other nations have a right to be critical of their own national team when they inevitably fail. It's like 'We want you to do better and improve, but we won't be cheering you on until you do, we will cheer the opposition on'.

Nothing wrong with cheering for your favourite riders, but surely you should primarily supporting your nation? I remember the last ever World Final (94 in Vojens for those that forgot) and I had gone across with some friends from Long Eaton, partly because Jan Staechmann had made the final. I of course gave Jan a big cheer when he came out, but at the same time I was waving the Union Jack flag with pride in the vague hope that it might inspire Loram or Louis onto success that day. Strange day, sitting next to us on that grassy bank at Vojens was Andy Smith, then as the meeting went on, armed police came onto the track because of some issue on the far side where the Polish fans were.

Always been the same. You would go to Coventry in the 80s for the old Overseas Finals and the amount of Midlands based fans waving the stars and stripes was embarrassing.

I would hate it either way, be it for Team GB or as in this case, Team Czech. It's like seeding Brazil straight to the final of the World Cup, with all other nations battling it out for that final space. If they have to be seeded then it should be to the race-off. I like the earlier suggestion of three qualifiers, with the second placed teams going to the play off with the seeded hosts.

On a busy Summers Day like today I was out on my bike, I never planned to watch live, but came back and sat down on the sofa with my recovery drinks with the recording and watched as if it was live.

I still don't understand the rule change of last season to put the SWC hosts direct into the final. Why was it changed? I just feel that hosts in the final have not earned the right, surely if you are going to see the hosts it should be to the semi-final, not direct to the final and then have the top two from he semi proceed to the final.

I was talking to a Polish friend who happened to be in Katowice last week and I mentioned speedway, and she looked it up and sent me this link she found. This video slightly different to other speedway videos, as it shows the day out, the fun, the excitement of a day out at Speedway for a group of Polish fans. Huge crowd too! Fond memories of my away days.

The whole lot other than Kelvin need changing. Chris Louis as long been a Poole suck up when doing interviews, but he bottled it tonight by not asking Ward if he stayed down on purpose. A professional journalist would have asked the question, look at the Tour journalists at Cav yesterday for an example. You then have Pearson again plugging the Speedway Star, which must be against some Ofcom broadcasting rules. For the 1000th time this season he also bangs on about 'how often do you see a different result in a replay'. With the exception of Kelvin and Sophie, the Sky Sports team are repetitive, mundane, boring and poor.