TwoMinuteWarning

Tobias Busch for Thomas Stange, I think. Has to be between Poland and Sweden, dosen't it? Trouble is, Lindback is sooooooo inconsistent and (allegedly) troubled with injuries this season, so I'll go with Poland since they are on home dirt (well, since it's not a BSI event, Olsen won't be there to take all the dirt away!) As regards neutral venues, I don't think this type of meeting would get much of crowd in the UK (though I would certainly be there), apart from all the British promoters waving contracts at the best young riders, of course. Hopefully there will be updates on the Polish sites?

I have always thought that a points limit, based on actual averages, is by far the best way to control the strengths of teams, and it also helps to control the costs of running the sport. One of the UK's best contributions to speedway. Then there is no need to limit GP riders specifically.

Interesting to see that Leigh Adams and Nicki Pedersen rode for Togliatti in this competition, despite never having ridden for them before. BUT today, they again rode for Togliatti in a top of the table Russian League match against their great rivals Oktyabrsky. Togliatti won and went two points clear at the top of the league. Adams scored 13+1 (5 rides), beaten only by Chrzanowski. Nicki P scored 11 (5) including an ef. Details at http://www.sportowefakty.pl/?dysc_id=4&k1_...&news_id=146629

Yes, I'd urge any British promoter to watch this match to see Jonasson - I hope we see him in the UK next season. The last heat between Crump and Sully is wonderful - 2 riders giving everything, very close racing, they obviously trust each other to give them room! Looking forward to tonight's match, tarabanko!

The whole match, Piraterna - VMS Elit, free to watch at http://tv4.se/sport/ scroll down a little to speedway, click on "TV Piraterna-VMS Elit" Well worth a look!

It seems that the whole season has been a nightmare for Joonas! But when he has been fit, he has looked real good. If he can stay clear of injuries, I reckon he will have a great year in 2007. GP in 2008? By the way - your reports from Finland are much appreciated, f-s-p!

Correction - now with number of rides: Outrup Krzysztof Buckowski 6 (5 rides) Nicolai Klindt 14+2 (7) Marcin Jedrejewski 4 (5) Piotr Paluch 10 (6) Kenni Arendt 5 (5) Dannie Søderholm 5+2 (4) Slangerup Kenneth Bjerre 13+1 (6) Kenneth Hansen 4+1 (5) Chris Harris 15+2 (6) Leon Madsen 6 (5) Henrik Vedel 6+2 (5) Klaus Jakobsen 8 (5)

From http://www.outrup-speedway.dk/NewsView.aspx?id=60 Outrup Krzysztof Buckowski 6 Nicolai Klindt 14+2 Marcin Jedrejewski 4 Piotr Paluch 10 Kenni Arendt 5 Dannie Søderholm 5+2 Slangerup Kenneth Bjerre 13+1 Kenneth Hansen 4+1 Chris Harris 15+2 Leon Madsen 6 Henrik Vedel 6+2 Klaus Jakobsen 8

Try telling cricket fans that, MattK! The Ashes and Test series are as big as - and for many people bigger than - the Cricket World Cup. It should - and used to be - the same in speedway. I like the speedway World Cup (even if we have problems finding a track that actually wants to stage it), but for me nothing can beat two national 8-man teams in a full 18 heat Test.

One of the problems at present is the relative weakness of the British team. It wasn't that easy to find a 5-man team for the World Cup, let alone a 7-man team for a Test match. Plus, with riders like Kennett and Bridger withdrawing from the U-21 World Cup team this year, it seems that young riders don't have the pride in riding for their country anymore. That said, I would love to see a 3-match GB v Australia series next season - if it was properly marketed, and with the support of Sky TV, it could be a big success. And if EL fans complain that they see those riders week in and week out, then stage one or two of the matches on PL tracks, such as Sheffield or King's Lynn, where I am sure that GP stars such as Crump, Adams, and Nicholls would draw some good crowds. (And thanks to arnieg for plugging my website!)

Only speedway in Poland on Sept 3 appears to be the rescheduled Polish Pairs Championship at Bydgoszcz

Errr ... importing Poles? Have you been to London lately???

For Extraleague matches, anywhere from 4,000 to 18,000 - see Polish results in Speedway Star, or the match reports on any of the Polish websites.

No, Greg: Top Level - Elitserien (Sweden), Elite (GB), Extraleague (Poland) 2nd Level - Allsvenskan(Sweden), Premier League (GB), Div.1 (Poland) 3rd Level - Div.1 (Sweden), Conference League (GB), Div.2 (Poland)

On World Cup night, the crowd in the back straight stand was limited to 500 by stewards. Mind you, there was no lighting in there, and it was pretty well pitch black by the end of the meeting. Must have broken all sorts of heath and safety rules, I reckon! Total crowd for the Race-Off was given in the local Evening Post as 2,300. Crowd for the Final was "4,000 plus" according to Speedway Star.

Lewis Bridger made his Swedish League debut in an Allsvenskan match at Gothenburg last night: KAPARNA 60 1. Bohumil Brhel 2 2 3 1 3 = 11+2 (5) 2. Tomasz Gapinski 3 3 3 3 3 =15 (5) 3. Shane Parker 3 3 2 2 1 =11+1 (5) 4. Michael Berntsson S S S 0 =0 (4) 5. Rafal Dobrucki 2 3 3 3 2 =13+1 (5) 6. David Kujawa 3 S - 2 =5 (3) 7. Tomas Karlsson 2 0 2 0 1 =5+3 (5) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GETINGARNA 35 1. Emil Lindqvist 1 1 0 0 =2+1 (4) 2. Kevin Doolan 0 2 1 - 0 =3 (4) 3. Kenny Olsson 1 S 2 2 2 =7+1 (5) 4. Lewis Bridger 2 2 1 1 1 S =7+1 (6) ********** 5. Andreas Bergström 3 3 2 1 0 S =9+1 (6) 6. Viktor Bergström 0 1 - 3 =4+1 (3) 7. Kalle Lindgren 1 1 1 0 = 3 (4) From http://www.speedway.nu/2006/Report.asp?alls.CA Well done, Lewis.

Hmm! Klindt AND Gollob at the TRick meeting? Very tempting!!!

Hey, not bad on Nicki's home track! I DO hope we get to see Klindt in the UK soon!

Question - was this the first-ever appearance by a British rider in a Russian League match?

Thanks iris123 and Anders

Former World Champion Gary Havelock made his Russian League debut today. He top-scored for reigning champions Togliatti, but couldn't stop them going down to defeat at Oktyabrsky. TOGLIATTI 42 Gary Havelock 15 (6 rides) Bohumil Brhel 10+1 (5) Daniel Ivanov 6 (5) Evgeny Gomozov 4 (4) Evgeny Sidorin 3 (3) Ilya Bondarenko 2+1 (3) Roman Ivanov 2 (2) Vasily Shibankov 0 (2) OKTYABRSKY 48 Tomasz Rempala 13+1 (5) Denis Gizatullin 11+1 (5) Maksin Kalimullin 7+1 (4) Marat Gatiatov 5+1 (4) Ruslan Gatiatov 4+1 (3) Talgat Galeev 3+1 (4) Sergei Filushin 3 (1) Andrei Karpov 2+1 (4)

It appears that the Swedish Elitserien Indianerena v Luxo Stars match at Kumla last night was abandoned after just 5 heats with the score 17-13. But the latest league table at http://www.speedway.nu/ appears to have included this match as a result. Can a match really be stopped after 5 races and called a result? Did the crowd get their money back???

What's the crowd capacity at Reading these days?

Grow up. The team has been Great Britain since 2001. You should be supporting the decision to call it GB.

Since we have no chance of winning, let's just give the young riders a try. After all, the BSPA didn't bother putting out our strongest team in the U-21 World Cup, so I don't suppose they will for this one either. Perm any 5 from these: Josh Auty Steve Boxall Lewis Bridger Daniel King William Lawson Derek Sneddon Ben Wilson James Wright They might not win, but they'd try their hearts out.