HenryW

We know Nicki doesn't like what is in the contract, and I can understand why he doesn't like it, but that doesn't necessarily make it a restriction on trade. He is still free to compete in any league in the World that he wants to, other than a Polish one. The Polish league isn't forcing him to skip those other leagues or telling teams there that they need to pay them for his services. They are just saying that if he wants the money they are offering, he can't race in so many leagues and risk injury so many times. Maybe Nicki will choose not to sign an Ekstraliga contract for 2021. We shall see.

And as others have pointed out, the permanent riders in the SGP aren't necessarily the best 15 in the Polish league. When talking about the standard of a rider in a Polish league team, it seems more reasonable to me to consider what they actually do in the Polish league rather than individual competitions. Averages say that Laguta did much better in the Polish League than the two highlighted. I take your point about his age, but there have been a few that have kept their stadard up beyond that age in recent years. Funnily enough, Mikkel Michelsen also finished with a higher average than Doyle and Lindgren last year...So maybe Lublin have better league riders than you give them credit for.

They have a rider who finished 8th in the averages...in an 8 team league. And this makes him a better than average third heat leader? There must be a fair few teams missing a number 1 and/or number 2 if everyone below him is at 3rd heat leader level.

Not just Kasprzak but Pawlicki as well. Both of them were way down on what they are capable of this year. It's possible Grudziadz could be much better than expected if they both found their form again. I agree with R+R, though. I think ZG will be joining the battle for the basement, and I say that as a Falubaz fan. The top 5 isn't looking like it will be spectacular, and they don't really have anything too threatening in the U21 places so far...

I thought Kildemand was expected to be joining Gniezno. Has there been a suggestion this isn't happening after all?

Torun are looking to get Mark Karion to join fellow young Russian Pawel Laguta in their squad.

He has now been confirmed in Gdansk.

What is the reliability of these testing kits? If they are 100% accurate then it's a great idea and all is good, but I suspect that wouldn't actually be the case... What level of false positives would be acceptable at a meeting where a rider or multiple riders get prevented from racing due to the failure of the testing kits rather than anything they had done wrong?

I'm pretty sure that I am the reincarnation of someone who went to the very first speedway meeting ever held....regardless of where you define that to have been. Is the thread over?

It seems a little harsh to say that he was "woeful" this year. He didn't really get a proper run this year in Poland...What did he do? 10 races across the season or something like that? He was in a team that was set up with a good number 8 and often got replaced in every race...In a different team he might have had a better season. I feel kinda sad to see him retire. As you said, he was a bright hope at one point and hasn't delivered on the expectations, but more that that, it's esentially another Country lost to the sport. Croatia basically have no-one racing now.

Indoor like the ones they did in the 80s on concrete? SoN on a tiny concrete oval....That's the sort of thing that Castagna would probably sign up to

It's just another failing of a horrible competition. To me, pairs meetings are rubbish for fans. Even if everything runs properly, as a fan of 1 Nation I am spending more time NOT watching MY team than watching them. That's rubbish. The SWC had my team involved in every race. Can we just admit that this was a flawed attempt to stop the perceived domination of one Nation, which has led to the domination of another Nation, and go back to the far better competition that we had before?

WHY are you still asking about this? Elite sports people and their support team do NOT have to self isolate in the UK.

Well done Russia.

If they don't get to heat 21 anything done after heat 14 will be ignored in the final standings, I believe.

It's fun to look back at these old videos and compare them with modern times....Lee would have been warned for the ridiculous jump start in the first race of his that they showed and then he would have been excluded with his jump in the second race of his they showed. If he had even still been in the semi final after that exclusion, he definitely would have been gone for tape charging there... Also, much as I love the old Dave Lanning commetary..."It's a very even break" he says, and then tells us Betzl has been left....How is that even when one of the two title contenders is waaay behind the other But, the main thing that I wondered about during that video, as it's something that I have often contemplated when watching these old videos...What were those people typing about behind Dickie Davies?

I'm fairly sure that Orwat is already 21.

I thought Lambert was being rumoured to be heading to Torun rather than Gorzow. If all your rumoured teams come off, there's not much left for Zielona Gora. They could be in some trouble.

That would presumably see one of the Holders become available. Unless I have misunderstood things, they can't fit all 3 Aussies in with the rules for next year.

Even with 50% allowed it seemed a strange choice.

Didn't the FIM do away with dead heats in recent years? Edit - Apparently not. The SGP rules still mention them.

All the excitement of being in Torun and planning my quarantine on return made me forget

As surprising as it may seem, he's a mere 43 years old

It's hard to know what would have happened if someone didn't exist... Don't get me wrong, TRICK WAS an absolute legend of the sport, but you seem to be forgetting another great that was there at the same time as Jason. Why didn't Jason win the World title in 2003? He finished 17 points ahead of Tony that year. Why didn't Jason win the World title in 2007? Tony had retired! Why didn't Jason win the World title in 2008? Tony was still retired! 6 times champ was there for Jason if there hadn't been someone better than him...Nicki Pedersen. Don't get me wrong...Absolute respect for Jason. Great rider. Great Champion...But he could have had that 6 world titles alongside Tony, but there was a Dane who was better in those years.

I'm wondering whether I am the only person that thinks that Lee wasted his own talent and all the excuses and claims of victimisation are just that....excuses. What would the British speedway authorities have to gain from victimising a British World champ? For me, the defining memory of him wasn't a world title win in 1980, it was his dummy spitting effort at Ipswich in the 1984 test match at Ipswich. The man couldn't accept the change to starting procedures and so spat the dummy and huffed off, got talked into coming back but did nothing other than pootle around acting like a victim...Pathetic. An absolute embarassment to his Nation that day and, if I remember rightly, on national live (or close to live) TV as well... Personally, I just have him down as another one of the riders that disappeared from the top level when drug testing came in properly around that time...