HenryW

Don't worry, Havvy was in the pits with the team at Kings Lynn, but obviously couldn't attend the Gorzow meeting due to Redcar commitments. I am sure Havvy will take a much more active role in Team GB when he gives up his racing career.

It would be nice to have a tournament like that, but there would be far too many completely one sided matches with the current standard of Nations. If you look at the top 8 from this year, can you really see anyone wanting to go and watch Denmark, Poland, Sweden or Australia racing against Germany or the Czech Republic? A round robin of the top 4 with the top 2 going head to head for the title might just about work, but even that might provide some one sided matches.

Actually, in 94 they binned the pairs and made the team cup run on the pairs format, but with a third rider available as a reserve. They did try running the team cup with pairings in each heat briefly. I think it might have been after they ditched the "pairs" format, so that would have started in 99. If I remember right, it wasn't really popular and they quickly went back to the format where each team has 1 rider in every race. I actually think the current format works really well. The SWC is always one of the highlights of the season for me, so I am happy if they stick with what they have just now.

I'm guessing that you don't watch much Polish speedway then. PePe is 4th in the Polish league averages with a 9.42 ave. The only non Pole above him is Crump. If that's struggling in the league then I think a lot of riders would soooo love to struggle at league level. LMAO...You think the Russian Federation put in big effort? Where were you on Monday when Russia were tracking 4 riders while Emil sat it out cos the Federation wouldn't pay him! Ward certainly did his SGP ambitions no favours with that dire showing, but Watt was clearly worse than him...Having said that, the weakest link in the Aussie team is really Boyce. If he had sucked up his pride and got down on his knees and begged Sully to race, Australia would almost certainly be World Champions now. THJ looks like a real fighter on every track I have seen him race on (OK, maybe with the exception of Armadale!) I am still surprised that no EL team has moved for him. With the right support he would be a complete steal on his current average.

Interestingly, at least two of the bright young Russians (Alexandr Loktaev and Kiril Tsukanov) currently race as Ukrainians, and who can blame them with the antics that went on this week! Despite the talent that is potentially coming through, the Russians actually fielded the oldest team tonight! Although, in fairness, if Artem had been available their average age would have been below the Aussies and just marginally above the Swedes. Whilst mentioning him, was anyone else frustrated that the commentary team regularly stated that the Russians were at full strength whilst also mentioning the absence of Nicholls and Richardson? Russia were missing one of their 2 SGP riders, the man who top scored for them at Gorzow in the SWC last season...If the Brits had been missing someone with that record we would surely have known all about it!

We shall wait and see if that is the case. The Russian media seem to be reporting that Emil, Grigory, Artem, Roman and Renat is still a possibility for Thursday after the intervention of the boss-man of the Russian Federation, Alexander Lunkin.

That depends...They maybe looked at the heats and decided that Gaffer could get something more out of his own race with double points than using the double points on him in 25 or on another rider. Having said that, given that it was some random Russian speedway fan from Milton Keynes acting as TM, cos the real TM didn't get a visa either, it was probably just a mistake

Yes, I believe that Roman is married to a Pole and holds a Polish passport.

It seems that the Russian authorities have begun an investigation into this whole farce. What is clear, though, is that a 5 man team would have appeared if this event was anywhere other than the UK. They have confirmed that the normal process of expedited visa approval (5 to 15 days) for sports teams was refused them by the British Authorities. It seems that the period to go through the full approval process was suggested as being up to 3 months and would require the submission of the original passports of those seeking visas (again something not normally required). If this IS the case then it's an absolute disgrace. There is no way that a football team would be treated in this fashion. Surely the FIM have to take some action and if they can't get the UK authorities to ease their restrictions on speedway riders, then Britain should not be receiving any further FIM events.

Currently their team is: 1. Roman Povazhny 2. Sergei Darkin 3. 4. Renat Gafurov 5. Ilya Bondarenko If they don't add a 5th man then the first race for number 3 will be a three rider race then after that they will be able to use tacticals to fill any gaps, as we can be pretty sure they will be 6+ down

I can accept that Batch was asked to end the race behind Max. I refuse to accept that he deliberately made the move he did. He got himself in a complete mess and was lucky to get out of it without dropping the bike or leaving the track. What constitutes performing to the best though? For the team, it was clear that the best that Batch could do was end third...He had Max Dilger, a sub 3 point Premier League rider up against him...He surely can only be congratulated for making the effort to end the race behind Max...especially in the fashion that he did It's just a shame for Australia that Holder isn't good enough As an aside, do you REALLY think that AJ couldn't have held off Bjarne? No doubt in my mind that AJ knew what he was doing there...Just a shame that the Swedish team manager didn't know what he was doing and left Lindgren in for the double points race. Arthur is a fantastic talent on a motorbike...I have seen him racing in the RBR series and also on a speedway track...A real shame that he couldn't be convinced to stick with the sliding. However, I think you missed someone in your run down of natural talents on a road racing bike BFD....*cough* The Doctor *cough*

As the SWC tournament ends next Saturday, would this not make Emil ineligible to race for Bydgoszcz in their league match next Sunday? I wonder what they make of the situation? And Emil is in Coventry is he? Are you sure he isn't at home in Saint Petersburg? Not sure 20 quid would get him very near Kings Lynn from there

I'd love to do the final...Tried soooo hard a couple of years ago when the mighty Falubaz won, but the weather did us over...So much effort put into getting tickets, transport and hotels for Torun and then ZG only to be thwarted at every turn by the weather. I was glad I didn't try last year...No need to see Leszno win so easily I'll see how the play-offs go and then look into trying to do something this year if Falubaz are looking good again

Both of them raced in a Czech League match for Pardubice yesterday, so it looks OK for them.

Interesting that Roman Povazhny is still listed in the team. Are Balakovo paying for him to attend the match when they wont pay for Emil, is he paying for himself out of some sense of National pride or will the Russians actually front up with just 3 riders?

That's unfortunate and pretty poor planning from the FIM. Germany would be far more competitive with Smoli involved in the SWC.

I see that Poland have now announced their team for Kings Lynn. Tomasz Gollob Jaroslaw Hampel Janusz Kolodziej Piotr Protasiewicz Krzysztof Kasprzak Interesting to see that Kasprzak has received a place. I really expected Pawlicki to get the nod ahead of him. Germany have also declared their 5 for the match in Vojens. Kevin Woelbert Max Dilger Tobias Busch Matias Schultz Tobias Kroner The obvious question around that squad is why Martin Smolinski isn't taking part.

As with Poland, Russia have only named their 10 man squad so far. Their 10 men to choose from are: Darkin, Gafurov, Gizatullin, Kharchenko, Kudryashov, Laguta x2, Povazhny, Sayfutdinov and Tarasenko. Hopefully the visa applications are already in or it could be a fairly weak Russian team. Darkin, Gafurov, Povazhny and Sayfutdinov are all sorted for entry to the UK already...I wonder if they would be allowed to add Bondarenko as a late replacement

The UK is not part of the Schengen agreement. For the rest of the EU they have free travel once they have their visa for one Country (presumably Latvia or Poland). To come to the UK they need a different visa.

How did Dino Kovacic look today? I don't think he has actually raced in Poland much before...maybe only 1 or 2 matches, so it seems a great result for him considering some of the riders who finished below him.

What is amazing is that you believe he had any chance at all if he had followed your suggestion. The only way he would have won by following your suggestion is if Holder and Hancock ran into each other or both their bikes failed.

So after today's 2nd semi final, the 14 regular riders for the World U21 series are known. Poland are heavily represented, but Sweden are the only other Nation with more than one representative. Unsurprisingly, after Josh Auty's first semi final injury, Britain have none. Australia Darcy Ward Croatia Dino Kovacic Denmark Michael Jepsen Jensen Poland Patryk Dudek Oskar Fajfer Maciej Janowski Przemyslaw Pawlicki Piotr Pawlicki Bartosz Zmarzlik Slovakia Martin Vaculik Sweden Dennis Andersson Simon Gustafsson Russia Vadim Tarasenko Ukraine Aleksandr Loktaev

That of course makes the assumption that he was to blame for the late paperwork, IF the paperwork was late in being provided. One would imagine he would require to have some documentation from IMG to prove he was competing in the event. It may well have been them that were slow to provide him with this. Just offering an alternative viewpoint

Harsh on Sky that. The graphic that showed Artem on 30 was the official SGP one rather than a Sky one. Edit - I see you updated your post to recognise this fact while I was slowly typing on the phone

Well, the Laguta's were born in Bolshoy Kamen, which is a closed City due to being a particularly sensitive naval base...so you never know