HenryW

Yeah. Rico and I are gonna head up there to see the mighty Bydgoszcz in action

lol. Good point, although I obviously wouldn't be cheering if he passes PePe

I'll save that for Zielona Gora on Sunday

Or alternatively no days to go. Sitting in the sun with a beer in Poznan square now

I've heard some commentary from him (or someone very much like him) in the past from Daugavpils...He seems to have modelled his commentary style on the bloke that does Somerset videos Edit - Loved the commentator's effort at the start of heat 6...I couldn't hope to type it the way he screams it, so a direct link to that point in the video is probably required. . * Also wondering if he was given a script for the race, as he seemed quite shouty certain that Lebedev was gonna get to the front as soon as the tapes went up there * Put the link in a little before the start of the race to catch the lovely way he says Lewis Bridger's name as well

I noticed that great piece of news, but also saw the bad news that Jozsef Tabaka was taken to hospital with a shoulder injury during their match today

Not sure what you are suggesting here....IF I was buying a programme at a GP, I'd feel kinda insulted to be handed an A4 sheet of paper that had been run off on a printer the night before. I'd be much happier to just have a nice glossy programme with a grid showing the numbers down the left and a gap to write in who has been selected at that number, then the heats across the top and colored boxes to show who is in each heat....60 seconds max to write in the rider names in the grid and all is sorted... As I implied, I dunno if that IS how it's done at GPs. I don't think I have bought a programme at a GP in the last decade despite doing several each year...

Sorry, I missed this reply until now. My Russian language "teacher" didn't suggest that "Лагутa" should be pronounced "Waguta". However, her suggested pronunciation of the letter "Л" wasn't exactly the same as the British "L", but it also wasn't the same as our "W". It was something that isn't quite in an "English language" pronunciation. I considered it to be closer to "L" than "W", and when I hear "Лагутa" on video from a Russian commentator I hear it more as a British "L" than a "W"... Maybe my complaint about the Poles using Ł for Л is more about my lack of understanding of how Ł should be pronounced in Polish....although, having said that, what I hear for Лагутa on Polish commentary isn't what I expect to hear having heard it on Russian commentary...But, maybe Polish TV just have commentators that pronounce foreign names as badly as the Sky commentators do

Totally agree. If he had wanted to drop down to the PL last time he raced here, he would have had to come in on an 11+ average, but would now already be benefiting from the lenient conversion rate that has been brought in this season. His form on the Continent hasn't changed dramatically during the period he has been absent from the UK, so a reduction to 7 just seems ridiculous. It kinda makes a points limit worthless if you are just going to make up random averages for guys that already have genuine ones.

No great shock there, I don't think. There was always going to be another protest by the Poles before the SGP season got under way....As long as there is some sunshine and beer, I'll make do whatever happens. Actually, I don't suppose it really needs the sunshine either

Still no idea why the Poles do that, but it's not the way it's pronounced in his native language. I reckon the Poles are just plain wrong Should also add that I agree with other comments that Grigory is a great rider. A shame that his machinery is letting him down so far this season, but I'm sure he'll get it sorted soon. I'm sure there will be a few big names in the Extraliga get a shock off him this season before it's done.

He's 31 now. He looked like going to the top at the start of his career but some bad injuries caused him to miss a couple of seasons and stalled his progress. The last few years he has been hovering around a 7 point average in the Polish League, I think.

Nice ride by Emil. I like getting to watch a race without the distraction of commentators. I wish there was an option to switch the commentary off and just hear the bikes and crowd on Sky TV.

I will add my agreement to those already here. I suspect (and hope) it is nothing but idle gossip. I do think Janusz lost a bit of weight before last season, when he was returning to the Extraliga, but it was just a bit, and nothing different from what Nicki did a few years ago when he got serious about training and eating right. Of course, he then had another sudden weight loss just before the first GP of the year when he shaved his head As for the Moto-X gear...Agree again. It just doesn't look right. I always think it looks ugly on a speedway rider when they have a jersey blowing around.

Personally, I can do without seeing Glasgow racing Edinburgh 5 or 6 times a season, but I don't think I'd ever get bored of seeing the very best the sport has to offer going head to head.

You might be right, but I am not entirely convinced that we can claim THAT big a role in his development. As Mr Bagpuss rightly said earlier in this thread, it's about what is done before these guys hit the age of 15. If Tai jetted into Scunthorpe and sat on a 500cc bike without what he had been doing before then, he wouldn't have been anything like as good as he was, and more importantly if he had jetted in when he was 10 he would probably be racing BSB or MotoX now... The current 3rd tier only has a "claim" on the development of a bunch of riders because they can race at age 15 at that level. Most of the guys mentioned could easily have stepped into the PL at 15, but they had to wait until they were 16 (why DO they have to wait until they are 16 to race PL, BTW?) Having said that, I don't mean to denounce the value of the 3rd tier. Any chance for young riders to get track time is good, but I think it would be much better to focus on U15 development and work on providing training track time and competitive action for those that are currently too young to get any. Just looking locally to me (Scotland) it's clear that despite the fact we haven't provided any riders at the top level in recent years, we had a lot more riders coming into the PL back in the days that we had good training facilities available to the kids up here (Linlithgow), but even that wasn't great. A competitive setup for kids, like so many of the other top speedway nations have, would surely provide much better riders. 15 is too late to catch the kids. You need to get them involved and give them opportunities to race competitively when they are still under 10.

Indeed. It was a strangely titled competition back then as (apart from the first 2 years) the competitors weren't restricted to being European. Two Americans and one Aussie became "European Champions" during the 11 years that it was held under that title. The winners from those years should really be credited with a World Title.

A few races have been uploaded on youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/user/7400Herning#p/u/1/D8NGVOb9qFk Video from a phone, so don't expect high production quality Edit - A few more here as well http://www.youtube.com/user/andborg1

Have you decided to stay at home tomorrow?

I had planned to head over to this one, but the Edinburgh - Billund flights were taken off the schedule during the Winter months, so I scrapped the idea. I'm starting to feel glad that I did with these late drop outs! EDIT - And looking at the updates from the match so far, it doesn't look like they have a done a good job with the track tonight. I hope there are still some willing to race tomorrow for you iris!!

I'm sorry, did MOST riders race in the World Final under the old format. I'm pretty sure that only 16 got to take part then, just the same as now. There are still qualifying rounds which EVERY rider has the opportunity to take part in. As for the original topic... Assuming his arm is back to full strength, Jason on 5 looks to have some value. Gollob certainly doesn't on his current prices. I'm also interested in Nicki at 12...He might have lost it completely, or he might just need the right people back around him and he seems to have got that for this year. Definitely too soon to be writing him off. Hampel on 8 also does't sound like the worst bet in the World, but probably not the greatest value. Having said that, I don't think 2010 was a fluke and would expect him to continue to improve. I'm just not sure that he is hard enough if it came down to a fight for the title with Crump, Gollob or Pedersen. KB being offered at 25 could also be worth considering. He is ever improving and has the attributes to make it to the very top, he just needs to find a bit more consistency when things are going against him in a GP.

It's a bit of a pain for the lack of hotel rooms, though. You generally get gouged by the local hotels at GP weekend. A GP in London would certainly be better for hotels, and actually probably better for public transport as well! However, the massive thing that Cardiff has in it's favour is that big roof over the track

I presume that by "most", he actually means "none", because no other SGP promoter is asked to pay travelling expenses for the riders. The travelling expenses are "included" in the prize money for the riders at current SGP events. I doubt that could ever be the case for an Australian GP so someone other than the riders would have to pay for the travelling. Having said that, the money has to come from somewhere. Either the European promoters have to front up the cash for an Aussie GP, or the Aussie promoters do. Ultimately, there is nothing to be gained by Euro promoters paying for a round at the other side of the World unless they believe that they are going to get a financial return from it. The fact that there are no Aussie promoters willing to front that cash suggests that no-one over there believes that there is a good guaranteed return on the investment, so it's not surprising that the Euro based promoters aren't rushing to get in on the action. I am sure that eventually SGP will return to the Southern hemisphere, it just waits to be seen when and who will be the one with the guts to actually stump up the cash before the event...It could be IMG themselves or it could be a local promoter. If it's IMG and they make a success of it, look forward to howls of protest from Aussie speedway about how they are just taking money out of the sport in Australia and giving nothing back, a bit like some do over here when they run their GPs at Cardiff and get great crowds. Anyone could have done that before they came along, but instead the British promoters were running the SGP in front of 8 or 10 thousand at Coventry, Bradford, etc.

Yep, as I said in my previous post, there are a good number of Latvians who have Russian ancestry, and some of them might prefer to describe themselves as Russian rather than Latvian. On the other hand, I bet there are more Russians that wish they could describe themselves as Latvian and have free and easy travel and work in the EU An ex of mine called herself Russian despite not being born in Russia or ever having lived in Russia. Her Father was born there and apparently she preferred to be "Russian"

Are we going further off topic now? It's a topic that I like, but just wanted to check Thanks to their shared history of being part of the Soviet Union, there are a large number of Latvian citizens who have Russian ancestry, especially around the Southern areas of the Country. However, a large part of the Nation has some pretty bad feelings for Russia for the way they scooped them into the Soviet Union. Most of the women are unlikely to be able to class themselves as true Russians, but how many I wouldn't be able to say. I am happy to carry out a further investigation of Latvian women if you want to sponsor it and get me over there to meet more of them The Czech Republic is very different as despite being Communist for the latter part of the 20th Century, it was never part of the Soviet Union, so the Russians didn't really move there. A tiny portion of their population has recent Russian ancestry, and the Czechs probably dislike the Russians even more than the Latvians. Essentially, the women from Central and Eastern Europe are generally pretty hot. They don't have to be Russian to be hot