HenryW

No great shock, but they are currently predicting rain for Saturday evening in Vojens...I wonder if they just check the speedway schedules to determine the forecast for that area

Those figures make pretty grim reading for Polish speedway. Excluding Krakow, who didn't race last year, the only club to see a rise in attendance over the same period in 2009 is Daugavpils. Admittedly it's been a bad year for Polish speedway, with the fixture list being thrown into confusion by the tragic plane crash early in the season and some dreadful weather, leading to a lot of re-arranged fixtures. However, some of the drops in attendance are quite frightening and will surely have had a massive impact on the accounts of those clubs. For example, Rybnik are down by 52%, Poznan by 50%, Bydgoszcz 45%, Torun 43%, Gdansk 43%. Even league leaders Leszno are down by 15%. In the Extraliga, Wroclaw have stayed the most consistent, going down by under 1%, but they already had pretty bad crowds last year!

You could always just watch the crash on youtube

How much more do you want? He apologised to Emil personally immediately after the incident as they left the track and then again apologised for the accident when speaking to the press.

When asked after the match about the protest, Max said that it was Hougaard's privilege to protest his engine, but his equipment has been checked several times already this season and he was confident that everything was within the regulations. It seems strange that Hougaard would say he wanted to protest and then not go through with it. That just sounds like a man who was looking to make excuses for his own failure in the match. The championship is nicely set up for the final round...Just a shame we have to wait so long for it. Is the link for part 11 correct? It doesn't seem to work for me

Strangely, this interview wasn't shown on the live coverage either, even though Pearson made mention of it...I think Sky were actually on an ad break when the interview was done.

I suspect that they haven't, as the Russian language doesn't have a "w" sound. So unless the Laguta name originally comes from outside of Russia, then it's unlikely it should be pronounced Waguta. On the meeting itself, it should be a cracker. Let's hope the rain holds off

Gafurov? Great little entertainer, but I don't see that happening somehow. For an "unexpected" qualifier, would Leon be a bad shout at Vojens? I think that they could leave him out quite easily... Honestly, what has he offered the paying public for the last 10+ years in the series? I am struggling to remember anything that he has done that excited me for many, many years. I could understand you questioning it if he represented a market that had value, but I don't think that the USA currently has any value for the series, so why would they have a problem waving him goodbye if he doesn't make the grade? Greg has given great service to the series over the years, but I really can't imagine him being someone that they would be desperate to cling on to...And, quite frankly, if he was wanting to continue after finishing outside the top 8 this year, I would lose any respect that I still have for him,,,,

I could be wrong, but I thought the ref always had the option of kicking a rider from every meeting.... However, I think it's a little harsh to say that "Gollob rode like a nutcase"....Gollob rode how he always races, but he made 1 minor misjudgement. I am maybe reading it wrong, but I think he expected Emil to go for the outside of Bjerre rather than trying to cut back to the white line. Yes, it looked like a crazy move, and could have cost him everything, but if you consider the split second that he has to make a judgement on what to do, it's not so hard to imagine getting it wrong now and then. It doesn't detract from the poor fortune for little Emil though....gutted for him. The race with Rune was surely all that Rune could have expected after racing with Tomek for years. The race with THJ was quality. Both gave and took some hard drives inside them....quality stuff from both of them.

Didn't notice the incident was on youtube now. This shows the first clash between them as well...

For anyone who hasn't seen the incident, you can watch it here: THJ and Scotty collide. It only shows the final coming together, not the previous attempt to run the race where they also collided.

I would assume that they maybe used the head-to-head between the two teams. Wroclaw won both matches against Zielona Gora this season.

I'm sure he'll give it a good go, but there is surely no question that he will receive a pick for next year if he doesn't make the top 8. Rather embarrassing for Britain's Tai Woffinden that Emil is still just 1 point behind him despite having missed 3 and a half of the 6 rounds so far!

I don't think that the list of current riders in the U21 series tells the whole story. Two of the best U21 riders, Sajfutdinov and Woffinden, aren't involved as they are concentrating on the SGP instead. Where does this one come from? Not sure if you have noticed, but the Polish league teams have far fewer matches than British teams... Also, if the media are to be believed, the list of the highest paid riders in the World certainly includes riders well above several of the Polish team that raced in the SWC...

What a bizarre thread, and what woeful English from the man campaigning for the English name. He does have one good point, the Union Jack shouldn't be getting used for GB. It should, of course, be this flag, as the Northern Irish are not involved in GB. Is it really so hard to understand that, even though the riders are all from one part of GB at the moment, there is only a single representation for the Nation? I wonder if the Californians whinge so much about them racing as USA for so many years

When did Lee Rico get given a place again?

Hadn't noticed the claim that blue always wins until I saw your reply.... Blue has actually only one the SWC final once in the current format. Red has won 3 times out of 6 and Yellow 2 times...Time to get the cash on the Swedes and the Brits

Maybe I don't know the whole story, but the side that I did get certainly didn't suggest that Ryan lacked commitment towards the Australian cause...then again that could definitely have been a biased opinion I should clarify that I didn't mean my previous post as a slur towards Darcy in any way. The kid has bags of talent and great future in the sport. It's just a very big ask chucking him into the SWC so young.

You may not think that Ryan has done much for Australia in recent times but if you want to check their scoring over recent years, he has done more than several riders that were included in the squad. It's clear that you don't rate him, but he is still a quality rider. Whilst it's admirable giving the kid a chance, Darcy is currently averaging 3.68 in the Polish Extraliga despite getting the easier reserve races, whilst Ryan (in the same team) is averaging 7.63. Does that really sound like the best rider was selected?

Agreed that Boyce hasn't shown any tactical intelligence during the SWC this year or last year but, frankly, that is the least of his crimes. Last year was there to be won by Australia, but he went into the Final without one of his best riders. The title could have been easily sewn up if Boyce had picked his best 5. This year, without Crump and Adams, he still ignored the best Australian rider available to him....

And presumably the same doctor who ruled Holder and Kennett unfit as well when their team needed it...so it's not like he was just helping the Poles.

As SCB said, three teams suffered an "injury" in the Final 3 years ago. Balinski replaced Walasek. Schlein replaced Holder. Allen replaced Kennett. I think I am right in saying that 2007 was the only year teams were allowed to bring a reserve in since the tournament was re-branded in 2001. In all other seasons, an injury meant the same as it does today, that teams were left short handed. Given that 3 of the 4 teams in the Final that year chose to take advantage of the reserve being there, it seems strange that it was dropped. Either Denmark had a lot of say in the matter, or the smaller Nations objected to the expense of taking a 6th man who was unlikely to race. Personally, I think a reserve should be available to use, but the way it was done in 2007 was completely unsatisfactory.

It's almost three weeks since he got back on a bike again, and I was hoping that he would maybe head for Vojens with the Russian team, but I guess that's not to be. If Emil had decided to come back for the race off, it would probably have given their manager a bit of a headache over who to leave out after little Laguta's efforts on Sunday

Looks like the first one is incorrectly labelled on youtube and is actually heat 3. Current UK averages: Darcy Ward 8.19, Tai Woffinden 7.27. Hmmm....

What is your problem with Mad Max? He has been looking the class act all season at U21 level this year, and he just got out there and performed when the conditions were bad yesterday. Obviously it's not ideal to have to race in such conditions, and it's not ideal to have to cancel a match part way through, but it's certainly not unprecedented at this level, and everyone just needs to get on with it. The bigger issue for me was why the Danes didn't protest against the silencers while every other rider did? Anyone know the reasons?