arnieg

Ask me again in 20 years - if Darcy is still in the GPs (assuming that BSI's inability to run a piss up in a brewery hasn't killied them off), and competing for the world title then I might accept that you're claim has some credence.

Philip, Can I suggest a phrase containing the words: holes digging and stop. You appear to be oblivious to how much ill will you are generating. To suggest we need our hand holding while travelling in the EU is somewhat insulting, and to belittle the frustration felt by a group of fans who can and probably do contribute a substantial amount to British speedway by way of sponsorship is foolish.

If he knew about his parents break-up several weeks before, then perhaps the bad news he heard on Saturday was something new? Such as his local bar back in Aus going bust and closing.

He's young with no previous, and we are not talking Balco (organised steroids abuse in baseball) here, and quite possibly inadvertant. I'd have thought a one year ban sufficient.

When I was a youngster fatalaties occured at the rate of more than one a year - and that's just on British tracks. In the last 20 years there has been just poor David Nix. Some things are clearly better now.

It also begs the question of how many riders per race. 12 points from 3 rounds for Bunyan suggests a (4,4,4) score. So was it a 20 rider field with each round consisting of 4 heats of 5 riders. If so were there 5 riders in semi finals? That would at least make sense of the list of 10 riders qualifying for the semis. But we are still left with the mismatch in their identities

And can I thank you for a very comprehensive and useful guide to the possible outcomes.

Post 19 seems to be fair comment. The fixture pile-up situation (and remember it hasn't been a particularly wet summer) is an entirely predictable outcome of more and more riders doubling up and teams being reluctant to re-arrange fixtures with key riders missing. Promoters get slated for agreeing to fixtures when they have riders missing, they get slated for not finding a suitable date - they can't win. BUT they agreed last winter to the explosion of doubling (and tripling) up that has contributed to this. (There are other factors such as the calling off of matches on the strength of slightly iffy forecasts, and a proliferation of situations where guests are not allowed for absent riders [more of an EL problem])

Particularly galling as the introductory remarks promised us that the crucial clash would take place in heat 4. Is it really that difficult to avoid knowing the result? I found no problem.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtxUIDmPdhcXcENIU3hWUHZ3QjhSV2NoZzV1TGpfT3c&hl=ru#gid=0 There used to be a thread on a Ukranian(?) speedway forum with all the underlying detail, but that seems to have vanished. There are weaknesses, for example the over-rating of Americans who don't race in Europe, and a few odd mistakes (Daniel Gappmaier is Austrian not Australian and Jesper Soegaard appears twice [at 235 and 433]). Personally I wouldn't leave retired riders in for as long as he does, and nor would I include 80cc riders, but that is his choice. It is a great work of love and I always find it interesting to look at.

And back to speedway: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=77385

For comparison Dolgin's current (@ 5 August) top 22 is: 1 Greg Hancock USA 4524 2 Niels K Iversen Denmark 4424 3 Tai Woffinden Great Britain 4322 4 Darcy Ward Australia 4293 5 Piotr Protasewicz Poland 4275 6 Grigorij Laguta Russia 4267 7 Nicki Pedersen Denmark 4242 8 Janusz Kolodziej Poland 4199 9 Jaroslaw Hampel Poland 4176 10 Emil Sajfutdinov Russia 4154 11 Matej Zagar Slovenia 4050 12 Martin Vaculik Slovakia 4007 13 Jason Doyle Australia 3984 14 Krzysztof Kasprzak Poland 3951 15 Artem Laguta Russia 3947 16 Piotr Pawlicki jr. Poland 3907 17 Billy Hamill USA 3891 18 Peter Kildemand Denmark 3874 19 Patryk Dudek Poland 3838 20 Thomas H. Jonasson Sweden 3830 21 Tomasz Gollob Poland 3829 22 Chris Holder Australia 3815 Of the missing riders: Andersen (35), Loktaev (51), Zmarzlik (25), Janowski (27) and Scott Nicholls is the next Brit in his rankings too...at no 40!

From 'Tears and Glory' - 2002 chapter: Gaming International set about making a few superficial improvements to keep the stadium going. These included a new turnstile area and new floodlights. However, Gaming International's most noticeable change sparked the 'great food rebellion'. In June, security guards strictly enforced a new policy that spectators could not bring any food or drink into any area of the stadium. Dave Wright wrote in the Reading Evening Post: “Even a woman carrying sweets for team mascot Roary to distribute among the kids during the meeting was stopped. She was allowed to take them in but was warned by the guard he may not be so lenient next week. In all my 20 years of following the sport I have never known Racers fans to be so uptight as they are this week”. Threats of demonstrations, boycotts, and sponsorship withdrawal soon resulted in a climb-down.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/poland-terrorised-by-bullingdon-bikers-9649244.html So what did Boris think? PS Looks like Lioness was right!

Good point re under 21/ under 19, but under 15/16 should be on small tracks. I was in Grudziadz yesterday and they have an 80cc track on the centre green. I first saw Max Fricke 4/5 years ago on a similar track at Mildura. All the Swedes and Danes start that way too, so too do the Yanks. On the lesser powered machines, smaller tracks are better at introducing youngsters to cornering skills and getting them use to close racing.

Don't forget - USA: Manzares, Ruml, ??? and..... Hancock:-)

Have bumped into Scott Nicholls and Phil Morris among others in Bydgoszcz - no great surprises there, but..... BORIS JOHNSON wtf!!!!!!!!

Has a pair ever scored a small 5-1? They all seem to be big on the telly :-)

A few random observations: A great night's racing - Bydgoszcz's reputation as one of the world's best racing tracks remains in tact. Hancock - just awesome Scorecards - I'm sure they are all better than the official programme which had no space for race times Crowd - very definitely some papering going on. Of those who paid a sizeable proportion were not Poles. Cheap seats were £5, £8 for a 2nd bend seat. Most heard phrase of the day:"I'm never flying Ryan air again" Berntzson and Krcmar both impressed Really great battle until that incident, but why is everybody so certain about it. Sometimes it is a difficult call to make - had I been in the refs seat I'm not sure which way I'd have gone.

The best I could find was this http://macgors.freehostia.com/Oreti080214/Oreti080214.html which gives the Semi Final results as: Ist Semi: Bunyan, Mason, MacRae, Finch 2nd Semi: Tregonning, Aldridge, Tocher, Hayes But in para 2 it lists the top 8 riders, and then goes on to list ten (!!) riders - the 8 in the Semis plus Brady Mudgway, Ryan Terry-Daley. I'm guessing they just missed out on the semis - but who knows reporting from NZ seems very sketchy.

11 from six rides last month, same as team mate Jason Doyle. He lost two out of three against Hans Andersen. Think it's his only appearance there in last five years.

Just started 2 rain, light at the moment but sky looks very threatening Now stopped

Can we correct this myth. Let's compare the bottom team in the Elite League - Leicester - with a typical Danish team: Munkebo (chosen because it is mid-table with a very stable line-up) At 1: Jason Doyle v Hans Andersen - good match, Doyle has a higher average than Andersen in Sweden, GB and Poland, but it's close in all three so let's say a tie At 2: Mads Korneliusssen v Kenni Larsen - pretty equal (Larsen has the higher average in Poland, but Mads wins in Sweden and Denmark) At 3: Krzys Buczkowski v Morten Risager - do I need to answer this one? At 4: Simon Stead v Kasper Lykke Nielsen - Stead out averages KLN by 3 points a match in the PL At 5: Nikolai Klindt v Jesper Scharff - 8.5 Klindt v 2.8 for Scharff in the DSL Conclusion: there are a lot of things better about the DSL, but team strengths isn't one of them. The Danes, like the Brits are way behind the big two leagues.

I'd second the suggestion of the Golden Helmet weekend in Pardubice