RobMcCaffery

They run a lot of these meetings, usually in front of tiny crowds and with huge differences in riding standards. I didn't bother to watch the opening seven heats, but then bad speedway is better than no speedway. Sadly the recent improvement in racing at Gdansk seems to have run out of steam. The junior meetings involving the under 21 riders fro the top two divisions tend to be more competitive but the fans and senior riders don't seem to take them seriously - it's all about the league.

It must be stressed that ESS Play is now an additional service to the main TV deals which allow CMore to cover speedway in Sweden and in turn sell an international version to Premier/Freesports. The ESS Play coverage is not live and to me it will be a case of watching the main match on Premier or Freesports then the other three later online. ESS Play in no way interferes with Premier/Freesports' coverage. In fact last year when there was no TV deal in Sweden ESS Play instead sold a match a week to Premier/Freesports. As to whether the matches are on Premier or Freesports, it looks like the matches will be shown live on Premier with a repeat on Freesports a couple of days later. I hope this clarifies.

I've had confirmation from Stay Live, who operate ESS Play that their coverage of Swedish speedway is available internationally, unlike the Polish matches. So, for SEK 189 (about £15-16) you can watch twenty matches in August alone, with the final three rounds (12 matches) of the regular season matches along with the play-offs in September, with the final slipping into October so it should only take three payments to watch the whole if truncated season. They have promised that if reception is ever blocked outside Sweden they will refund subscriptions to those affected. So, bear in mind the coverage is 'on 'demand', not live, and Poland isn't included. Subscription details are here: . https://www.elitspeedway.com/play It's a simple operation with excellent customer support in English

Apologies. I've checked my deleted recordings and yes the PS2 match was Grudziadz. It's still rather odd scheduling for speedway if commonplace in football.

That agrees with what I've seen, with the additon of Rybnik being on PS1. It seems an odd duplication but not quite as odd as the delayed coverage of Lublin v Wroclaw at 4 am on last Monday morning being simultaneously shown on PS1 and PS2!

Both fixtures which are being covered on Eleven Sports on Friday and would have been affected by this are still in the Sportowe Fakty fixture list. Whatever Premier are up to is probably a separate matter. Edit: Freesports' schedule on their website still shows Rybnik v Grudziadz at 5 and Premier Sports 1's schedule on their website still shows Czestochowa v Zielona Gora at 7.30.

I suspect the Poles will be reminding several riders who's their main employer is now.

Surely he can't take 10 rides?

They're a lot stronger than I was expecting. I'd got the impression there would be few foreign riders.

Top story on Sportowe Fakty is that two members of Eleven Sports' editorial team have Covid-19. However they have not had contact with riders lately and all rider tests are clear so their coverage will continue without them and the matches they are covering are to run as scheduled. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/893366/zuzel-koronawirus-w-redakcji-zuzlowej-eleven-sports-wiemy-co-z-pge-ekstraliga

I really enjoyed the service last year and due to family commitments I spent last year watching all on delay so three on demand plus a recording of Mr Goddard in action will do fine. Only problem is avoiding the scores in matches you haven't watched yet.

Best way to treat commentators - keep 'em hungry

My abortive subscription in June was SEK 189 as before and that's the price quoted on the website. I assume they'll be considering the Polish coverage to be compensation. I've just sent a follow-up to make sure that the service will be available in the UK, bearing in mind the Polish coverage is geo-blocked. It's worth checking that nothing's changed and once I've got that back I'll go ahead. Six matches a week that can't be viewed elsewhere are still worth £15-16 a month.

I have confirmation from Stay Live AB who provide the ESS Play service for Swedish Speedway that they WILL be showing all Elitserien matches, just on delay, not live, as expected.

Sadly too typical. There's a chance, against all odds for Workington to come back and all most of the BSF can do is try to prove it won't happen. Then as icing on the foul cake start speculating negatively about the 2021 season over six months before that season starts. I've lost my team twice, at Rayleigh at Rye House. Idf someone came up with a plan for a new home my only thought would be "How can I help", not "How can I put everybody off". Shameful.

Never directly. Certainly not the like the lengthy lecture we got on the subject of the pairs competition when it was rightly criticised for being a pointless addition to a crowded international schedule. There was a lesser case this year. I've comments such as "We have to thank One Sport for their superb organisation ". I can't recall ever having heard BSI being mentioned by Pearson & Tatum. I haven't heard this kind of endorsement in other sports that I follow from the commentary teams which should be there to serve the viewer and channel, not the event organisers. No doubt there'll be another lecture to come in due course. Bias takes many forms. The job of a commentary team is to report on what they observe, not be spokesmen for the organisers.

Well it makes a change from him and Rowe endorsing One Sport. ;-)

It was being controlled by a Polish ref?

That You Tube link is expected to continue into the Lodz-Ostrow match, although it's currently showing football in the gap between matches.

Additional feed on You Tube. You can change settings to as high as 1080 if your connection is fast enough.

It's clear that Sweden faces a rider shortage. With British and some Aussie riders kicking their heels here might it be a useful compromise to satisfy both needs?

Lovely news. Thank you. The legend lives on.

Just been notified of an amendment. The Star's Swedish correspondent is delaying the preview for a week since the teams are far from resolved yet. So it should be in the August 15th-dated issue, out on the 13th.

I've checked Podkarpacie TV's You Tube page and there's nothing there at all. It must have been a case of producing a live link which for a while served as a link to a recording of the match then was wiped. So, it looks like going forward it's only going to be useful for live links rather then on demand.

That's what I was expecting. No reply yet.