RobMcCaffery

Glad to hear it's not Shovlar playing his usual games with the forum.

Obviously the World Pairs and World Team Cup wins were in my imagination. .

I don't know which tracks you go to but I've never seen that many over 80. I've had to put up with a lot in speedway, now I have to apologise for my age! Maybe it's best if everyone over 60 just gave up going - will that make you all happy? You'll certainly have more space to wander around in!

Enjoy it while it lasts. I have filmy online installed and all links to nsport fail. Funny how you always get streams nobody else can and they're always perfect.

I expect there are are far more significant sums involved in the Polish TV contract that make it worthwhile hunting the streams. A handful of people in the UK watching hooky streams is pretty much a gnat bite by comparison. I've always had a fascination for world TV, not just watching sport so I've always kept a keen eye on ways to watch. I've seen spectacular services open, especially on Kodi but the most impressive rarely last the distance. Yes you will always find streams but it's usually the ones offering a basic, unpaid service on the web that survive. Kodi is so high profile now that the shelf-life of a many services seems very short, especially if they offer HD. As ever, if you're not doing too much damage you'll be ignored, but start getting popular and well-known you're in trouble, as with wiziwig and the Russian livetv.sx.

You do wonder if the cost of that stand is dragging them down. They have slumped a long way since it was built. Perhaps Pawel can share some insight into his club? I suspect someone's reminded them that they only have rights for Poland. They have to behave themselves, unlike the illicit streamers.

It looks very impressive but there doesn't seem to be any information on the website on how to download or install it on Kodi without registering with them, which isn't the wisest move with these kind of people.

The problem is that those feeds of Division 1 matches are in fact legal streams, provided by TVP themselves, Poland's equivalent of the BBC. They are only intended to be watched in Poland, hence the problem we're getting today. Sometimes they leave the geo-blocking off, other times it's firmly switched on like today. The feeds of NSport are all encrypted in Poland anyway and the only feeds available are where some subscribers feed the programmes onto the net illicitly, either using websites or Sopcast. So TVP feeds are legit but often confined to Poland. All NSport feeds are illicit.

The only reliable NSport link on Kodi was Telewizjada which of course started messing around with subscriptions once it knew people were using its services. Sadly these firesticks don't give such easy access to everything in the world as their sellers try to suggest. Broadcasters are getting wise to them and how Kodi is used by illicit streamers. A large proportion of links that I have used on Kodi in the past are now failing. It was only a matter of time. The more easy the streamers make it and the higher the quality the sooner the service is cracked down on. It's the obscure services on the web that tend to survive because it's only a minority that know they exist and how to use them so they don't pose a significant threat. The moment people start saying they've got this great stick that means they can dump their subscriptions, that's when I expect the alarm bells ring.

One of my happiest speedway memories was being able to regularly watch Peter and Chris work their magic at Belle Vue in my student days in the late 70s. Calling them great days is rather inadequate.

When I hear the anti-Harris comments I'd suggest the people concerned pay a little more to Elite League racing and scoring than GPs. A good place to start would be the entertainment he served-up in two otherwise dull matches at Wolverhampton on Monday. Now and then you get riders that you pray miss the gate just so you can watch them trace - Chris is most definitely one. What happens in the SGP has no connection at all with EL.

We offer them glorified test and practice sessions. Faced with a formula that almost eliminates the easy rides of course they're not going to risk the SGP fame and Polish fortune. They'd be fools to think otherwise, sadly. Some will give it a go if things fall into place on the night but why risk too much for pin money?

THAT's when the excuses will start .

I was going on the Hull FC home defeat. More humble pie for the pie-eaters , although it was a bit like a local pub chucking-out time by the end.... "We're not shifting!! "We now return you to the whacky world of speedway".

Quite, we've come a long way and sometimes we should appreciate what we have gained rather than get annoyed about what we haven't.

Hi Al, I'll re-post post 51 for you: UK TV Coverage: BT Sport are showing Dorna's 1 hour highlights show as follows: Friday 9th September 22.30-23.30 BT Sport 1 Saturday 10th September 06.30-07.30 BT Sport 2 It's all down to rights. The GP Challenge and Ice Racing are sold to Dorna who make recorded highlights programmes under the FIM's own banner which are then shown later. Your answer is quite simple - either Dorna are not interested in live coverage and all the extra cost involved or are charging far too much, as put by racers and royals. If there was enough interest away from the hardcore speedway market then something would have been sorted out. Perhaps BT being interested this year is a step in the right direction. We might rate the meeting highly but to the outside world it's just a qualifier in a minor sport. I'd suggest that the current deal is the best BSI/FIM could get.

There haven't been any excuses, just statements that weren't backed-up by reality.

Might it be worth a try at Ermolenko Bingo, or would we need to sort out a phrase book?

These meetings filmed for the FIM are rarely, if ever shown live. In the past they (GP Challenge/Ice Racing Gladiators) have been buried on Motors TV up to a week after the event.

...as no doubt are the detractors. Or is it being wound up?

Wasn't familiar with that one, just commenting on what I've seen. There were plenty of reports in the past over the Poles shunning Szczakiel. Good to hear that has changed. So, when is it staged, and where? Gorzow? Torun? Wroclaw? - or is it some local event in Opole? EDIT - Checked Opole's fixture list - they appear to run a low-key annual meeting featuring second-tier riders. Szczakiel rode for them in the old second division. Not exactly high profile for Poland's sole champion under the traditional format.

70s porn music is so much more effective. They have to get their thrills where they can in Ipswich

The 1973 WTC Final where Dave Lanning issued the ultimate piece of scorn "From champ to chump". If I remember rightly, Ivan Mauger's approach to the previous Polish World Final in 1970 was that he was up against the whole Polish sporting system, not just their riders, hence the delight at getting the win to complete the hat-trick. I'd always had the impression that '73 was set up for Zenon Plech but the wrong Pole won it on the day - and it wasn't just in the West that Szczakiel's win was cruelly viewed as a disaster. Watching the present-day Polish TV coverage of speedway you often see stars of the past such as Zenon but never Jerzy. It can't have been easy being the World Champion that nobody wanted.

Is Chris Harris in yet? (Digs bunker).

If a league match between two of the top teams in the EL who met in the final last year is 'meaningless' just how many speedway meetings have any meaning? (It is easy to argue that all sport is fundamentally meaningless, but that's perhaps too much philosophy for a Poole thread). Can't we just enjoy speedway without constantly downgrading it so people can pass themselves off as experts? This mentality has killed the EL KO Cup,test matches, challenge matches, most pairs competitions or four team tournaments and most individual meetings and second halves. Now league matches are being given this slur. Just what do we have left to destroy?