RobMcCaffery

Somehow related to humanity but god knows how. Must be by marriage.....

Considering the way the sport's treated Steve it's a tribute to him that he's still prepared to travel so far to support the Rockets.

Okay, there were plenty of falls and riders needing medical attention but there seemed to be a total absence or urgency when the meeting was running, although it is probably unfair to judge from a video stream rather than being there. What was ridiculous was to keep the modern ritual of having riders gather before cameras, waiting for a presenter to eventually be given the go ahead to go through the helmet colour choice for both semis and the final. Given the huge delays to the meeting this should have been cut out. The riders in each semi and the final should just have been gathered in the pits and asked for their choices off-camera and just got on with things. Some times procedures need to be adaptable even if it spoils the video.

People who only watch GPs? At league level he's a personal favourite, loyal and a great racer.

Working on the piece by Peter Oakes in the Star about the plans to run one league with two divisions of 10-12 teams with promotion and relegation and six man teams plus a further reduction in team strengths it would cast strong doubt on there even being an Elite League in 2017.

I feel people are being distracted by the promotion and relegation aspect of this proposal. What is far more relevant is the composition of the six man teams. If the first division were to remain at its present level there is no way the PL teams would be considering this. The only way that this structure could work is by a levelling-out in team strengths between the two divisions and I can't see it being the PL tracks making the changes.

Oh dear, it's worse than I thought for Gorzow.

Familiar theme here for Gorzow, two failing heat-leaders?

Thanks Pawel, that meeting was enough to drive anyone to drink - and buy the first round.

It wasn't Polish TV, just a video company. They don't carry the same 'clout' and in any case they had their own problems

That's the point, it is part of getting the rest right. Effectively they're looking at one big league rather than two separate leagues with still a large gap in standards. At present there's too many to run as one league, hence the need for a split with movement between the two divisions. If we end up with two leagues of the same relative strengths as today just with a few more in the top league then it will have been a failure. They seem to be tackling several key problems - fixture shortage, tactical rides, rider shortages and absences, at least we have to hope so. Promotion and relegation is being seized upon by those who struggle to think of sport not being organised like football and is far from the essential part of this it seems to me.

Not a problem, it's a common tactic by papers to take their official, audited sales figure and to say, "Well about three people read each copy". The key thing is they're fighting for us.

There have been 25 pages of information about the meeting here by those who did watch it.

We noticed.

Then to round things off they choose to show the race to the line in the final from entirely the wrong angle, head-on. Yes it was a free, legal stream but as much of a shambles a\s the meeting. So much for Polish professionalism. Pieszczek thoroughly deserved the win.

The sight of three peed-off, knackered riders standing by four helmets while a dumb blonde fumbles with a mic at 11.25 at night will live with me for a long time. They eventually managed to drag Erik Riss in. Sometimes you have to compromise on the presentation and just get then to decide gates off-camera and just get on with it. Sometimes.

Think of those riding in Poland.

Now now, this is all about One Sport 'making speedway'.

Oh it's back. Be still, my beating heart. Don't know about you, I'm only still watching out of morbid curiosity.

Well that woke 'em up. Longest meeting I've ever known was the World Ice Team Championship in Leningrad. -25 with a full interval entertainment by local kids. I've no idea how long it took but it was the longest day of my life - except for day 2 when it all happened again. Oh, and now they've pulled the plug on the streaming! Another triumph of professionalism by One Spot - "Let's make (cr*p) speedway"

And so it goes down in history - the meeting that beat the BSF........

I do feel for those supporters. Not so much a speedway meeting as a hostage situation. Apparently the Red Cross are organising emergency aid parcels to be flown in.

So, this was £20 to get in. How much are they charging them to let them out?

They may have plenty of cameras but they don't know how to use them properly. Plenty of wobblyvision. They seemed to be having problems getting the mic to stay in one place. Nice to have a free stream, but broadcast standard? Certainly not.! 48 inches eh? Glad to see you've carried over your 'mine's bigger than yours' mentality that's polluted the EL section.

This one's for Pawel, but may be of interest to others. We were discussing the possibility of riders racing for Polish clubs facing financial penalties if they do not ride through injury. Sportowe Fakty's latest report on Jarek Hampel contains a paragraph that in the Google Translated version suggests that Zielona Gora may be invoking such a penalty. Here's the original Polish: O ile brak Hampela to dla Ekantor.pl Falubazu duża strata sportowa, to pod kątem finansowym zielonogórski klub nie powinien odczuć większej szkody. - Regulamin mówi jasno, że pieniądze wypłacone zawodnikowi za podpis pod kontraktem są pomniejszane o każdy nie odjechany mecz z 14 spotkań rundy zasadniczej. Jeśli Jarosław Hampel w tym roku nie wyjedzie na tor, to zarobi okrągłe zero. Tak to trzeba rozpatrywać - zdradził Grygier. Here's the Google translation: In the absence Hampel it for Ekantor.pl Falubaz big waste of sport, it is for financial zielonogórski club should not feel greater damage. - Regulations makes it clear that the money paid for the player's signature under the contract are not reduced by any spacey match of round 14 games essential. If Jaroslaw Hampel this year does not leave the track, it will earn a round zero. So it must be considered - betrayed Grygier. Pawel very kindly offered to check such a translation. perhaps if he could in this case it might help to shed light on why certain riders are racing in Poland while clearly unfit to do so in order to avoid financial punishment over and above lost earnings? (If the Falubaz troll does respond with his own twisted version of events please just ignore him and please don't quote him - it only encourages more poisonous bile from him. Trolls hate being ignored most of all).