Rico

Sadly not LW. He left it a little late to book flights etc and they were darn expensive. You'll just have to put up with me, TheDoctor, Mateusz and Muddy (a new one for you to peruse). Looking forward to seeing you soon Rico

I think you might get some cash from myself and The Doctor (and money for HenryW too) when in Cardiff and you can get us our tickets Mateusz, please Rico

Well, Hazzman, I already have 43 definites for the 49 seater bus and another 3 enquired this morning, so it doesn't take a genius to work out that at some point very soon I'm going to have to put the 'Bus Full' sign up. I'm sure Mateusz will look after you in Bydgoszcz Rico

Rico + 2 PedroPete + 3 (confirmed by e-mail) B52 + 7 (confirmed by e-mail) Pammie + 3 (confirmed by e-mail) CedarMan + 1 (confirmed by e-mail) Muddy (unconfirmed) Rita + 11 (confirmed by e-mail) Sandie + 5 With Sandie and her crew electing to stay another day in Poland the bus numbers have hit the magical 40 barrier, with a minimum of 3 of our very good Polish friends (Mama, Mateusz and Lawrence) set to join us. With the line-up for the final now confirmed it looks like one hell of a field and should be a great day out. If I was to keep the cost of the bus at £10 each for the Brits, would anyone have any complaints about donating any profit gained from the trip to perhaps Gary Stead's appeal ? It would make my life a lot easier with regards to sorting the money for the bus out and it also means a very good cause could get a nice little boost, while we all get a magical mystery tour to Ostrow for a measly tenner ? Anyone any complaints - go on - I dare you. Rico

Great news regarding the bus in that we now have an additional 12 people coming along, so the numbers (excluding our Bydgoszcz friends for now) are looking like this Rico + 2 PedroPete + 3 (confirmed by e-mail) B52 + 7 (confirmed by e-mail) Pammie + 3 (confirmed by e-mail) CedarMan + 1 (confirmed by e-mail) Muddy (unconfirmed) Rita + 11 (confirmed by e-mail) So that looks like 34 if my maths is correct, plus some of our Bydgoszcz friends and it's looking like a very popular excursion. The more that come along, the cheaper it will be for everyone. Rico

Harsh - and as someone on Soccer-am once said - it'll never last. I was actually cursing the re-run of the semi-final as I had Andersen and Jonsson both going through, but as it turns out maybe it wasn't such a bad thing eh Believe it or not, my banker for the meeting was Andersen, but I thought Tomek was tremendous value at 18 or so wasn't he, but I just didn't have the balls for it and went for AJ instead. AJ was a lucky boy to qualify after a shocking start to the meeting, but wow what a gate in the final. Make sure you forget previous Cardiff scores for the next round - I've got a dark horse up my sleeve. Rico

More the merrier Rita - the more people that go the less it will cost everyone. Keep me posted. Rico

Firsly apologies for the delay in updating this information. Plans are pretty much in place and agreed with our Polish friends and we've got plenty of time on our side. Our intention is to use a 49 seater bus for the trip to Ostrow as we have interest from 22 on here and there will also be some Polonia Bydgoszcz fans coming with us. If, as expected, at least 2 of their riders qualify for the final maybe hopefully there will be quite a bit more interest - the more people that come on the bus, the cheaper it will be for everyone. I have specifically requested a modern standard of bus as I'm sure no-one wants to be locked up in a 1960's style bus for the day. We looked at getting 2 minibuses (14 seater) or 3 x 8 seaters but the cost was either the same or more than going for a large bus, which should hopefully have more room available to everyone. The bus will leave our departure point in Bydgoszcz (exact place to be agreed) at least 5 hours before the scheduled start-time in Ostrow to give us plenty of time, the journey is estimated around 3 hours. It's looking like an evening start, so we'll probably be departing Bydgoszcz around 2pm. The actual cost of the bus is not definite at the moment as there is fears that the prices will go up because of rising petrol prices in Poland, however I think we can only go with what we know at the moment so what I am proposing is that each person pays £10 by the middle of August to secure their seat. This should actually be more than enough for the trip and you will hopefully get a few zloty in change when we are actually on the bus. As a comparison, the train (second class) comes in at around £13 return (£20 return first class) and takes a minimum of 4 hours. Getting a train back after the meeting looks nigh on impossible. So hopefully you will agree we're getting a good bargain here. Once final numbers are known (likely to be as we depart Bydgoszcz) I'll put together a complete cost breakdown and you'll be able to see how your £10 got spent and hopefully a few zloty back in your pocket. I feel I need to be fairly conservative with the figures at the moment and go on a worse-case scenario. If those who I've named as 'head' of their groups (Pedropete, B52, Pammie and Cedarman) could get in touch with me by e-mail peter.leckie@gmail.com with confirmation that you are still planning to use the bus I will give you details of how to pay. As I said there is no rush to pay now, however I think a deadline of 15 August seems fair enough as I can't have people saying they are going to come along and not show up/pay. Please bear in mind (as Pedropete clearly already has) that all we are providing here is transport to and from the stadium. It is your own responsibility to ensure you have a stadium ticket. These can be booked in advance from e-ticket.pl. I'll add reminders/any updates on here periodically to make sure we don't lose sight of things. Hopefully you are all happy with the likely arrangements so far. I'm sure it'll be a good day out. Look forward to hearing from you. Rico

Pedropete, I'd go for middle to back at Ostrow. You don't want to be too near the front. I'll get more info up about the bus at the weekend with costings etc - sorry I've not managed to get round to it yet. Rico

Gutted that Jagus didn't continue (hope he and all the others who were injured tonight make quick recoveries. Really fancied my chances of getting Jagus into the final as well as Adams and then maybe I'd have got ahead of LW for once in the series. Roll on Copenhagen. Rico

What's VHS ? Could burn you a DVD of it. If you can cope with a DVD PM me and I'll see what I can do. Rico

I shall of course MK - can you do me a favour and e-mail me a copy of the bit of paper you had put together for me. I shall endeavour to get full details put on here by the weekend - unfortunately other priorities at home at the moment. Rico

Are you not planning on meeting up with myself and HenryW ? Rico

I'd suggest 5pm, but it all really depends when Mateusz and his friends decide to batter the doors down. Rico

A non-speedway What Do We Know About Wroclaw. Just as a random aside allow me to share a few words from a book I've been reading. Wroclaw has a famous zoo, which to this day is held in very high regard. NB Breslau (as Wroclaw was known then) is one of the many names the city has taken on in the past and at the time the paragraph refers to, it was part of Prussia. The book itself is quite interesting, if a little heavy, detailing the history of Wroclaw from when it's first inhabitants settle up to modern day. Rico

No there isn't. There were no league matches scheduled for that weekend (probably because of Under-21 qualifiers taking place around Europe) Shame really. I'm sure I read somewhere that Torun are racing on the Sunday, but its a fair old trek there. Rico

I'm guessing they've taken the view that Kasprzak has had his chances as being Wildcard a couple of times in Wroclaw (and Leszno already have 2 riders in the GPs) and Kolodziej is not really in form - alternative could of course have been Zabik. Ulamek is almost certain to be competitive though, something lacking from the Wildcard in Lonigo. Rico

Sorry LW. You'll be missed on this trip after making your homage to Bydgoszcz last year. I'll take that as being me you are referring to Sandie (on the condition that your daughter has given you the right info). Kitten, I'm sure you will, but someone can pick one up for you on the Friday if you get them a message you are definitely coming. Rico

We haven't bothered sorting out tickets in advance Sandie, so if you do have spare (for our usual section on the back straight) then we can take them off your hands. Let me know by Thursday next week in case we sort our own tickets out on the Friday. Rico

Not sure we are on the same wavelength Sandie Rico

I remember someone being smitten and bitten That was a brilliant weekend, part of an 11 day mini-tour of Poland with HenryW. Rico

SGP Results Official GP Site The first ever Speedway GP took place in Wroclaw in 1995, won by a certain Tomasz Gollob. GPs have also taken place in 1996,1997, 1999, 2000, 2004,2005,2006 (deduced from www.answers.com). World Cup in its current format has been held in Wroclaw in 2001 and 2005. Australia won in 2001 Jason Crump, Todd Wiltshire, Craig Boyce, Ryan Sullivan, Leigh Adams. Poland won in 2005 Grzegorz Walasek. Rune Holta, Piotr Protasiewicz, Jarek Hampel, Tomasz Gollob The team that rides in Wroclaw is called WTS Wroclaw Official Site - results can be found on www.Sportowefakty.pl Another good site is www.google.co.uk Rico

Do you have a link to this photograph FF ? Not sure I've seen it for myself. Assuming you know what I look like, please do introduce yourself if our paths cross over the weekend. But Unia Leszno aren't even a Polish club Why bother with them. Look forward to seeing you next weekend mate. Rico

Is he getting cosmetic surgery again to put zips in his arms ? Here's hoping an injury free run for the lad. Rico

No jinxing of Jagus, eh Subedei Rico