Rico

Try ViaMichelin.com. Make sure to put Ostrów's full name, which is Ostrów Wielkopolski. There are quite a few Ostrów's in Poland and I wouldn't want you getting lost. Get a lift from Joanne. Polrail site link Rico

About 70p per litre. I hear it's Ostrow v Zielona Gora in the First Division that Sunday. Potential league decider. I went along to this fixture earlier in the season and it was a great day. If the league title is on the line I'd suggest arriving about 7 hours before tapes up. Rico

Poland's population - 38,635,144 UK population - 60,441,457 Source www.cia.gov Not sure where you are getting your figures from. Also, surely everyone racing on the same day means you don't get fans going to 2 or 3 meetings per week (as I am sure some do here). Rico

Feel free. Are you Norbold in disguise? I am not one for picking up on people's spelling (one would have a field day on here), despite it being one of my stronger points. I do hope you took my 'critiscism' in the manner that it was intended. Rico ps Edited to add question mark to end of second sentence

It would only be the spelling Police Wouldn't have commented but you put it in twice ! Rico

Just seen this on Speedwayworld. RUMOURS are circulating that the Unia Tarnow team is on strike, due to non-payment since April! None of the riders are allowed to give an official statement under their names, as thay all have a special paragraph in their contracts. Revealing financial secrets of the club leads to a big fine. However, there are rumours that the team are losing so often (18:71 in the last Extraleague meeting!) due to the strike. "I can confirm that Unia owns some money to the riders, but it is not a strike. We are just having temporary problems with cash flow," claims Tarnow chairman Szczepan Bukowski. However, it is also a fact that Tony Rickardsson has participated in only 6 out of 13 League meetings Unia have had this season... Rico

I am sure if you search this section of the Forum details of the Latvian GP, flights, hotels have already been discussed. Rico

Will be in the pits. Send me an SMS if you are coming and we can catch up. Rico

I am sure PolskiZuzel won't mind me copying his post on the Yahoo mailing list Rico Walasek NO to Reading Grzegorz Walasek, who could easily replace injured PePe Protasiewicz in the Reading run-off for the last two places in the SWC final, declined Poland's coach nomination, reports www.sportowefakty.pl According to the website Poland's coach Stanislaw Chomski contacted Walasek by phone whilst he was on his way to the Swedish fixture. Regrettably, said Walasek, I had to decline his offer, because there is no enough time to get everything ready for such an important event. My bikes in England are under care of Australian manager, Craig Boyce, and he would not be able to prepare my bikes in such a short notice. - said Grzegorz Walasek in a telephone interview with www.sportowefakty.pl The website goes to say that Walasek is bitter towards Polan'd coach for not getting a call for the 1st round at Rybnik last Sunday. Walasek doesn't understand why he was treated that way. Last year when together with my colleagues I won gold medal in the SWC I was not riding half as good in England as this year. My riding in Poland then, is comparable with the way I ride now. So I don't understand Chomski's reasoning - said Walasek full of bitterness toward Poland's coach.. There are voices in Poland which suggests that Chomski, coming from Gorzow, deliberately did not pick up Walasek till the last minute. The reason ? Walasek comes and now rides again for Zielona Gora. Gorzow and Zielona Gora are not far away from each other and both clubs (towns) are permanently in a state of 'a holy war'. Walasek also dispute the way things are being done on a national level when it comes to picking up riders to represent the country. In his words: "it cannot be that riders get to know of being picked up two days before the event. It is unacceptable short time to prepare everything for such a event. What is more the case of PePe Protasiewicz shows that there was not contingency plan in case of injury etc. It would be enough to call in time extra two riders, instead getting into this situation.

Reported on the Yahoo speedway mailing list that Pepe is out of the meeting after a crash in Sweden on Monday. Replaced by Krzystof Kasprzak. Rico

Just go to the bar in the Brda on the Friday night Robolots. You might find it VERY busy as there is a bit of a Forum meet-up going on. Rico ps Mine's a Zywiec

It's not a competition to see who can offend him the most. I'd imagine you are in the lead now though I'm sure when he comes round tonight and reads this he will have a good chuckle. Rico

F4E, I see what you mean, however I would have used the phrase 'my boy', rather than 'the boy'. Cameron Tomasz does have a large influence on my social diary as it is, but he can't organise much for himself. I'm sure I'll have offended Mateusz enough by calling him the boy, but I've had a couple of people asking me if he's my son since he arrived on these shores. Rico

Yes - look forward to hopefully meeting you. I'll leave it to the boy (Mateusz) to sort out details. Rico

Thanks PolskiZuzel - I could have sworn I was looking at it in English when I copied the link. Rico

Walasek's score of 11 from 6 at Reading includes a 6 point t/r score in heat 14. He wasn't very impressive that night, or on his previous visit to Smallmead. I agree Walasek is in good form though and he seems to have bursts of magnificence all over Europe, then back to mediocrity. Whether an SWC meeting at Smallmead would suit him, I wouldn't be so sure. Rico

What do you think Skornicki would have scored around Rybnik ? You have to bear in mind Skornicki rides in the Polish Second Division and clearly isn't rated in his home land. I'd personally stick with Jagus (total unknown quantity around the track - scoring well in Poland and Sweden) and drop Ulamek in favour of Kolodziej. Pepe has had one good meeting and one duffer at Smallmead this season. I think whatever team Poland put out on Thursday they are going to find it tough. Just hope Gollob puts on a show though as he might just like it round there. Rico

LMAO - one of the funniest suggestions I've read in a while. Yeah of course, bring in a rider who has scored 5+1 from 8 rides at Smallmead this season. Even Ulamek (who has been poor at Reading this year 15+2 from 13 rides) would score more than Skornicki. Rico

No. Stead rode in some away matches, but not at Smallmead. Horses for courses as has been said by others. It's just a track that Stead doesn't appear to be comfortable with and there are others more likely to be able to score more than him. Rico

Bydgoszcz's population is roughly 370,000, however it's not particularly geared up for a large influx of tourists, unlike Wroclaw. If you can't get any joy getting a room in Bydgoszcz itself then I'd suggest booking a back-up in Torun (about 30 km away) and seeing if you can get something last minute in Bydgoszcz itself. Normally the organisers release the rooms they don't want around a week before the GP and all of a sudden the likes of the Pod Orlem and City have spare capacity. Also, depending on your required standard of accomodation, there are a few other hotels in Bydgoszcz. The official city site is a good source of other hotels - link here. Rico

Thanks for the comments Champion and Leliwa. Hope things at your club turn out well and Friday's debacle can be left in the past (with relevant lessons learnt by all involved). Rico

My thoughts exactly. Whilst he did ok tonight Colgate (Ulamek) must be rested on Thursday. I'd even use Jagus (who has never ridden the track) ahead of him. Rico

Pod Orlem undoubtedly the classiest. City is modern and a very good standard . After that you are looking at the Brda as the best of the rest. Rico

I've got to get to Stansted too, living 100 miles away from the airport. I think it's safe to say that they aren't going to change it to be one of their first flights out. I'll say that much. It just depends on where the plane we are due to get on is scheduled to have been earlier that day. Rico

And final result from today. Incredibly Torun only ran 4 non scoring rides all meeting, but lost. Far too many doughnuts in the Wroclaw scorechart, particularly Gapiński, but their big guns see them through and another step closer to the title. Scores again courtesy of Sportowefakty. Where are you tonight Subedei ? Rico Atlas Wroclaw 48 9 Jarosław Hampel 2 2 3 3 3 13 10 Kenneth Bjerre 3 3 0 0 6 11 Hans Andersen 2 2 2 3 3 12 12 Tomasz Gapiński 0 u 0 d 0 13 Jason Crump 3 3 3 3 2 14 14 Ronnie Jamroży 2 1 0 0 3 15 Nicolai Klindt 0 0 0 16 Piotr Świderski 0 0 Adriana Toruń 1 Krzysztof Słaboń t 1 2 2 1 2 8 2 Ales Dryml 0 3 Bjarne Pedersen 1 1 2 2 1 1 8 4 Niels Kristian Iversen 3 3 0 1 2 0 9 5 Wiesław Jaguś 2 1 1 3 2 1 10 6 Damian Stachowiak 0 7 Karol Ząbik 1 1 1 3 8 Adrian Miedziński 3 u 1 4