Rico

Cheers Nikki. Very kind of you. I see no cons in Bydgoszcz whatsoever Hazzman - it'll be worthwhile anyhow. Rico

Not having access to a Star could some kind soul please confirm the dates and venues please. Rico

Fingers crossed Crump stays with Torun ! I like Wroclaw. Apator ................. ! Rico

Bah humbug Trees I take it you'll be refusing to acknowledge the existence of the BSI promoted Wackies in the Elite League then. Hopefully by the end of the season your will start to see JP and his company in a better light. I see interesting times ahead. Rico

Correct Steve. I last bought tickets for our group 3 years ago I think and I have received their promotional postcard at least twice now. I can't vouch for Mrs Smith though. Rico

Great news for ZG that they have Walask on board, I'd expect him to get around a whopping average in Division 1. I take it all thoughts of an expanded Ekstaliga are out the window then Tommy ? Hope your hangover is ok ! Rico

If they bring the TR and TS rules into the SGP I'll be stopping attending, that's for sure ! Rico

Try Kevin Meynell's site or the FIM site which has the specific rules for SGP. Rico

Część Tommy, How many meetings do you think Wanda Krakow will manage next season ? Rico

Both of these GPs have very strong merits. If you can secure cheap flights, there's nothing to stop you from doing both, even on a limited budget. I wouldn't want to put you off either, Wroclaw I prefer as a city to Bydgoszcz (przepraszam MK etc), however Bydgoszcz is special in other ways. Both now have direct Ryanair flights from Stansted, which make them equally accessible. Rico

Barncooseboy, Wizzair have been flying to Poland over a year. Lovely planes they have as well. My favourite budget airline without a doubt. Rico

Radisson was very reasonable. Can't remember exact figure for the GP, but around £55 per night. For the SWC it was cheaper, around £40 per night. Rico

You are indeed Terry. All good things come to those that wait. I'll post details on here once the flights have been released (and of course I have booked myself and HenryW on board for a steal of a price.) Rico

Interesting review Budgie. Hate to be pedantic, but there is no longer the policy in place of the under-21 winner qualifying for the GP, hasn't been the case for a few years now. Chrzanowski qualified via the last qualifying round at Vojens. Rico

Leave it Subedei. You are about 800 years old and she is 19 It'd never last ! Rico

Ooops, was Colgate celebrating too hard last night ? Cracking crowd figure though. Rico

Have tried from 2 different pcs to access these links and I just get "Windows Media player has experienced a problem and must close." Any suggestions ? Rico

Best be careful Squirelnutkins. There might be some Poles in Poland ! Rico

Who is your provider ? I thought Sky Sports Extra was available on all the platforms now. Rico

HenryW has some - any chance of getting them on the web somewhere young man ? Rico

Czesc Tomek. I wish ! No holidays and no money left after August !! Should be a cracking weekend though. Enjoy. Look forward to seeing some pics from it. Rico

Tommy, You may well be surprised at the professionalism we display during our duties at Cardiff. However you won't be surprised by our unprofessionalism off duty . Rico

Try here. Rico

Thanks for the positive feedback from the story so far - here's the rest. So having arrived in Chesterfields we found ourselves in the company of the diehards Papa Bazarou (well he was considered hardcore until the events of the previous night) and the StartTart as well as TST's friend Steph. Papa B's friend Scott had apparently gone back to his room after the meeting and collapsed with exhaustion after the GP. Scott, 2 unimpressive displays out of 2 for you - report card states 'must try harder' What seemed like the whole of the Bydgoszcz Net Fans group had converged on Chesterfields although the lack of a table appeared to be playing on their minds and they didn't appear too settled. Some beers were ordered and we carried on chatting and drinking for a bit, then a pretty young girl started dishing out some promotional cards for a cider drink. You either won a free bottle or got 2 for the price of 1, so on top of the rounds of beer I attempted to squeeze in a few bottles of cider. TST I think at this point thought she spotted a weakness in my game and openly challenged me to a drinking contest. After her exploits of drinking past breakfast the previous night I thought I might be in trouble but not one to shirk a challenge I afforded her the opportunity. I know it's not big and it's not clever (and don't do this at home kids) but that's kind of the way the night ended going. The club itself had its usual array of quite stunning eye candy (not that Mateusz noticed any of this as we covered his eyes up a lot), as what I assume are the best of the locals (someone tell me where there is any better than this, if it does exist) were very much out to impress - and impress they did. There were a few group photos taken on the night with the Bydgoszcz crew and the night was just basically one of chat amongst ourselves and a few others, Gary from Rye House being one I recall and a chap called Jonny, whom TST had introduced us to on the Friday night, made a sharp exit from proceedings shortly after we arrived. A few of the Bydgoszcz chaps made a reasonably early getaway - Mama and Mateusz and the diehards were left to slug out the rest of the evening. I think most of us were dragged onto the dance floor at one point or another - personally I was dragged by a young man from Torun (Apator wibr....) who I had been goading most of the day with one of my favourite songs, as well as Wolfik, Arturo's girlfriend. All good clean fun, but a chance to see the locals shake their thang at close range. The music itself was a bit of everything really and I'm sure I have vague recollections of even hearing a bit of Shakin' Stevens at one point. The drink was very free-flowing as the wee hours got not so wee. At around 4am vodka was introduced to an already potent cocktail I was carrying around with me and it didn't go down very well at all and I had to make a quick trip to the toilet to sort myself out - I thought I'd better put this in before TST starts shouting it from the rooftops. Feeling much better for this we carried on pretty much until the club closed, probably just after 5 and then the 4 remaining Brits and Tommy wandered back to the main square where I knew there was a 24 hours shop that could assist in the quest for some much needed food. HenryW, Tommy and I hadn't eaten since 2pm and all we had that day was the very tasty pizza. I think I had myself some crisps and some kielbasa (sausage) to help kill the hunger, but details at this particular stage of the evening are a little hazy. We were awoken around midday the following day with Tommy chatting on his mobile, arranging for himself to be picked up from the hotel. We said our farewells and it was a bit sad as we won't meet again till next year - thanks for being such good fun though Tommy - it was brilliant. We had arranged to meet Papa B, Scott and a few others on the Sunday afternoon. Very clear instructions had been given to Arturo to round up his troops for the afternoon, however a text message from Mateusz clearly showed that Arturo had been a little worse than worse for wear the night before. Mateusz showed promptly after being given instructions as to our whereabouts and impressively stuck straight into a pint of dark beer while the rest of us started proceedings on some soft drinks. It wasn't long before the piwo was being ordered for the rest of us but the pace of drinking was definitely slow, even by continental street café standards. There was some sort of music festival going on in the main square and we were subjected to a fair bit of the warming up for this. Food was required and sadly it was at this point that we said our farewells to Mateusz as the 4 remaining wandered off to the Sphinx. Nothing of note occurred, however it should be pointed out that Papa B really did eat a lot, going for a starter as well as one of the biggest plates of meat available there. Another beer on the boat and that was it for Scott and Papa B. They had to catch the train to Gdansk at 0644 so were excused their early departure. HenryW and I agreed that a little bit of rest-time before perhaps venturing out later was in order. I don't think we went back out till around 10pm, by which time the Harmonic festival had thankfully died down. We were both pretty tired after a hectic few days and it was around 1230am that we wandered back to the hotel after a few drinks in the town. The nightclub opposite our hotel was blaring out some tunes but by this time I think we were a bit partied out. 1000am breakfast was delivered to the room and after tucking into that and getting ourselves ready we headed off to the station to catch the train to Gdansk. I got the tickets and both HenryW and I agreed that our train appeared to be going from platform 4 as there appeared to be 2 trains showing for Gdynia, one from platform 3 and one from 4 (which had via Gdansk next to it on the board). So off we trooped to platform 4, seeing the huge train on platform 3. There were a few other people on platform 3 and we sat waiting for our train to appear. Why at this point we didn't check if the train on platform 3 was going to Gdansk I have no idea, however around 20 minutes after the train on platform 3 had gone we gave up waiting on platform 4 and conceded that there must have been a mistake on the departures board. So we had another 2 hours to wait for the next train and it was cutting it fine to make it to the airport if we were held up in the taxi to the airport or the train itself was running late. Thankfully the train ran to time and the taxi journey was pretty easy and we made it to the airport about 1/2 an hour prior to the last check-in time. So that was the end of another trip to Poland - it had been a great month, having spent 13 nights in the country over the 2 trips, including the SWC trip. All being well I certainly plan to go back again for more of the same next year to Bydgoszcz for the Polish GP and the European GP, assuming it is in Poland again. Big thanks to HenryW for being a great travelling companion as usual, Mateusz for the Pepe caps and tickets as well as being a super host, Tommy for being great company, the Bydgoszcz Net fans for also being so hospitable to us and the rest of the peeps we met on the trip, who all contributed to us having a great time. Hopefully we can return some of the hospitality afforded by the very friendly Poles in Cardiff next year - Tommy, there is a job waiting for you in the pits. Rico

Ok my photos are up online now and can be found here. If anyone wants any of the original photos (much better quality) let me know. Rico