Peter

USA's UNOFFICIAL team is :- Bobby Schwartz Sam Ermolenko Mike Faria John Cook Alan Christian This is waiting to be confirmed by the AMA.

I'm surprised they haven't give Stekkers a few goes. I was impressed with him when he did the World Cup meeting. My favourite Sky team for EL meetings is Jonathan Green & Sam Ermolenko in the studio and Nigel Pearson & Chris Louis in the commentary box. I think they should try and get Julia Bradbury to do the pit interviews when Sophie Blake isn't available. I'm not a big fan of Kelvin Tatum when he's in the studio. He stumbles and says "um-er um-er" too much, but he's better when he's commentating. The only negative thing I would say about Kelvin when he's commentating is that he interupts too much. Whenever a rider is side-by-side or is just about to pass someone he shouts "OOOOHHHHH!!" as though as big crash has happened! I reckon Keith Huewen is better at doing the Grand Prix shows than Jonathan Green. Jonathan seems more suited working outside doing the Elite League meetings. What's happened to Peter Collins this year? Has he been given the boot by Sky? I don't want to sound harsh, but I haven't really missed him. In my opinion, he wasn't as good as Louis, Ermolenko or Tatum.

Promotion and relegation was tried in the early 90's, but it wasn't a success and the idea was dropped after a couple of years. I seem to recall Swindon finishing bottom one year, but no Division Two team wanted to be promoted, so Swindon stayed in the top flight. A lot of Premier League clubs don't have the finances to be able to compete in the Elite League, that is why there are so many clubs in the PL.

Who do you think should be added to the squad, now that David Howe is injured? I reckon it should be Stuart Robson. He was in my squad that I picked on another thread.

I remember Neil Middleditch picking a squad of 10 or 11 last year, so here's mine: Scott Nicholls Lee Richardson Mark Loram Dean Barker David Howe On stand-by: Joe Screen David Norris Carl Stonehewer Stuart Robson Simon Stead Chris Harris Hopefully, Mark will change his mind and ride in the 5-man races!

Since I asked the question, I've had a reply off a referee and he said that it goes by whoever has the lower number on their race jacket.

After the first eight heats or so, I thought 'this is the most boring GP ever'. The early races were well strung out, but thankfully, it got better as the meeting went on. Lukas was very lucky his injuries weren't worse. It's about time they got rid of the air fence on the straights before someone is seriously injured. I'm sure they took the air fence away on the straights for the remainder of the World Cup in Poland, after Sam Ermolenko got dragged into it, but they still had them on the bends. If BSI insist that there must be an airfence on the straights, they should have kickboards, so that you don't get sucked into it. From a Belle Vue point of view, it was a shame Crumpy never made the final. He would have done, had his fuel tank be filled properly. I'm not suggesting anything deliberate here, but isn't it a co-incidence that Nicki Pedersen was in the race, who is a great friend of Jacob Olsen, son of Race Director Ole Olsen.

My first meeting was an Inter-league 4TT at Ellesmere Port on April 29th 1979 (it makes me sound old, but I'm not!). The result was :- Ellesmere Port - 18 Belle Vue - 17 Cradley Heath - 30 Wolverhampton - 31

There is an article on the thisisbrighton.co.uk site about Mark Loram possibly snubbing the World Cup because there will be 5-man races. Click here to read the piece. It would shame if he missed it. We wouldn't have the strength in depth to be able to cope with the loss. I think 5-man races are exciting, but if I was riding, I don't think I would like them so much!

Personally, I'd say you're right. I don't think there is a rule in place to say which rider goes through, but it would be interesting to know what the rule is, if there is one! Don't you mean whoever has the lower number goes through? That's what I was thinking it would go by as well. It would be interesting if there was a dead heat in the semi-final at the Millennium Stadium between Scott Nicholls and Tomasz Gollob. Gollob has the lower number, but, would a British referee eliminate Nicholls in front of 30,000+ British fans?! It wouldn't surprise me if he thought of an alternative way that would eliminate Gollob!

What is the rule in the Grand Prix, if there is a dead heat for 2nd and 3rd in an eliminator? Which rider carries on?

In a perfect world, I would like the top 10 to be :- 1. Tomasz Gollob - Whether you like him or not, he's great to watch! 2. Mark Loram - Out and out racer. 3. Scott Nicholls - Never gives up. Exciting to watch. 4. Nicki Pedersen - Hard rider who doesn't care about anyone else in the GP's! 5. Andreas Jonsson - Exciting "death or glory rider" as Havvy once said. 6. Rune Holta - Continues to impress. Shame he doesn't ride over here. 7. Jason Crump - Rides for Belle Vue, so I'm bound to be a bit biased! 8. Jason Lyons - Same as Crump. 9. Lukas Dryml - He is able to rise to the occasion in the GP's. 10. Ryan Sullivan - I'd rather have Sullivan in the top 10 than Rickardsson! I have left Tony Rickardsson out because he is boring to watch! :twisted:

Which stadium does Tony Rickardsson ride in, for his Swedish club? Avesta! I hope there's not a similar strike in Cardiff, otherwise the British GP will be moved to Poole!

I hope they don't have Jack Burnicle as the commentator. He is a lot worse than Tony Millard! In the World Superbikes once, Jack was talking about Colin Edwards's tyres, when he said: "Colin had a hard on in practice earlier, and I bet he wished he had a hard on now."

I found the following on www.crash.net :- ----------------------------------------- Eurosport, the #1 Pan European sports channel, has agreed a two year deal with Benfield Sports International to broadcast the FIM Speedway Grand Prix and World Cup events. The landmark deal guarantees the broadcast of world championship Speedway to Eurosport's unique network. Although the coverage won't be live, a one hour highlights programme will be transmitted one week after each of the nine SGP rounds early on a Saturday evening and all five events of the world team championship SWC will also be broadcast by the network. "This is fantastic news for the Series," said John Postlethwaite, Chief Executive, Benfield Sports International [bSI]. "It supplements our strong network of broadcasters transmitting the Series in northern and eastern Europe. Eurosport is very strong in Germany and this is one of the markets we are looking at for the Series in 2004. "It's a huge network that delivers all of the top quality sports programmes around the world and we are delighted they have added speedway to their impressive portfolio. "The one hour programme will be produced for BSI by BHP and will be a high quality production including the latest on screen graphics, special features and exclusive pit interviews, it will not simply be a cut down version of the live event." Vincent Chupin, Director of Acquisitions, Eurosport, commented: "We have noted with interest the progress speedway has made in recent years under the guidance of Benfield Sports International and are delighted to have reached agreement with BSI for coverage of both the FIM Speedway Grand Prix Series and the FIM Speedway World Cup. "Eurosport is in the unique position of being able to further develop the sport in its strong markets while also being able to help establish speedway in some of the non-traditional territories." Sky Sports will continue to show live Speedway GP action in the UK. -------------------------------------- Does this mean the end for speedway highlights on Channel 4? If so, it's bad news for those that don't have Sky or Cable TV.

BL2(A) Long Eaton 58-38 Swindon BL2(A) Swindon 56-40 Long Eaton BL2( Swindon 45-51 Long Eaton BL2( Long Eaton 59-37 Swindon