tigerblues

Used your racecard for the first time last night DW - 10 out of 10 (even though I didn't realise my printer was low on colour ink so the Swedish, British and Russian flags were a lovely shade of pink instead of blue.. oops). Brilliant layout.

Well said, sometimes we seem to get carried away by the young foreign riders, and as good as they are, don't see there's talent right on our doorstep, and with Tai he's got something totally different to any other young talented riders we have that are British. He's special and I'm confident he will prove his worth as a quality performer (as Tatum would say) for GB and whichever club gets his services long-term for years to come.

1st - Denmark 2nd - Aussies 3rd - Poland 4th - Sweden Maybe

Best we can hope for is stick it out for the next few years and then hopefully riders such as Haines will come through and progress as they promise at the minute to give us a solid foundation for the future. The IMMEDIATE future however, looks bleak. I don't think Lee's let the nation down. He's class in the world cup as he's proven before and it's just this year he seems to have fallen short. Problem with him was he was acting like an individual. Come on Lee you were riding poor by your own standards and admission I'd expect but muck in a bit since it's a team event. At first he was fine but his performance seemed to get him down a bit. I was impressed with Tai off track, he was relaxed but serious about the job, was having a laugh, acted like a proper team member and couldn't plug his sponsors enough. Is there anyone out there who doesn't like the guy!? Because Richardson's British. Like Kelvin and Nigel but their GB-tinted specs do tend to get on my nerves when there's 25 heats worth. If Lynch remains in the job then hope he remembers this night for a long time because I doubt he'll get this far in the event again. Whilst I'm not a Worky fan, he's done the PL proud Unless I can't add up properly, looking back at my scorecard it was first available in heat 13 when Bomber was out. I think I'd have opted for that, if he wanted to replace Rico let Tai have that ride (or just leave Rico in) and saved Nicholls for later on when we might have, and did need a last push to try and finish in the top 2. I agree he put far too much faith in Nicholls, especially after Monday's showing. That's joint top with "quality performer" as the most irritating Tatumism.

Not read the rest of the thread, cba at the minute so will do later. Briefly, GB: Rico - umm.. yes. Not acceptable, he really struggled. Tai - WUFFY, WUFFY, WUFFY! Did the job, can't ask for more. Such an intelligent lad. Couldn't be prouder he was representing GB. Bomber - made a few silly mistakes, scored the points though, not bad. Eddie - gave it a go, didn't disgrace himself one bit, did better than Steady on Monday and better than him and Allen would've done tonight. Well done Ed! Scotty - led the team well, looked more bothered than Monday, not his best though. As for the others, Swedes were class, Nermark in his 2 good races was outstanding, Ljung impressive bar 2 races, the rest were consistently brilliant. Poles were good all through the order. Russians are mental Laguta the Scooter (thanks, Millard) was great wouldn't be bad seeing a few over here and in the future they'll be a force to be reckoned with. Scooter didn't deserve to be excluded, he came under Rico a bit hard, granted, but there was no contact and I think Rico bailed out rather than tried to outdo him like harder riders would. Most of the GB didn't have a clue where the dirt was, in particular Rico who just hung around mid-track rather than went wide where he could've stopped a few riders who had a clear run to the corner because he left the door open, so he just got passed! Remember Lindgren I think it was came round the outside and whoever the GB rider was just let him round but they need to show more balls and ride harder or they'll never win anything. Track produced some good racing, surprisingly as it was quite slick. Anyway onto Saturday now where we are guaranteed a treat. Swedes and Poles will be in the mix and seeing Leigh and Jason against Nicki and Hans, the real big guns clashing. Can't wait, and whilst I am really gutted we're not through, I think GB's absence improves the standard of the final.

Please note that although Sergey Darkin has been named in the team, he will not ride and the Russian's have not been able to replace him. So what goes on with that? Russians don't have a rider in Darkin's races?

Calmed down a bit after Monday night's events and being proud of my nationality tomorrow I shall be behind GB again. Will go after an Aussie win on Saturday if GB don't get there but the points are back to 0 now so remaining optimistic about GB's chances

The red line angle is crap because it's not dead on the line because I said at the time Lindgren had got it but when you look at it from in front and can clearly see when both riders cross the line they look to go over together. Had it not been for that front angle if I was ref I'd have called Lindgren winning but think it was actually a dead heat.

I think the fans have got to get behind Tai, support him but don't slate him if he doesn't perform well. He's got an intelligent head on his shoulders so I don't think a bad performance in itself will affect him, he knows there's a chance he'll be out of his depth, but as long as the fans realise this too he should be alright.

The Danes are incredibly strong from 1-5, totally correct, but Scotty, Bomber etc, they've beaten them before, especially riders like Iversen, Bjarne, Bjerre etc? They're all world class riders without a doubt but not unbeatable by any means and especially not when we've got riders like Scotty and Bomber who are of a high quality on form. I think it just all comes down to mentality, if they don't want it enough then it won't happen, and if they did want it then they didn't show it much last night.

Well number 1 the so-called GB skipper needs to have a good look at himself and think why he gave the impression he didn't give a s*** both off track and on it. If I was Lynch he'd not even be captain but that's not the debate here but Nicholls will have provided some laughs for our Swedish and Danish friends no doubt with his attitude last night. And whilst on the subject, don't complain to the ref about totally correct decisions, Nicholls caused that crash end of story. No good effing and blinding in the pits and Lynch going and playing hell up to the ref who got most decisions spot on. No doubt if Thursday is an equally pathetic display the whole world cup will be blamed on that 1 decision as will every other bit of bad luck we supposedly had. Looked pathetic on Sky watching Lynch and Nicholls going barmy over that exclusion.. boot on the other foot and Nicholls wouldn't say a word. Next shall we try and find the set up that the other 15 riders managed to find? Said on another thread, you won't see top riders having a moan so let's behave like top riders because on our day, GB should be a great team, and it is a great team on paper (for Thursday anyway). And another thing, I know we have to be realistic, but why was it that all the time we just looked for the race-off. As a fan I said that is a realistic target but it's an invitation for the riders to ride as they did (crap in other words). Hear me out.. I doubt the Danes were sat saying we'll we've got an okay side but those Brits and Swedes are going to be a pesky bunch. Doesn't matter what they said in the interviews, they had the mentality and the motivation. We made it look acceptable to perform so badly. I'm not saying we CAN beat the Danes, but we should think we can. We should think we can beat anybody. We've got a good team, no disrespect but we're not Hungary (even though their team spirit was better), so why can't we beat the Danes? They've beaten the riders before? So why do we think we can't beat them in the World Cup? And lastly, if possible can we remember how to gate for Thursday too please?

Subedei, you're spot on IMO. Well why not, he'd kick the backsides of all 5 tonight who showed us up rather than Lynch who stood there "well it's not been very good has it" or an attitude of that effect. Rosco would be proud of managing GB, he'd show it and he'd make sure he picked 5 riders who were too. So give Allen another go. He outscored Nicholls so rode better, simply.

Those 5 riders you suggest there might wear the Union Jack with more pride unlike the 5 on show tonight. Can I also say how annoying it is to constantly be told they can't get a set-up or can't get their bikes right. What!? 5 Professional speedway riders can't get a set-up right for a track they know well. They knew how the track would be because most had a good guess before the meeting even began. How often do you hear Leigh Adams (as an example) say well things aren't going quite right, we can't really get the set-up right. Top riders don't!!!! Load of sh**e

I am so angry having sat through that.. WTF happened!? Great Britain on their Pushbikes = 25.5 1. Scott Nicholls © 1, 0!, X, 2, 1 = 4 2. Chris Harris 2, 1, 1, 3, 1.5, R = 8.5 3. Lee Richardson 2, 1, 0, 2, 1 = 6 4. Simon Stead 0, 1, 1, 0 = Pathetic i mean 2 5. Olly Allen 2, 0, 1, 2, 0 = 5 Nicholls - Captain Scotty ey, yes, fine night for the skipper and British champion.. what a joke that performance was. Bomber - won a race but for a rider of his standard it's not acceptable if I'm really honest. Richardson - slightly better than the British number 1 but nobody can excuse that, again from a rider of his standard. Steady - what a pathetic showing, glad we've seen the last of this joke for this year's world cup tbh. Olly - didn't expect much and he didn'd deliver much. Lynch isn't at fault, the joke of a team was.

Even though the Joker would be better named with the 'r' knocked off the end, it's there to be used at the end of the day. Bit harsh on Poland but it's the rules and as it happened it played straight into Australia's hands. Edit - and as for who should've been used in the race-off, Ermolenko was totally correct (for a change) in his comments about Gollob IMO. Adams knew what Hampel would do on the first bend and I think Gollob would've used a bit more intelligence on track and thought more about where Adams was going to go. I also doubt Gollob would make such a brilliant start as Hampel did and throw it away.

An absolutely beautiful first corner from Leigh Adams sealed it in the race-off. Poor meeting but decent result especially from a GB perspective.

I really feel for Davey missing out but in this situation I can do nothing but praise him for putting Poole first. Top man for putting his team before his own personal glory. Shame he couldn't have ridden, think he probably had a chance. Shame about the Brits.

But due to costs and such this would most likely be the effect, or they would take money off each other. I agree with an earlier post, have it at a normal track, that holds plenty, Coventry sounds pretty ideal tbh.

Nice one

Cardiff 2009... COULD be the year speedway fans fill the Millenium... but no chance if this comes about. Whilst the better off amongst speedway fans will choose both, a lot will have to choose 1 or the other hence affecting the crowd at the other. Loads of people buy their tickets for Cardiff close to the event so whilst the point about the offer until September is a good one, it won't improve things for Cardiff much either. Also, look at Poland and Sweden.. they can run 2 GP's a year but they run them at normal tracks... whereas here is a suggestion that 2 massive stadiums over here are going to be used for a Speedway GP. And, Cardiff 09 is announced already for the end of June.. so Wembley would need to be space apart.. is Germany as the last one here to stay? Because we're halfway through now and probably will be by Cardiff next year too. Another worry, can you imagine that on Sky, a sporting event at the Millenium and one at Wembley, arguably the biggest events on a speedway fan's calendar, and the stadiums only being half full? It's going to be interesting to say the least to see what happens regarding this

Presuming GB reach the race-off.

Looking at the website from which the info is taken from though it isn't an English site. As far as everyone is away we are still GB.

And if he spat the dummy out and complained about it there and then he'd get even more stick for it

That was comedy last night. It was announced that the 2 extra names to the obvious 3 are the 2 team mates who have just nearly had each other in the fence. Personally I'm a bit annoyed. I like Steady and Allen is a rider I rate but Lynch goes on about building for the future and then leaves out Kennett and Tai. And then says they're definitely riding in Denmark.. but what will he do if Stead and Allen have superb showings and the top 3 don't match. What will the answer be, drop the British Champion? The rider whose best form seems to be his world cup form? It'll be interesting to say the least. If we're building then give these young talents as they undoubtedly are a chance and that includes Coventry. Wonder what Middlo would have done. Can't see us getting straight to final, possibly not past the race-off either. Hope they do us proud but I struggle to have any enthusiasm or optimism for this I'm afraid.

Crump was awesome on Saturday, he was due a win and he delivered one, spot on Jason.