Bavarian

Not much worse than the SGP series. And they have the most spectacular rider Griory Laguta in the SEC, that's a bonus. I enjoy watching the SEC just as much as the SGP.

Does Robert Lambert hold a British ACU license this year, or does he still ride with a German DMSB license? I ask this, because he rode in the German U-21 national championship today, which seems a bit strange since he is not German and I thought does not hold a German racing license anymore. Would he have been eligible to ride for K.L.Young Stars in the National League with a German license?

Yes, he was behind the idea of double points. Indeed, that's correct. It was Simon Wigg who first suggested this as a way to make meetings more entertaining. He got the idea from riding in a Sunday afternon grass track event in northern Germany, where the organisers came up with this funny idea to combine the racing with the then popular tv show of the spinning wheel of luck (in German: Glücksrad). If I remember correctly, they had a huge spinnign wheel on teh centre green next to teh starting gate. The helmet colours where indicated on the spinning wheel, and the rider, who's colour came up, rode for double points in the next race. They spun the wheel before each race. Don't ask me what the organisers, spectators, and riders thought about it, but it was intended to add the element of luck to the racing. For same strange and unknown reason Simon Wigg thought it was a good idea, and suggested this to someone at the BSPA to try it in British speedway. By the way, the spinning wheel and double points at this particular German grass track event soon went into oblivion, never to be tried again. Everyone thought it was just a joke and not worth keeping. But in the UK, thanks to Mr. Wigg, the double points joker rule was introduced to British speedway and continues to be a pain in the neck for every serious speedway follower to this day. Oh, those bloody Germans!

Speedway at the Olympics is cetainly a no-go, but it reminds me of another topic. Speedway to be held at former Olympic venues, such as the London Olympic hockey stadium. Wasn't there an intention to use this stadium in the years after the Olympic Games for big speedway meetings in London?

Even if he has no broken bones, which is still not officially confirmed, he will certainly feel the effects of such a horrible accident. This crash will cost him the world title this year, and the European title, too.

Not quite, gentlemen. I have it from Denis Sayfutdinov, Emil's brother, that most probably NOTHING is broken. Fingers crossed. Emil has a dislocation with his elbow, and he as some probems with the knee.

Is it true that Aleksandr Loktaev is blocked form taking his place in the Challenge at Poole because he has not got a UK visa ?

One question, does British Ice Hockey have a tv contract ? I remember them losing their SKY contract at about the time when SKY took on board the Speedway Elite League. How did the British Ice Hockey League cope without SKY in the last few years ?

I agree. The Togliatti stadium is fantastic, but the track shape certainly isn't.

Yes, bottom three of this year's ekstraliga relegated to div.1 and only the champions of div.1 get promoted.

http://www.speedwayeuro.com/ They have an English language version of their website, where You can follow all the latest News about the Euro Championship

Joonas is Finnish through and through, being born to Finnish parents then living in Sweden. You wouldn't class Mark Loram as Maltese, would You? In his case, Mark was born to British parents then living in Malta.

Yes, home track advantages played its part at the Abensberg round in Germany, too, with Kroner and Dilger getting in the top ten ahead of Scott Nicholls and Peter Ljung.

Right, they (the Poles) "borrowed" this scoring system from the British. This was the first time that they used it here on the coninent. Another one of the many "new inventions" that make British speedway so exciting, like the joker, golden double, guest riders, green helmet colours and so on.

Poland's coach Marek Cieslak sees this test match in Prague as an opportunity for his team to ride at this year's swc finals track, that's why the Poles come to face the Czechs with their stongest possible team.

Guest riders, regardless of the cicumstances, in a competition for national teams, completely devalue that competition. With Zagar's inclusion in the Czech team, this Eurosport Best Pairs became just another open meeting without much significance. The poor attendance figures at Torun indicate that there is no need to re-introduce a best pairs competition that no one really missed in the past 20 years.

Why would this be better ? Can't see any advantage in the 4-3-2-0 scoring, it makes it worse, as it breaks with the traditionally and universally accepted 3,2,1,0 scroing in a speedway race. Keep it simple. Even in the knock-out stages (semis and final) the 3,2,1,0 scoring would work perfectly. In case of a 3-all drawn result, the winner is the team that earns teh paid bonus point (2nd & 3rd place). This would serve as a tie breaker, without having to make any such changes to the points scoring system. I certainly don't like the 4,3,2,0 scoring at all.

junior meetings in generall are no big drawcards in Poland, never attract big crowds and very rarely get tv coverage.

Top of the Elite League averages, German ace Martin Smolinski would be a good addition to the SGP in 2014. A German rider in the series would certainly stimulate interest in Germany, and a German SGP at a place like Landshut looks a distinct possibility for the future. The Schalke Arena in Gelsenkirchen was a huge mistake, much too big and in the wrong part of the country), but a German SGP at one of the regular tracks would surely draw a 10,000 crowd, especially so when Smoli is riding as a regular, and not just as a one-off local wild card .

kivkem is absolutely right, it is King's Lynn WTC 1992, and the Czech riders pictured from left to right are Tesar, Matousek, Vandirek, Brhel and Milik.

GRIGORY LAGUTA

I agree that this was disappointing. A rule change to penalise tape touching would be welcome. Punish the offender with a handicap for the re-start, let say puthim 20 or 30 yards behind the start line.

Aha, that explains it. So it was always the intention that a maximum of two riders per nation are in each of the three qualifying rounds. A third Polish riders (Ulamek) only got into the line-up of the Debrecen round as a substitute for Chris Harris, following the withdrawal of the British riders. That's were the confusion starts. There was no run-off between the two Poles, the final positons were decided on count back, and as they both had three wins and two third places, their direct heat race encounter, where Ulamek beat Kolodziej, was decisive.

They had a near record crowd for a Bundesliga meeting at Brokstedt of more than 4,000 which shows how attractive the new Wolfslake Falubaz Berlin team is. Well, and it was a public holiday, and the weather was great, too.

I have always loved International Speedway Tests much more than ordinary league meetings. This Poland v Russia meeting is absolutely great. They could so easily provide the international highlights of the season in the UK, with foreign test teams visiting with all those top stars that we don't get to see riding in the Elite League anymore. You see from the huge crowd they got at Ostrow, that an International speedway test match does appeal to the public if properly promoted. Unfortunately in Britian the BSPA bosses are just not interested in the welfare of the country, the national team and the British riders. All they seem interested in is how to gain advatages for their own clubs and harm their rivals. Very short sighted indeed. Oh how I wish to see ENGLAND ride again (please do away with that "TeamGB").