Bavarian

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").

Sure, but the question is, did Ulamek beat Kolodziej, or why was there no race-off between the two Poles tied on 11 points ?

Same question goes for Lebedev and Karpov, who, just like Loktaev, are Russian by birth, but decided to emigrate.

O.k., I really did not understand how it was meant. But are tehre no other British riders good enough to ride in such a big international meeting? Is British speedway already at such a low level that they should better be left out of a top 7 nations of the world event? I would not have thought so, but some people on this forum seem to be of that opinion. Well, most likely now the USA will take the place that the Brits did not want. I guess is, the USA will be represented by Greg Hancock and Ricky Wells.

Why didn't he ride for Denmark U-21 on teh Sunday in Germany ? He was also dropped by his Polish club Czestochowa for the Sunday league match. In his first couple of meetings for his new POlsih club he did not score much. What's his problem this year?

No meetigns scheduled for either Coventry or B'ham on Saturday June 8, so why should Drury or Horton block their star riders from representing Great Britain and let them earn some decent money in a big interantional pairs meeting in Poland that night?

The Russian line-up is very good, I only hope that Emil will ride, now that his father is seriuosly ill in a Moscow hospital. Looking forward to see the promising Ilya Chalov in action, and Borodulin is a good prospect too, but most intersting is that tiny red head Vitaly Belousov, a real battler. Oh, and I forgot to add, there is no such thing as a "friendly" match between Poland and Russia. They are arch enemies.

It was great speedway racing and great commentary work by Nigel and Kelvin last Saturday. You could not wish for any better entertainment. Pearson and Tatum are a pleasure to listen to. They are simply the best ! It is TV broadcasts on Eurosport of the quality such as the last one from Bydgoszcz that can win us new fans for the sport of motorcycle speedway racing.

Yes, perhaps for Britain (at the new Belle Vue?) one of the finals of this European Championship would be an attractive meeting to host in the future. It would be kind of a second Cardiff Grand Prix. Certainly a top meeting and a great attraction, with so many top riders (Nicki Pedersen, Gollob, Sayfutdinov, Jonsson) in it. The BSPA / ACU does the sport no favour in boycotting the European championships. Every other European nation is in it, but Britain does not want to join the party. The British riders and fans will have to watch it on the tv, the four finals of th e EC are all shown live on Europsport . And then there is that Eurosport Best Pairs meeting inTorun, which has all the best speedway nations and riders in the world take part, and will be shown live on Eurosport, too. Britain was invited, along with Poland, Denmark, Australia, Russia and Sweden, but the ACU/BSPA are the only national federation who refuse to participate. It's a shame.

Actually Travis McGowan had first been named as the stand-in team manager of Australia U21 for this meeting in Germany next week. Rossiter will take up this job now. I doubt that even Rosco can make the Aussies strong enough to beat Anders Secher's Danish quartet of Jepsen Jensen, Michelsen, Porsing and Bech on this occasion.

Isn't it strange that the BSPA /ACU put pressure on their own riders and refusing them persmission to participate in the European Championship? Scott Nicholls is forced to withdraw from taking part in this Saturday's first qualifying round in the Ukraine. What a shame!

Very disappointing that the BSPA declines the offer to send a British pair into this meeting. Surely England / GB could be competitive even without Woffy. How about Harris and Nicholls?

Will Billy Hamill be with the American U21s for the junior world cup qualifyer at Neustadt in Germany? I read that Lawrence Rogers will be the team manager there. Is Austin Novratil in the U.S. team for this meeting?