Subedei

Still, builds up nicely to Ht 12 and the Nicki P, Gollob, Hancock re-match.

All 4 back seems a pretty fair decision there. But some will point the finger at Nicki P I have no doubt.

Well, 4 heats down. I thought the start in the Nicholls heat was slightly suspect. There seemed to be movement just before the tapes went up. And the start in Ht 1 was also "interesting", with the starting marshall still around the bikes as the tapes went up. TR looked fast, as did TG (on a GM). Nicki P looked fast enough, but erratic and BP looks like keeping his poor GP, good GP run going.

Wow, for the first time this season aTomek Gollob looks on the pace.

Well, into the during meeting chat phase of the thread. And the crowd looks rather sparse and were they just watering the track?

It was indeed Andreas Jonsson. The line-up for Ht 21 that night was: T Gollob G Hancock N Pedersen A Jonsson

Why is the line-up for Ht 12 reminding me of last year? N Pedersen A Lindback T Gollob G Hancock

The "wild card" - there's only one - was David Norris, who's in his 30s. The track reserves were Kennett and Stead. They weren't guaranteed rides, but got a couple each after Sullivan withdrew. The Polish "wild card" for Wroclaw was K Kasprzak after the initial pick Miskowiak withdrew. Both guys in their in their late-teens or early-twenties.

Well, obviously they don't bother with a minimum 3 rides rule. I think the rules are basically the way were in Britain before all this double points nonsense came up. With all the teams racing on the same day, guests would seem out of the question, but rider replacement is allowed for your top 3 guys. If you're 6 points or more behind after Ht 4 you get to use tactical substitutes like in the old days over here. But, if you get excluded for 2 minutes or tapes, it's a 3 man race and you're not in it. No reserve replacement and no 15 metres nonsense. But Rico would know better than I. And Papa Bazarou and HenryW as well.

He's not actually been in action for Leszno the last couple of rounds in Poland. The regulations in Poland allow teams to name a young rider at No 7, who although programmed for only one ride, is allowed to replace other riders during the racing. Leszno have named K Kasprzak at No 7 for the last couple of rounds and then used him to replace his brother in every heat he's programmed for. So, it shouldn't impact on Leszno that much. They'll name a no-hoper in place of R Kasprzak and then replace him with K Kasprzak who'll still be at No 7. The other notable No 7 in Polish speedway is young Kolodziej at champions Tarnow.

Well, Pepe certainly deserves it. He's been having an outstanding season. And, of course, Bydgoszcz is his home track in Poland these days. It'll also make HenryW a happy fellow.

Wow. The Polish authorities don't mess about, do they? A 6-month suspension for R Kasprzak. God alone knows what they'd have handed out to Ferjan if the Eastbourne fiasco had fallen under their jurisdiction.

The last weather forecast I saw had showers for saturday and thunderstorms for Sunday. But the weather's always good in Prague during the 2nd week of November.

And you have to credit the Polish authorities for giving the youngsters the Wild Card places in their GPs. Over here we fall back on the old semi-dependables. If Pepe was British we'd have him as a Wild Card, but the Poles go young.

The thing is that at promoter level we don't have the discipline required. We could seek to reduce, over time, the volume of foreign riders in our leagues through a gentleman's agreement. But as soon as it suited a promoter to break the agreement, he would. And there's not a whole lot that can be done about it. Ronnie Russell introduced foreign riders into the old National League. It started with a trickle, but turned into a flood.

But how much of that was down to the guy himself? Everyone loves Mark Loram, and why not? He's a great racer, seems like a great guy and everyone wanted him to win. But what about a Lee Richardson title (unlikely, I know)? To many he wouldn't have deserved it. The truth of the matter is that we don't really mind who's champ as long as he's one of our favourites. We'd like a British champ, but TR, Crump or whoever are fine as long as the individual likes them.

To illustrate the different attitudes, below is a quote from a Wroclaw supporter at Live Updates. I commented that Lindback had made a decent enough score in his first outing for Wroclaw in the Ekstra Liga. This was the reply:

You have a valid point about the variety of tracks in this country. But is it an advantage when we open our league to all-comers? Look at Poland. After the fall of the Berlin Wall the Polish clubs attracted the best riders in the world, but over the years the authorities there have ensured that the number of foreigners has been whittled away. Now, Polish clubs have 1 or 2 foreign riders, and only 1 rides in a given meeting (unless the other rides under a Polish licence). The initial influx has served its purpose. The sport is popular and young riders are coming through the ranks like no tomorrow. The Polish clubs now want the best, but not the rest, yet we have foreign riders on 4, 5 and 6 point averages. Why aren't we doing as well? Probably because we don't care enough. And we love having Poles, Danes and Swedes riding in the league. Hell, we probably cheer for them in the GPs.

I was at his "Farewell to Scotland" meeting at Powderhall around the same time. It was a foul night weather-wise, but a huge crowd, good racing and the usual Cowboy antics on-track from John Cook made for a fantastic night. From memory, PC won the meeting.

The result for 2004 was: 1. J Crump 2. J Hampel 3. T Rickardsson 4. R Sullivan The beaten semi-finalists were: L Adams, T Gollob, G Hancock and L Richardson.

And to close off the weekend's Ekstra Liga action, here are the current top 10 in the averages (last week's position and average in brackets): 1..(1)..R Sullivan..Czestochowa..10.37..(10.22) 2..(2)..J Crump..Torun..9.73..(9.73) 3..(3)..L Adams..Leszno..9.63..(9.56) 4..(4)..T Gollob..Tarnow..9.51..(9.50) 5..(6)..N Pedersen..Zielona Gora..9.42..(9.42) 6..(5)..P Protasiewicz..Bydgoszcz..9.31..(9.49) 7..(7)..R Holta..Czestochowa..9.08..(9.24) 8..(8)..T Rickardsson..Tarnow..9.00..(9.02) 9..(8)..G Walasek..Czestochowa..8.86..(9.02) 10..(-)..R Sawina..Bydgoszcz..8.47..(-.--) So, the Aussie trio maintain a stranglehold at the top of the averages and Sawina replaces team mate Jonsson in the top 10.

Yes, I knew a chap in Torun and he could barely stand TG. But that's not so surprising, since Torun and Bydgoszcz are such rivals. And my lovely assistant, ZKZ Kitten also told me TG gets a hostile reception when he comes to Zielona Gora. Well, thanks for your input Dog. Hope to see you next time.

Yes, it's the same Kasprzak.

Well, maybe the Polish authorities will make an example of them. They seem to act pretty decisively and pretty quickly.

Well, I struggle with Polish, but Holta was excluded (I think) from a race involving K Kasprzak, so I guess Holta and Kasprzak had a coming together.