Subedei

What I don't get about the Sky coverage last night, was the studio discussion where Ermolenko, Tatum (who apparently looked more and more concerned as the night went on) and Hamill suggested Nicki P should've got a "yellow card" for the incident BP fell in. The referee called all 4 back. If it warranted this "yellow card" the guy should've been excluded, end of story. Any "red card", "yellow card" procedure should lead to an exclusion from the meeting or the next GP or it's pointless.

No he wasn't. But maybe he learned his lesson. I think a large part in both (Crump last night and Nicholls last year) was as much frustration with themselves as anything else. Crump had to know that, harsh exclusions aside, he wasn't really on the pace last night. And he hasn't really been the whole season. I think he was angry with the referee and, deep down, angry with himself.

You could say the exact same thing about Hancock in Prague last year. But very few people did.

And Richardson didn't look pedestrian. Left Gollob for dead. He looked to have the pace, just perhaps lacking a little track craft.

Of the 4 GPs so far, 3 have obviously been won by Master Rickardsson's GMs and just a solitary 1 by Jawa. But it seems to me that GM powered riders are doing so much better this year than Jawa. Take the British GP yesterday. Was anyone in the final Jawa powered? The fancied Jawa riders, such as Crump, Gollob (who looked to be on Jawa) and Adams all looked pedestrian compared to the GM runners like Rickardsson, Hampel, Jonsson and Co. Are the Jawa people in the Czech Republic falling behind their Italian rivals?

The problem with BP in the GPs this season - and he admitted it himself in interview - is that he has a bad GP, followed by a good GP, followed by a bad GP and then a good one again. Poor in Wroclaw, good in Eskilstuna, poor in Krsko and then good in Cardiff. People put credits on him after a good GP and don't after a bad one. He'll be hoping to break the sequence next time around for sure.

Apparently the tractor grading the track at Newport this afternoon had a coming together with the fence. Perhaps the driver had a vision of Nicki P on his inside.

I must've missed that, to be honest. I remember the "p" word almost slipping out before he corrected himself.

And professionalism. Neither Mauger or Rickardsson leaves anything to chance. You can argue this and you can argue that. But they were both great champions and Rickardsson still is. You start to wonder how many more years he has in the tank. And by saying that, I mean that TR can ride on for a good few years yet, if he wants.

Drop a cog you forgot to mention Arena Essex in that post.

Not very likely. And - to be honest - not very likely they're going to get anywhere near the semis. So far this year track reserves have only scored 1 point and that was against a struggling Hancock.

No. They're reserves, just there to make up the numbers should the need arise. That's why they are alternated in appearances they make. After all, with a host of tapes exclusions and withdrawals from a GP they could end up with 6, maybe 7 rides. They're not part of the GP proper.

If I'm not mistaken this would also be the 1st GP 2 finalists were picked by no one - Hampel and BP.

Did I get any wrong?

If the 2nd was a case of going down too easily, then the referee was right. After all, it was Crump that went down.

Yes, that was the point I was making. Although, given the name Hans_Kicks_Ass, I doubt that'd go down well either. But Andersen's comments last year were along the lines of the sport turning into a "democracy" where you fall off easily and get back into the race at the expense of a decent, fair, hard-riding opponent.

Nicholls conducted himself impeccably all evening.

Didn't Gollob do well to miss Nicholls in the semi.

Okay, Shaky, I'll quote only the relevant point of your first post. This'll be his 6th.

According to BSI, your name should be EdwardKennethRacing.

He's already been champ 5 times. He's going for Mauger's record this year.

As someone has already mentioned, you only need to look at TR in the final to see how easily he went down when Norris dived under him. Twice TR got into terrible shape in the meeting and kept himself upright. And yet a little nudge from Norris sent him sliding gently to the fence.

Watch last year's British GP and hear his thoughts on Rune Holta. You might end up thinking of a word something like hypocrite.

Polish referees make decisions. They don't automatically put all 4 back for a 1st bend fall. And I think this is the referee crucified for bringing all 4 back in the Hancock-Pedersen incident in Prague last year. He wasn't going to do that again. Maybe he should've on a few occasions. But everyone would still have complained about something.

That's good to hear. Best wishes to the young lady from an old Mongolian warrior.