Subedei

But did someone have to be excluded? Young Gollob bit the dust on the second turn and it was all four back. I'd probably have been inclined to excluded Dryml, if someone had to go, but, in reality, I think I'd have ordered all four back to the start, just like the referee did in the Nicki P-Hancock incident in Prague all those years ago.

Well, he's not in the line-up for Lonigo, so it looks like he's getting as arrogant as his former team mate. Such a shame neither of them has much to be arrogant about, really.

Of course Czestochowa is the home track of Messrs Richardson and Ulamek in Poland, while both Walasek and Lukas Dryml have been "Lions" in the past. But perhaps most ominously of all, the Grand Final is being held in Zielona Gora, which is the home town and home track of Grzegorz Walasek - if he negotiates the semi-final safely, who'd bet against Walasek being a GPer in 2009?

And the result of today's GP qualification meeting at Czestochowa was as follows: 1..A Dryml..(CZR)..3,3,0,1,3 = 10 2..D Gizatulin..(RUS)..2,0,1,2,2 = 7 3..D Nermark..(SWE)..0,2,2,3,2 = 9 4..S Ulamek..(POL)..1,3,3,1,2 = 10 5..M Bogdanovs..(LAT)..2,0,0,1,0 = 3 6..E Sajfutdinov..(RUS)..3,3,1,0,1 = 8 7..A Karpov..(UKR)..1,1,1,0,0 = 3 8..L Paura..(LAT)..0,0,0,1,0 = 1 9..L Dryml..(CZR)..2,2,3,3,3 = 13 10..J Kolodziej..(POL)..1,1,2,0,2 = 6 11..L Richardson..(GBR)..0,3,3,3,1 = 10 12..G Walasek..(POL)..3,2,3,3,3 = 14 13..N Klindt..(DEN)..2,1,0,T,0 = 3 14..P Karlsson..(SWE)..3,2,1,2,3 = 11 15..O Allen..(GBR)..0,0,2,2,1 = 5 16..J Hampel..(POL)..1,1,2,2,1 = 7 17..B Miturski..(POL)..0 = 0 Ht 1..A Dryml, Gizatulin, Ulamek, Nermark Ht 2..Sajfutdinov, Bogdanovs, Karpov, Paura Ht 3..Walasek, L Dryml, Kolodziej, Richardson Ht 4..Karlsson, Klindt, Hampel, Allen Ht 5..A Dryml, L Dryml, Klindt, Bogdanovs Ht 6..Sajfutdinov, Karlsson, Kolodziej, Gizatulin Ht 7..Richardson, Nermark, Karpov, Allen [E/F] Ht 8..Ulamek, Walasek, Hampel, Paura Ht 9..Richardson, Hampel, Sajfutdinov, A Dryml Ht 10..Walasek, Allen, Gizatulin, Bogdanovs Ht 11..L Dryml, Nermark, Karlsson, Paura Ht 12..Ulamek, Kolodziej, Karpov, Klindt [Ex/2] Ht 13..Walasek, Karlsson, A Dryml, Karpov Ht 14..Richardson, Gizatulin, Paura, [Klindt Ex/T] Miturski Ht 15..Nermark, Hampel, Bogadanovs, Kolodziej Ht 16..L Dryml, Allen, Ulamek, Sajfutdinov Ht 17..A Dryml, Kolodziej, Allen, Paura Ht 18..L Dryml, Gizatulin, Hampel, Karpov Ht 19..Walasek, Nermark, Sajfutdinov, Klindt Ht 20..Karlsson, Ulamek, Richardson, Bogdanovs Notes: 1..Ht 12 and Klindt fails to beat the 2 minutes and is excluded. 2..Ht 14 and Klindt gets into mischief at the tapes, is excluded and replaced by Miturski. So, the qualifiers are: G Walasek L Dryml P Karlsson L Richardson A Dryml S Ulamek D Nermark E Sajfutdinov [Reserve] Taken from: http://www.sportowefakty.pl

But, let's be brutally honest, the Elite League isn't really anywhere near the standard of other leagues and is a poor means of judging relative merit. Harris has been poor in Sweden and rides in the second tier of speedway in Poland.

Good to know he's retaining his sense of humour. Some people are starting to think he's a bit of a joke in the GPs. And I'm one of them. His win in Cardiff looks more and more like dumb luck than anything else.

Make things easier for him if he was British - with Crump declaring his intention to be around for "a few years yet" and Chris Holder around, it'd be tougher to get into the GPs as an Australian.

I'm sure that I heard Kelvin Tatum MBE say that the British GP was in three weeks time. Let's hope he sincerely believes that because then he'll arrive a week late and we won't have to listen to his drivel.

And a 4.00 average in the GPs this season.

Well, no doubt we'll be subject to the usual raft of excuses from the British champion, who, let's face facts, is never short of excuses. No doubt he had a bad gate draw, like he did at Krsko, where he made the ridiculous claim that the outside gates weren't such a big disadvantage later in the meeting, in spite of gates 1 and 2 providing the winner of the last eleven races. The inside gate won nine of them. But that was just his pitiful excuse for the fact that one of the times red didn't win, was when he was wearing it. Maybe it'll be time of the month that is the chosen excuse this time around? He's forever telling anyone who'll listen that he "knows he can win one". Well, he's had sixty-one attempts so far and has only made seven appearances in the final. If he was any other nationality, he'd be lucky to have thirty GPs to his name. It's shameful, as are his pathetic excuses.

There are no Polish fixtures today, except for a Liga II meeting between Gniezno and Miskolc.

I guess that's 108 now.

And still hasn't won a single race this season. Gollob's won two GPs, nevermind races.

And it has the added bonus of no screaming imbecile or "oooooh aaaaahing" from Kelvin Tatum MBE.

True. But the greater Laguta really doing well for Vastervik since being introduced into the team - the Laguta brothers seem to be having great seasons.

And the final scores were: MasarnaAvesta 43 : 53 Lejonen Indianerna 52 : 44 Hammarby Vetlanda 52 : 44 Rospiggarna Piraterna 53 : 42 Dackarna Vastervik 52 : 44 Smederna Another awful night in Sweden for the Poo Boy, who scored just 2 points from 3 rides to maintain his disgraceful scoring for the Blacksmiths. But the Indians of Kumla get a surprise second win of the season.

My thoughts are that it'll be hard, if not impossible, for him to be as poor as Rory Schlein has been for the "Blacksmiths".

But it looks as if that huge win is causing Bydgoszcz a few money worries, with only 2,000 supporters watching and big points money to pay out: http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/2008/06/...-dla-skarbnika/

I think it was re-scheduled for next Sunday. It must've been re-scheduled early, otherwise Adrian Rymel would probably have been unable to accept the booking as guest for Glasgow today.

Just watching the Gorzow versus Torun meeting and what a corking question Holder was asked. Basically, the interviewer commented on foreign juniors taking chances and rides away from Polish juniors and asked for Holder's thoughts. Obviously, used to the more mundane questioning of Sky, Holder looked a little shocked and replied that maybe it wasn't the best question to ask a foreign junior.

I'd imagine that roughly half of the GP riders operate at a loss in the circus. The prize money isn't that great. It's only about $11,000 for winning a GP and when you consider all the machinery expenses and mechanics and so forth, if you finish stone last and pick up circa $2,000, you're surely going to be out of pocket.

And what a fantastic meeting it was - Tarnow undone by mechanical gremlins throughout, but there was some truly awesome racing from both teams. For Tarnow I'd pick out Marcin Rempala and for Rzeszow Matej Zagar. They both produced some top-drawer action. A really excellent meeting that puts every single televised Elite League meeting this season to shame.

Ah well, I think we're all sorted out then - that's good. But, just looking back, Sweden could've used Jonasson as a tactical substitute a number of times but chose not to.

Yes, that would make sense, but would leave one wondering why the Russians didn't use Artiom Laguta and Emil Sajfutdinov as a tactical substitutes at some stage?

Okay, so what is the actual result, since there seems to be a difference of opinion: http://www.speedway.org/wm/2008/index.html#speedwayjunteam That has the Czech Republic second and Great Britain third.