Subedei

I do believe that Nicholls has also made two finals. Edit: Actually, I do him an injustice, he's made three: 2002 - Australia 2003 - Slovenia 2003 - Sweden Britain's last GP winner remains Martin Dugard. Last season TR won twice as many GPs as have been won by British riders. He won six last season, Britain's won three altogether (Dugard 1 and Loram 2).

Come on gang, I'm trying to say nice things about young Jonsson.

Is Nicholls some sort of sacred cow? His performance was fairly abject tonight. And recent history suggests that when it comes to the crunch, Richardson can make finals, Nicholls can't. Last British rider in a final was Richardson, a mere four or five GPs ago.

It can't do Richardson's confidence much good getting tanked in the GPs every other week. I'd be surprised if Stead scores more than a couple of points at Cardiff. He'll be pulling full lockers on every bend and I don't think he's got the standard of equipment required.

Dare one ask what was inaccurate about my other thoughts? As I said, Jonsson might've got a second go, but didn't. He hadn't made a good start, but he genuinely looked quick enough to overhaul riders ahead of him. Personally, I'd have liked to see the race carry on to see whether Gollob would've stayed ahead of Hancock.

Well, not the best GP you'll ever see, but I didn't notice the sound effects that herald each new lap quite so much tonight. So, I guess that means it was better than Wroclaw. For me, to be honest, a GP's always that little bit better when the great man is riding well and tonight Tomasz didn't let me down. Well, as ever, here's my take on the individual riders: Fredrik LINDGREN - probably the best showing from a "wild card" so far this season. He might've made the semis, but didn't. An encouraging display. Antonio LINDBACK - had a strange old meeting, with a first and a second sandwiching three lasts. Still, a disappointment in my view. Piotr PROTASIEWICZ - speaking of disappointments, we turn to poor old PePe le Pole. It just doesn't seem to happen for him in GPs. Wasn't really at the races at all, except for a solitary and surprising second in his fourth outing. Leigh ADAMS - a steady enough GP for Adams, but only one heat win. That's not really good enough. Jaroslaw HAMPEL - looks fast when out front, but seldom looks likely to do anything from the back. He made the semis. But it's about time young Hampel was challenging for a GP win. Nicki PEDERSEN - looked fast, but took the wrong gate in the final and ran a last. He'll be disappointed with that. Tony RICKARDSSON - you begin to wonder whether TR will see the GP season out. One word sums up the current champ tonight: awful. Greg HANCOCK - from awful to outstanding. And that's what Hancock was tonight. He was as outstanding as Rickardsson was awful. A wonderful GP from Hancock tonight, but, again, he just couldn't contain Crump when crunch time came. Scott NICHOLLS - his meeting was over before he'd even started a race. Doesn't have the nerve to come back from a tapes exclusion in his first outing at this level. Apart from that, he didn't look quick enough. Jason CRUMP - so fast, so determined, so courageous, so brilliant. Bjarne PEDERSEN - made the semis. I'm not sure how he made them, but he did. Still, after a couple of woeful GPs, this gives BP something to build on. Tomasz GOLLOB - a slow start to the meeting - I think Nicholls' tapes exclusion benefited Gollob - and a storming finish. It looked in the first running of his semi as if he might have had the legs on Hancock, but couldn't repeat it in the re-run. Nevermind, he made the final, finished third and was happy. Lee RICHARDSON - sorry, but worse than awful. Matej ZAGAR - fairly anonymous really. Niels-Kristian IVERSEN - better than Richardson and Protasiewicz, but that's not saying much. Andreas JONSSON - might've got a second go in his semi, with a different referee. But he didn't get a second chance. That said, Jonsson looked very good tonight. But, like Hampel, he should be challenging for GP crowns now.

Never mind Hans Andersen, I think Hans Nielsen could still do a better job than some you mentioned.

I know. I'm so ashamed. But don't worry, I'm getting the hair shirt out of the drawer and I'm going to engage in some self-flagellation as penitance for my sin of loss of faith.

Can't praise young Crump highly enough this season. I actually thought his biggest problem last season was being on Jawa engines. He's on GMs this season and running away with it. I'm not saying that he'd have won the title last season on GMs - he wouldn't - but it would've been a lot closer. Yes, congratulations young Crump on a fantastic ride and a fantastic season thus far. But sympathy to Hancock - he was outstanding all night, just not quite good enough in the final. And that's where it counts.

Yes, as I said in the meeting thread, backing a rather pathetic TR not one of my better decisions. But, hey, the great man came through for me. And it's not as if I backed Richardson. Edit: The only problem now is that young Turner, the little tinker that he is, will probably slash Gollob's odds. He'll probably be a shorter price than TR for Cardiff.

I was worried. In fact, I was very worried. I didn't expect Mr Gollob to come through for me. But he did. I lost faith. I'm sorry for that.

Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, Gollob in the final saves my BSF GP competition life.

I think it's time PePe le Pole gave the GPs up as a bad job. But he's not alone there. Richardson went backwards at an alarming rate in his second outing.

Yes, putting competition credits on TR isn't looking like being one of my better decisions.

Silly Subedei. I was looking at the wrong meeting.

Have Vastervik and the Gollobs fallen out?

You could also try: http://www.zuzelend.com http://www.przegladzuzlowy.pl http://www.espeedway.pl

And after today, the Ekstraliga table is as follows: 1..Torun..6..8..+38 2..Tarnow..6..8..+22 3..Wroclaw..5..6..+20 4..Bydgoszcz..6..6..+19 5..Leszno..4..6..+6 6..Czestochowa..5..4..-2 7..Rzeszow..6..4..-38 8..Rybnik..4..0..-67

Actually, the pre-meeting team sheets had Nicholls riding for Tarnow rather than Rickardsson. As for Kolodziej - and the rest of the Tarnow team, apart from TR - I don't think they like the Torun track that much. As for the GP, I just think it's hard to come into the GP as a track reserve. I think Kolodziej would've done better if he'd been there as the wild card.

Torun versus Tarnow Torun..57 9..N-K Iversen..1,1',2,1' = 5+2 10..B Pedersen..3,2,1',1',3 = 10+2 11..K Slabon..3,2',2,1,2' = 10+2 12..A Dryml..2',3,1',3,1' = 10+3 13..W Jagus..2,3,3,2,2 = 12 14..A Miedzinski..3,2',0,2 = 7+1 15..D Stachowiak = DNR 16..K Zabik..2',1' = 3+2 Tarnow..33 1..T Gollob..2,0,2,3,2,0 = 9 2..M Rempala..0,1,1',0,1 = 3+1 3..J Kolodziej..0,1,0,0,0 = 1 4..J Gollob..1,0 = 1 5..T Rickardsson..3,3,3,3,3,3 = 18 6..K Zielinski..0 = 0 7..P Hlib..1,0,0,0,0 = 1 8..NRN Ht 1..Miedzinski, Zabik, Hlib, Zielinski 5-1 (5-1) Ht 2..Pedersen, T Gollob, Iversen, Rempala 4-2 (9-3) Ht 3..Slabon, Dryml, J Gollob, Kolodziej 5-1 (14-4) Ht 4..Rickardsson, Jagus, Zabik, Hlib 3-3 (17-7) Ht 5..Dryml, Slabon, Rempala, T Gollob [E/F] 5-1 (22-8) Ht 6..Jagus, Miedzinski, Kolodziej, J Gollob 5-1 (27-9) Ht 7..Rickardsson, Pedersen, Iversen, Hlib 3-3 (30-12) Ht 8..Jagus, T Gollob, Rempala, Miedzinski 3-3 (33-15) Ht 9..T Gollob, Iversen, Pedersen, Kolodziej 3-3 (36-18) Ht 10..Rickardsson, Slabon, Dryml, Hlib 3-3 (39-21) Ht 11..Rickardsson, Miedzinski, Iversen, Kolodziej 3-3 (42-24) Ht 12..Dryml, T Gollob, Slabon, Hlib 4-2 (46-26) Ht 13..Rickardsson, Jagus, Pedersen, Rempala [Ex/T] 3-3 (49-29) Ht 14..Pedersen, Slabon, Rempala, Kolodziej 5-1 (54-30) Ht 15..Rickardsson, Jagus, Dryml, T Gollob 3-3 (57-33) Notes: 1..Ht 1 and Zabik replaces Stachowiak for Torun. 2..Ht 2 and Tarnow's T Gollob passes Torun's Iversen to claim second place. 3..Ht 4 and Zabik replaces Stachowiak for Torun. 4..Ht 7 and Hlib replaces Zielinski for Tarnow. 5..Ht 9 and T Gollob replaces J Gollob in a tactical move by Tarnow. 6..Ht 10 and Hlib replaces Zielinski for Tarnow. 7..Ht 11 and Rickardsson replaces J Gollob in a tactical move by Tarnow. 8..Ht 12 and Hlib replaces Zielinski for Tarnow. 9..Ht 13 and Tarnow's Rempala gets himself into mischief at the tapes and is excluded. 10..Ht 14 and it's Pedersen-Slabon for Torun and Rempala-Kolodziej for Tarnow. 11..Ht 15 and it's Dryml-Jagus for Torun and T Gollob-Rickardsson for Tarnow. ----------------------- Bonus points calculated per British Elite League. ----------------------- All details from: http://www.sportowefakty.pl

It was worse than that - 7 points got Leigh Adams into the semis.

Czestochowa versus Bydgoszcz Czestochowa..54 9..R Sullivan..3,3,2',1,1' = 10+2 10..L Richardson..2',2',3,0,2' = 9+3 11..S Ulamek..3,1,0,3,3 = 10 12..S Drabik..1,0,3,2' = 6+1 13..G Hancock..3,3,3,1,2 = 12 14..M Szczepaniak..2',1,0 = 3+1 15..C Hefenbrock..3,1,0 = 4 16..D Romanczuk = DNR Bydgoszcz..36 1..P Protasiewicz..0,2',1',1,0 = 4+2 2..R Sawina..1,3,2,3,3,3 = 15 3..R Kosciecha..2,2,0,2',0 = 6+1 4..K Klecha..0,0 = 0 5..A Jonsson..0,1,1,1',2',1 = 6+2 6..M Jedrzejewski..1 = 1 7..K Buczkowski..0,2,2,0 = 4 8..E Sajfutdinov..0 = 0 Ht 1..Hefenbrock, Szczepaniak, Jedrzejewski, Buczkowski 5-1 (5-1) Ht 2..Sullivan, Richardson, Sawina, Protasiewicz 5-1 (10-2) Ht 3..Ulamek, Kosciecha, Drabik, Klecha 4-2 (14-4) Ht 4..Hancock, Buczkowski, Hefenbrock, Jonsson [Ex/T] 4-2 (18-6) Ht 5..Sawina, Protasiewicz, Ulamek, Drabik 1-5 (19-11) Ht 6..Hancock, Kosciecha, Szczepaniak, Klecha 4-2 (23-13) Ht 7..Sullivan, Richardson, Jonsson, Sajfutdinov 5-1 (28-14) Ht 8..Hancock, Sawina, Protasiewicz, Szczepaniak 3-3 (31-17) Ht 9..Richardson, Sullivan, Jonsson, Kosceicha 5-1 (36-18) Ht 10..Drabik, Buczkowski, Jonsson, Ulamek [E/F] 3-3 (39-21) Ht 11..Sawina, Kosciecha Sullivan, Hefenbrock 1-5 (40-26) Ht 12..Ulamek, Drabik, Protasiewicz, Buczkowski 5-1 (45-27) Ht 13..Sawina, Jonsson, Hancock, Richardson [Ex/T] 1-5 (46-32) Ht 14..Ulamek, Richardson, Jonsson, Protasiewicz 5-1 (51-33) Ht 15..Sawina, Hancock, Sullivan, Kosciecha 3-3 (54-36) Notes: 1..Ht 4 and Bydgoszcz's Jonsson gets himself into mischief at the tapes and is excluded. 2..Ht 7 and Sajfutdinov replaces Jedrzejewski for Bydgoszcz. 3..Ht 9 and Jonsson replaces Klecha in a tactical move by Bydgoszcz. 4..Ht 9 and it's a re-run with all 4 after Kosciecha comes a cropper on the 1st bend. 5..Ht 10 and Buczkowski replaces Jedrzejewski for Bydgoszcz. 6..Ht 11 and Hefenbrock replaces Szczepaniak for Czestochowa. 7..Ht 11 and Sawina replaces Klecha in a tactical move by Bydgoszcz. 8..Ht 12 and Buczkowski replaces Jedrzejewski for Bydgoszcz. 9..Ht 13 and Czestochowa's Richardson gets himself into mischief at the tapes and is excluded. 10..Ht 13 and Czestochowa's Hancock has an engine failure on the final bend when leading - he coasts home for 3rd place. 11..Ht 14 and it's Richardson-Ulamek for Czestochowa and Protasiewicz-Jonsson for Bydgoszcz. 12..Ht 15 and it's Sullivan-Hancock for Czestochowa and Sawina-Kosciecha for Bydgoszcz. ----------------------- Bonus points calculated per British Elite League. ----------------------- All details from: http://www.sportowefakty.pl

Rzeszow versus Wroclaw Rzeszow..44 9..N Pedersen..2,3,3,2,0,1 = 11 10..M Kuciapa R/R 11..T Chrzanowski..3,2,1,0,3,0 = 9 12..T Rempala..2',0,1,1,2',1 = 7+2 13..R Holta..0,2,2,3,3,0 = 10 14..D Stachyra..2',1',1' = 4+3 15..M Les = DNR 16..P Miesiac..3,0,0 = 3 Wroclaw..46 1..J Hampel..3,3,2,1,2' = 11+1 2..K Bjerre..1,1,1' = 3+1 3..H Andersen..0,0,2,3,1',2' = 8+2 4..T Gapinski..1 = 1 5..J Crump..3,2,3,2,3,3 = 16 6..R Jamrozy..1,0,0 = 1 7..N Klindt..0,1,2' = 3+1 8..P Swiderski..3,0,0 = 3 Ht 1..Miesiac, Stachyra, Jamrozy, Klindt 5-1 (5-1) Ht 2..Hampel, Pedersen, Bjerre, Holta [E/F] 2-4 (7-5) Ht 3..Chrzanowski, Rempala, Gapinski, Andersen [Ex/2] 5-1 (12-6) Ht 4..Crump, Holta, Klindt, Miesiac 2-4 (14-10) Ht 5..Hampel, Chrzanowski, Bjerre, Rempala [E/F] 2-4 (16-14) Ht 6..Swiderski, Holta, Stachyra, Andersen 3-3 (19-17) Ht 7..Pedersen, Crump, Rempala, Jamrozy 4-2 (23-19) Ht 8..Holta, Hampel, Bjerre, Miesiac 3-3 (26-22) Ht 9..Pedersen, Andersen, Chrzanowski, Swiderski 4-2 (30-24) Ht 10..Crump, Klindt, Rempala, Chrzanowski 1-5 (31-29) Ht 11..Andersen, Pedersen, Stachyra, Swiderski 3-3 (34-32) Ht 12..Chrzanowski, Rempala, Hampel, Jamrozy 5-1 (39-33) Ht 13..Holta, Crump, Andersen, Pedersen [E/F] 3-3 (42-36) Ht 14..Crump, Andersen, Rempala, Chrzanowski 1-5 (43-41) Ht 15..Crump, Hampel, Pedersen, Holta 1-5 (44-46) Notes: 1..Rzeszow will be utilising rider replacement to cover Kuciapa. 2..Ht 1 and Miesiac replaces Les for Rzeszow. 3..Ht 2 and Holta takes the R/R for Rzeszow. 4..Ht 3 and Wroclaw's Andersen can't beat the 2 minutes and is excluded. 5..Ht 4 and Miesiac replaces Les for Rzeszow. 6..Ht 5 and Rzeszow's Rempala has an engine failure while in 3rd place. 7..Ht 6 and Swiderski replaces Gapinski for Wroclaw. 8..Ht 7 and Rempala takes the R/R for Rzeszow. 9..Ht 8 and Miesiac replaces Stachyra for Rzeszow. 10..Ht 9 and Chrzanowski takes the R/R for Rzeszow. 11..Ht 9 and Swiderski replaces Gapinski for Wroclaw. 12..Ht 10 and Klindt replaces Jamrozy for Wroclaw. 13..Ht 11 and Swiderski replaces Gapinski for Wroclaw. 14..Ht 13 and Pedersen takes the R/R for Rzeszow. 15..Ht 13 and Andersen replaces Bjerre in a tactical move by Wroclaw. 16..Ht 13 and it's a re-run with all 4 after Holta comes a cropper on the 1st bend. 17..Ht 14 and it's Chrzanowski-Rempala for Rzeszow and Bjerre-Andersen for Wroclaw. 18..Ht 14 and Crump replaces Bjerre in a tactical move by Wroclaw. 19..Ht 15 and it's Pedersen-Holta for Rzeszow and Hampel-Crump for Wroclaw. ----------------------- Bonus points calculated per British Elite League. ----------------------- All details from: http://www.sportowefakty.pl

That's more than a little unfair on Bjarne Pedersen. After all, he is wearing the No 6 race jacket this time around.

But we like blaming Ole Olsen young fellow. And we'll continue to blame Ole Olsen.