Subedei

Which, apart from anything else, he isn't.

Not harsh at all. Not the referee's problem that Jonsson can't get his bike to keep going on the start line. It would've been unfair on the other riders to have allowed him a second chance. You don't get a second chance if your engine fails after the tapes have gone up.

Only the global superstar could start with 5 points from 2 rides and still fail to make the semi-finals. The referee was bang on with all his decisions tonight, including the one to exclude Andreas Jonsson. Just a shame he wasn't at Coventry last Monday.

I think more costly for the organisors is more to the point.

Okay, top six in the Ekstraliga go into the medal play-offs, with the bottom two going into a relegation play-off. The medal play-off is: 1 vs 6 ( A ) 2 vs 5 ( B ) 3 vs 4 ( C ) The winners on aggregate and the highest runners up go to the next stage, which is: Winners A vs Highest runners-up Winners B vs Winners C Then the two winners race for Gold and the two losers for Bronze. The losers of the relegation play-off are relegated, the winners go into a race-off with the second team in Liga I, which has a different system. Okay, in Liga I, after everyone has raced home and away against everyone else in the regular season, the league is split into two leagues. The top four have a mini league and the bottom four have a mini league. The points are added to the "regular season" points, but the league split remains. Thus, the "best" team in the lower mini league might accumulate more points than the bottom team in the upper league, but they can't overtake them because their mini-league programme was weaker. The league leaders at the end are promoted and the second team go into a race off with the winners from the Ekstraliga relegation race-off.

Certainly Harris should get a nomination ahead of someone who has scored fewer points than him and hasn't won a GP.

Yes, you do remember correctly. And he had a point, here's the table: http://www.speedwayworld.tv/en/sgpchamp Andersen was 9 points up on Richardson and had a GP win in the bag from 2004. Still, worked out well for Andersen. Gave him the required kick to get his career back on track, while the "favoured" British riders, such as Richardson and the global superstar have drifted. Richardson sank and it looks like the global superstar is taking in water faster than the Titanic.

At the end of the 2005 season Hans Andersen was above Lee Richardson, but Richardson got the nomination and Andersen didn't. Best thing that ever happened to Andersen and one of the worst that happened to Richardson, in speedway terms. Andersen had to address his failure and show his desire to compete at the highest level, Richardson spent the next season (2006) being humiliated on a regular basis.

So, it's not really a serious competition, is that what you're saying?

That would be Dryml, Pedersen and Iversen. Kasprzak was a nominated rider, alongside Lindgren, Jonsson and Harris.

I think Richardson has an outstanding chance of qualifying, as does Walasek. But Walasek is semi-weird - he could go through the card, or he could mess it up. But everything has fallen right for him so far, with the Polish qualification final being at Zielona Gora, his quarter-final at Czestochowa (a former club and a track where he is an acknowledged expert), his semi-final at Motala (his home track in Sweden) and the final at Zielona Gora.

But here is the ultimate manifestation of the entitlement culture that blights British speedway. It doesn't matter that the British riders aren't good enough to be in the GPs. They're entitled to be there. And that's that. Doesn't keithb see that it makes a mockery of the world championship?

Except that he's already been knocked out. No Chris Holder at Zielona Gora for the final.

Fair play to the referee and everyone else involved. That was an ingenius way of sorting it all out. I was impressed. A shame that Matej Kus ended up taking a trip to hospital - I trust it is nothing too serious.

Some really entertaining racing in Gorzow today, but almost as interesting was the interview with Rune Holta: "Rune, you're Norwegian with Polish passport, but do you know any Polish words?" Now that, is a question and a half.

Well, Matej Zagar is the champion, but it looks a bit of a mess for the remaining places on the podium, as six riders are tied on 10 points.

Here: http://www.itvp.pl/event/zuzel/

It was encouraging to see Rob Woffinden trying to quash the hype surrounding his prodigiously talented son in this week's Speedway Star. "But just because he scored nine points in that meeting [the SWC race-off] and had a really good day at the races, in my eyes, it doesn't necessarily mean he's reached international standard yet," were the wise words of Woffinden Snr. If the youngster listens to his father and not the quarter-wits on Sky Sports, young Woffinden might just fulfill his potential.

Not sure, but it seems over 11,000 spectators at Togliatti today. That's a lot.

No, he didn't ride.

Mauger had drive, determination and will power, something completely lacking in the global superstar and Harris. Nothing was handed to Mauger on a plate. They've had it too easy.

Not sure the uber-golem could cope with the weirdness of it all. Mind you, with the GP qualifying final at Zielona Gora and home favourite (and semi-weird) Grzegorz Walasek in the field, things could take a turn for the weird in the GPs next season.

Well, he fronted up for interviews to tell the world that they were chasing the right set-up, while all Tatum MBE seems to do is carry his crash helmet.

He needs someone to tell him a few home truths, rather than sycophantically reassure him of his greatness.

Seventh in 2003 is the global superstar's best final placing.