Subedei

I gather ZKZ's president Robert Dowhan isn't short of money either. But does it really matter? From what Mateusz has said, the Ekstra Liga will have 10 teams in 2007, so enough room for ZKZ and Ostrow.

I see the Kasprzak brothers have signed for Leszno. Presumably this means Robert Kasprzak is likely to get his licence back.

If they don't get Crump, Wroclaw's line-up will be looking pretty poor.

The Holiday Inn Express is, in fact, in the New Town. In fact, it's just off Wenceslas Square, opposite the main train station. The Holiday Inn is adjacent to the Prague Congress Centre, formerly known as the Palace of Culture. That is just beyond Prague's second castle, Vysehrad. The Crowne Plaza is situated about a mile or so from Prague Castle in a mainly residential district. But it is in Prague's finest socialist-realist building - a wonderful Stalinist "wedding cake" skyscraper. The Intercontinental Hotel is located in the Old Town on the banks of the Vltava in the former Jewish Ghetto. You can see it from the Old-New Synagogue.

Some would say that the sport's greatest scandal is the 40 points limit just introduced by the BSPA.

I see that. Zielona Gora are certainly busy little bees this close season. They've already signed, as far as I can tell, twelve riders, with possibly Billy Hamill to follow. A good job Mr Dowhan is a wealthy young fellow. I see that Adam Shields has signed for Lublin.

They both failed, they should both be out. The qualification criteria was quite simple: you finished in the top 8 and you qualified. Nicholls didn't, Chrzanowski didn't. But you keep trying to justify it, although deep down you know Nicholls is only there because he's British. It's been 21 GPs since he last made a final.

I rather think you've still got one wrong young gigalo.

Assuming you mean "Nicholls finished 1 place off qualifying", that means Nicholls, for the second year running, didn't qualify. Chrzanowski, on the other hand, did qualify for 2005.

Why are Scott Nicholls and Lee Richardson in the GPs? It's an equally, if not more, valid question. Unlike Nicholls and Richardson, Chrzanowski was in the 2005 GPs on merit. He qualified, they didn't.

I'll save energy and just name two: Scott Nicholls and Lee Richardson.

You could be on the right lines there frigbo, take a look at: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...showtopic=23030

Judging from the Unia Tarnow website, the Gollobs are on the transfer list, together with Robert Wardzala and Grzegorz Rempala: http://www.unia.tarnow.pl/index1.html And, apparently, on free transfers.

I've thought all along that the brothers Gollob could be leaving Tarnow, mainly because, with Kolodziej and Marcin Rempala moving into the ranks of seniors, Jacek Gollob's place in the team would be under threat. And, as Mateusz explains, Mr Gollob Snr won't allow a team to exclude Jacek from the line-up. No place for Jacek means no Tomek:

Ingels might actually have made it to the top if he'd been allowed to join Wolverhampton during the winter of 1984-85. But, from memory, he wasn't allowed a work permit after failing to hit a 6 point average in 1984. Eventually, he was allowed a work permit (after the cigar-chomping Bamforth banged his fists) and joined Belle Vue. Wolverhampton's track would've been better suited to Ingels than Belle Vue's monster Hyde Road circuit.

I guess that depends on whether there will still be "permanent wildcards" for 2007. If, say, BSI keep back 2-3 places for their "picks", Nicholls and Richardson might not bother with the qualifiers.

And Polish champion Janusz Kolodziej will be staying with Unia Tarnow. I'm guessing the final piece of the Bydgoszcz jigsaw is Robert Kosciecha from Gdansk? Assuming it can't be Tomasz Gollob, the only other possible "Polish" rider from the Ekstra Liga top 10 is Rune Holta.

That hasn't been decided yet. I notice one of the qualifiers is on Tarnow's huge track in Poland.

Unofficial fixtures this Friday with the official fixtures on 09-12-05. I wonder if JC had anything to do with Stead signing for Torun? After all, Stead and Crump are team mates at Belle Vue. Perhaps Stead signing for Torun indicates that Crump will follow him. Or will Greg Hancock be going to Torun with Crump heading to Wroclaw?

No 17 could be Richard Davey (?). No 18 is Steve Naylor.

I've often thought that where British promoters went wrong with Tomasz Gollob is in never considering Jacek. It started as soon as they came over here in 1992 for the Pride of the East meeting. Kings Lynn were only interested in Tomasz, but they didn't get him. And he didn't linger too long at Foxhall. It's pretty well known that the Gollobs are a close family and that the father is a dominating personality. Maybe if Ipswich, or another club were to approach Jacek, they'd find they got Tomasz as part of the deal.

Phil White rode for Scunthorpe in 1980 when they were the Stags. And, judging from the photograph in 1981's yearbook, he wore leathers similar to those in the photograph. So, in conclusion, falcace could well be right. I'd go with Phil White.

Which could give Unia Tarnow a top 5 of: 1..T Rickardsson 2..M Rempala 3..J Kolodziej 4..S Nicholls 5..T Gollob Ouch. But would Tomasz Gollob want to stay with a club that had no place for brother Jacek?

Just looking at the team building on sportowefakty.pl for the Ekstra Liga, Bydgoszcz have 4 juniors for next season, Gdansk 4 juniors for next season and Rzeszow 5 juniors for next season. You have to fear for the future of the juniors if teams are going to be allowed to sign foreign riders at will.

As I've said all along, it all depended on the clubs remaining disciplined. But now a couple of clubs have broken ranks, presumably in search of quick and easy success. If they go too far, Polish speedway could suffer in the future. British short-termism comes to Poland.