T.N.T.

Any news on the latest leader board Steve after Cardiff ! Think I may enjoy it when it comes out

I missed everyone by the sounds of it as I had to try and sell a few tickets first and got mixed up as to where the POW was so never got there till about 5pm. I met up with Shortoi for the first time to help get her tickets. Full Throttle then pointed out PUG06 and JOANNE 1515 who were walking away from the pub and saw the usual crew of Lora, Gangsta (The Hammer) with his usual sexy ladies on each arm ! Saw CrazySue walk across the pub but failed to get her attention. Will have to get there earlier next year as I really wanted to meet up with Rabbit, Shazzybird, Suzie Q, Lion Tamer, GoddesS, Paulco, Nevs, Rico and a host of others. Had my TNT jacket on as that hd inside pockets where as my Wulf Sport Wolves jacket doesnt.

OK so I am a Wolves fan, but David Howe should be in there without question as he is on form the third best English rider this year. Chris - So you were not impressed by his GP Qualifiying score or the 4 points he scored at Cardiff ? How much did Stead and Kennett score in the Qualifiers ? Why was Howe riding at Cardiff and not Stead or Kennett ? With the round at Coventry, I would have used Oliver Allen ahead of Stead as he has been brilliant over the last 18 months. Harris, Nicholls, Richardson, Howe, Allen - res Kennett

I fully understand the comments made on both sides of this thread, but having worked previously in the security side at a pretty high level, I will add my take on the matter had it happened when I was doing concerts or personal appearances. Firstly you are given or plan out where there are areas of concern for safety to either observers or more importantly the people you are there to try and look after. On this occasion, the green netting is placed there mainly for the safety of the observers, but also forms a barrier of safety for the riders from people trying to get near them. These security staff would have been informed that no one was allowed near the fence for a number of safety issues and should anyone attempt to either break or climb that barrier then they must be stopped straight away. Do you stop them and ask what they are doing ? Seems the sensible thing to do to many. However having broken the barrier of safety you should not stop in your aim of stopping and clearing away people that have broken this safety area and should be removed using reasonable force (usually an arm lock and a form of restraint) without asking questions. Had this person been aiming to cause harm to any of the riders then you dont stop and ask questions as a few seconds slow reactions could be the difference in stopping any possible harm aimed at the riders. It may seem a jobs worth attitude to eject this person, but thats the job. Protect the people you are there to protect which seemed to have been done in this case.

Next year Sweden will get to nominate one rider to ride in the GP's (or 2 if AJ misses cut) and it would be a suprise to see them not nominate Fredrik Lindgren who is only 8 points behind Lindback despite riding only one round. Britain look like having Harris going through as a top 8, but if Scott misses the cut (again) can we expect to see anyone apart from Scott nominated again ? Think this year will be the last for Bjarne Pedersen, Rune Holta and Wieslaw Jagus with possibly Tomasz Gollob having to rely on a nomination to join Hampel. I predict that Nicki Pedersen, Jason Crump, Leigh Adams, Greg Hancock, Hans Andersen, Andreas Jonsson, Chris Harris and Jaroslaw Hampel will be the top 8 this year. Depending on the qualifiers, I would say the four nominations next year will be Fredrik Lindgren, Scott Nicholls, Tomasz Gollob and Matej Zagar. Hoping Fredrik will make it through the qualifiers but if not then Mikael Max

Wasnt he South African ?

The 1999 contest cant count as that was a junior match after the closed at Monmore Green, The last official DW Tophy match was in 1996 and Wolves won easily and to this day w=Wolves have gone 21 years unbeaten

Think it could well be the same Scott Autrey, especially the the bit about previously being a speedway rider for Exeter.

Antal Kosco for one was a good second string at Bradford. There have been a few from East Germany but cant remember their names. Think one was Leif something ? Peter Prinsloo - Rhodesia Kyle Legualt is from Canada. There have been other riders from Canada, but did they ride over here ?

It had to be Shazzybird to change the tone didn't it

What got me was WHY oh WHY did Hans Andersen choose gate 4 in his semi-final ? It was obvious that he was going to get pushed wide in the first bend and even after hitting the dirt once, he still tried the same line in the rerun. Not complaining as it did me a few favours in the GP Betting Game

One good piece of Sky interviewing went un noticed though Scott Nicholls said "I have really got the this going since Lonigo last year" we all know what he did there after the interview dont we !!!

Having been to just 4 at Cardiff, last nights was by far the best so far. 1- The track despite minimal dirt produced good racing 2- There was hard but fair racing 3 - The crowd was without doubt the biggest yet 4 - The start line girls get better and better 5 - Both Brits through to the Semi-Finals 6 - A Brit in the final 7 - A British Winner 8 - A Wolves rider in the 16 riders 9 - Great Presentation 10 - Great Atmosphere 11 - Great Stadium 12 - No injuries 13 - A full line up with no changes 14 - A few crashes with riders walking back 15 - Until the final, the high light - Nicki Pedersen falling in the semi-final and wondering who pushed him Overall - 95/100 5 taken off for 500ml Coke @ £1.60, Mars Bars 80p etc etc EDIT; Also Crumpy getting me loads in the GP Competition !!! Shame about Hans Rico

He is the SCB track inspector so has the control over it and while there was some good racing, the track should or could have had more dirt packed down and watered slower to make a much better outside line. Many of the passes were when riders hooked up, hit a rut or lost their line. Still a great meeting and racing thought. JCB failed to bring the steam rollers in so the next best was a track walk by Chivs

Am I not right in saying that the Final in German (heat 23) will determine the £100,000 winner and not the overall champion of the series. That way all 16 are up for the money and there will be one race for £100,000 making it the richest prize in motor sport as advertised - roughly £1,600 a second makes David Beckham look poor ! There were large queues of people buying tickets at various points, but the main one being across the road from The Prince of Wales in ticketline. I helped get Shortoi two tickets and spoke to a number in the queue looking to buy tickets

Were they sitting in the Royal Box then ? Great show by Bomber who continues to suprise us with some hefty scores that is making him a favourite for a top 8 finish at the end. Great night, good racing and a great pass on the final bend to crown a new champion.

The so called OFFICIAL figure of just over 41k seems a little low considering the main spaces were on the home straight upper level and the 3rd / 4th bend upper level. Everwhere else seemed pretty full and it was by far the biggest crowd at Cardiff so far. Maybe there was 41k tickets sold before the day, but there were loads of people buying tickets on the day at various ticket points. I would estimate the figure to be 50-55k.

Well Done Bomber

I'm going for a Grand Final of Jason Crump, Hans Andersen, Bjarne Pedersen and Andreas Jonsson. Going for Crumpy to step up to the plate beating Hans into second and AJ third. David Howe hopefully reaches the Semi-Finals.

If a bookie takes too many bets on a certain rider, horse etc then they just lay a bet off with another bookie.

As many stand outside the POW - Would it be reasonable to suggest a group of us get some portable BBQ's from Wilko's and some burgers from Iceland and sell them during the mid afternoon If this is possible, maybe we could give all the profits to Garry Stead and Stuart Robson ?

Heard that David Howe beat Moller in a run-off for the reserve position in the next round.

Think I may do the same Jay - Sausage, Egg, Bacon and Chilli Con Carne Well they do 2 for £5 so best not waste it !!

Just working out when to set off as me and my 7 year-old son will be coming down and we plan on making a day of it. PS; You will spot Owen easily as he will have a big England inflatable hand with David Howe written on it and a bit Water Pistol