Anders

Thank God you had noticed that, I could have sworn I saw that announcement in the afternoon as well, but I thought I had gone crazy (or at least lost my memory completely) when I saw that the meeting had been held after all when I came home later that night. So it turns out I´m not crazy after all. Great!

That´s a bit difficult since World Speedway Homepage doesn´t exist anymore, for most of these meetings, Sportowefakty.pl have live updates but it could be problems navigating on that site since it is only in Polish. I run a website for Swedish results, Swedish Speedway Results (English version for menu only, fixture list and results are in Swedish but it should be a bit easier than Sportowefakty.pl anyway), in which I have an international section which I try to keep updated. Most of my information from these meetings I gather on forums or other sites though, in those cases my source is always listed.

The International federation FIM's website has the fixtures listed as follow: U21 Individual Championship: May 13th, Gorican (Croatia), Qualifier 1 May 14th, Sheffield (Great Britain), Qualifier 2 May 14th, Holsted (Denmark), Qualifier 3 (Scandinavian Championship) June 11th, Leszno (Poland), Semifinal 1 July 2nd, Pocking (Germany), Semifinal 2 September 2nd, Terenzano (Italy), Final The U21 World Team Championship: June 5th, Abensberg (Germany), Semifinal 1 June 17th, Kumla (Sweden), Semifinal 2 September 17th, Rybnik (Poland), Final

SWEDISH NATIONAL U21/U19 QUALIFIER at Linköpings Motorstadion, Linköping Saturday April 29th 2006 Attendence: Approximately 150-200 *-*-* Sebastian Aldén scored a maximum fifteen points when the national qualifying round for the World U21 and European U19 championship was held at Linköping earlier today. The track had got plenty of rain before the start and proved a bit tricky for the riders, but it got better as long as the meeting progressed and the top ride came in the final heat as Lindgren gated but was chased down and passed by Lindbäck on the second lap. The result didn´t come as a particular surprise even though Robert Pettersson did look very impressive with ten points scored, despite a dodgy looking exclusion for bringing down Robert Henderson in heat twelve. Final score: 1 (1) Sebastian Aldén, Team Dalakraft, 15p. ( 3 3 3 3 3 ) 2 (11) Antonio Lindbäck, MasarnaAvesta, 13p. ( 2 3 2 3 3 ) 3 (4) Fredrik Lindgren, MasarnaAvesta, 13p. ( 2 3 3 3 2 ) 4 (8) Sebastian Bengtsson, MasarnaAvesta, 12p. ( 3 2 3 2 2 ) 5 (10) Robert Pettersson, Bajen Speedway, 10p. ( 3 3 X 3 1 ) 6 (14) Ricky Kling, Luxo Stars, 10p. ( 3 2 2 2 1 ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 (3) Robin Törnqvist, Valsarna, 8p. ( 1 2 F 2 3 ) 8 (13) Viktor Bergström, Vargarna, 8p. ( 2 1 2 1 2 ) 9 (5) Thomas H Jonasson, VMS Elit, 6p. ( R 2 3 1 0 ) 10 (9) Linus Eklöf, Smederna, 6p. ( F 0 1 2 3 ) 11 (17) Robert Henderson, Team Bikab, 6p. ( 2 1 1 M 2 ) 12 (15) Robin Aspegren, VMS Elit, 4p. ( 1 R 2 1 0 ) 13 (12) John Larsson, Getingarna, 4p. ( 1 0 1 1 0 ) 14 (6) Linus Jansson, Gävle, 3p. ( 1 1 0 F 1 ) 15 (16) Jens Oskarsson, Gävle, 3p. ( 0 1 1 0 Fx ) 16 (2) Christian Isomettä, Luxo Stars, 1p. ( 0 F 0 0 1 ) 17 (18) Christian Ingesson, Vikingarna, 0p. ( 0 ) 18 (7) Billy Forsberg, Västervik, 0p. ( Fn N N N N ) Qualifying heat: Robin Aspegren, Jens Oskarsson, Robert Henderson, Christian Ingesson After a first bend accident between Thomas H Jonasson and Billy Forsberg in heat two, Forsberg withdrew as he had nothing left to ride on, his place was taken by Robert Henderson who finished third in the qualifying heat and initially became the first track reserve, until replacing Forsberg. Aldén, Lindbäck, Lindgren, Bengtsson, Pettersson and Kling advances to the U21 Nordic Championship at Holsted, Denmark. Pettersson, Kling, Törnqvist, Jonasson, Eklöf and Henderson advances to the U19 Nordic Championship at Elgane, Norway. Complete heat details are available at Swedish Speedway Results.

If I have understood things correctly a Polish team should be constructed in this way: 1. Anyone 2. Anyone 3. Anyone 4. Anyone 5. Anyone 6. U21-rider 7. U21-rider 8. U23-rider Riders 1-7 all have scheduled heats, the number 8 is optional and have no scheduled heats. If the number 8 rider are an U21 he can take rides for anyone of 1-7, if he are 22 or 23 he may only take rides for number 1-5. Bjerre is 22 this year and therefore could only take rides from riders 1-5, Hampel, Swiderski, Andersen, Gapinski and Crump in the meeting you mention. Any Polish forum members should correct me if I´m wrong...

Yes, a shocking result IMO! I never thought Grudziadz would win it but I surely expected them to put up a fight, after all their top five for today were Krzyzaniak, Bajerski, Robacki, Fijalkowski and Staszek. I thought it looked quite solid for a Liga 1 team and I´m very excited to see what they´ll do vs Lublin next week. Equally surprised over the sub-standard performence by Gorzow at Gniezno with Paluch, Kylmäkorpi and (former Gniezno-rider?) Lukaszewski doing nothing at all. Happy for the way Ruud performed though, great done Ruud!

Thanks for the summary/translation, much appreciated!

In an article (link) on Sportowefakty his (Dzik) name is mentioned along side riders that are listed in Sportowefakty´s squad lists, such as Nigmatzyanow (Torun), Truminski (Torun), Pietrzyk (Ostrow), Frankow (Lublin), Baran (Opole), Jankowski and Jedrzejkiewicz. Are those riders confirmed signings for Gdansk, as loan riders from other club, or are they only rumours? A team with those riders and Krzysztof Jablonski would walk Liga 2 with the only possible team to challenge would be Opole. Anyway, I can´t wait until the first round of the Polish league, it looks highly interesting.

What could the line-up be like? Rickardsson, G Rempala/S Burza, J Gollob, Kolodziej, T Gollob, Hlib, Dzik, M Rempala? That would look very strong indeed.

I was wondering if someone could help me with answers to some questions regarding Polish speedway in 2006... 1) In general, what are the rule changes for 2006? 2) When nominating a line-up, there are now 8 riders available in every meeting if I´m not mistaken. How are you able to nominate the riders? How many schedule rides does each rider have and what are the rules for reserve replacements? 3) I had a look at Sportowefakty and even though the season is closing in as the first round should be held this Sunday, I´ve found several squads lacking a full quota of riders, or even any riders at all. In Liga 1, what does the squad for GKS Gwardia Wybreze Gdansk look like? (They have only five names at the moment) 4) Another question regarding squads, this time in Liga 2. What are the complete squads for Polonia Pila (three riders listed), Wanda Krakow (none listed so far) and GKZ Gdansk (none listed)? All help is very much appreciated (sp?).

Jonas and Andreas are not brothers, but they are related somehow, can´t remember exactly, that´s too many of them Messings. Törnqvist has made two season on 500cc for Valsarna in Allsvenskan, averaging 5.09 in 2004 and 6.04 in 2005, mostly from reserve. He qualified to the 2004 Swedish U21 final but missed it due to injury (I think). In 2005 he surprisingly missed the qualification for the Swedish U21 final but he was a regular in the U21 national team and made the European U19 final, finishing 15th.

All meetings in Sweden for the 2006 season can be found on our federation´s website - www.svemo.se. For Kaparna (who rides in Allsvenskan): Go to: http://www.svemo.se/calendar.php?first=1 Click on "Visa fullständig kalender (pop-up)" Choose "Speedway" where it says "Dragracing" Choose "Allsvenskan" where it says "Övrigt" "Information regarding the 2006 season will be updated on this website with start on March 1st" is the translation. The squads and fixture lists are finished, but the work with databases on speedway.nu will take some times, I imagine.

Yes, the first round of the Swedish Elitserien isn´t until May 2nd.

Opole are looking really strong with Stojanowski, Flis and Piatraszko among others, a team with strength in depth. They must be favourites in Liga 2 even though they will be pushed by Poznan with a top duo like Huszcza and Skornicki. Looking at the Liga 2 squads, I see that Krakow hasn´t signed anyone yet. How are things going for them? Didn´t they pull out mid-season last year or the year before? Will they pull out once again? Who!? It seems like a Russian name....Jeez, I really need to study the Russian speedway scene better than I have done previously. In Liga 1, what about Gdansk? Are there any quality riders left to sign so they´ll be able to compete in Liga 1 or will they drop down another league, to Liga 2?

All paperworks should be at the federation on November 1st at noon. Two transfer windows were open during the 2005 season but I don´t know how many, or when, they are open during 2006. Sorry.

Ah, yes of course.

4 Swedish miles that it, 40 kilometers.

All Swedish clubs meet in Skövde on the weekend of November 19-20th so at the latest, the fixture list (for Elitserien) will be agreed upon then. It may even be release before that meeting. For the other leagues, such as Allsvenskan and Division 1, I don´t know.

There will definitely be no division 1-team for VMS Elit in 2006, nothing is ruled out for 2007 though. As for our neighbours Luxo Stars, I can´t see that there will be a division 1-team there either, assets Engstrand and Åström has already been placed in the squad of partner team Valsarna. I can´t see it happening, but then of course I could be wrong.

Hampel has NOT signed (yet?), he is just rumoured to have been signed by VMS Elit.

Not in Vetlanda anyway and I can´t think all the other tracks count paying people only. On every official referee scoresheet and reported on speedway.nu, the attendence figure is the total amount of people at the arena, including youngsters (in Vetlanda all born in 1988 or later) and VIP-people, although those actually pay the entrance fee, not at the gate but with an invoice afterwards.

A bit late but I must clarify this: David makes the gate, closely followed by Mattias who takes Billy wide throughout bends one/two. Billy then suffer an engine failure on lap two and the home riders can get their fifth 5-1 of the night. So no Ef while leading for Billy, not sure it was an Ef at all, I think he gave up (possibly on a sick engine).

Luxo Stars have been known as Team Svelux (1997-2001), Dackarna (1950-1996) and Smålänningarna (1949). Team Bikab have only been around since 2002, back then they were named Torshälla but from 2003 and forward they´ve had the name of Team Bikab.

Just to clarify things... Team Dalakraft (previously known as 'Gasarna') is the 2nd team to Masarna, it´s not actually Masarna under a new name. Both teams runs their home meetings in Avesta. Same with Team Bikab which is the 2nd team to Smederna, both runs at Eskilstuna.

No news on Kuciapa on the Indianerna´s website. BTW, Kolodziej is listed on Rospiggarna´s webiste as a squad member for 2005.