Ben91

Doyle and Sayfutdinov were both ahead of him twice. King once, which could be classed as a 50-50 heat. Thompson was the only real surprise. It’s important to look beyond just the numbers sometimes.

“Never argue with stupid people, they’ll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” Mark Twain.

Aren’t you big and clever.

He may only have one suit for the season. They’re not cheap and sponsors will want their sponsorship shown, particularly in a TV meeting. Not vintage Bomber but wouldn’t say he’s past it. Thompson was the only rider to beat him last night that would have been a major upset when looking at the heats on paper. As TV meetings go it was entertaining but as always overproduced. One minute races don’t need so many cuts and different camera angles. Save the fancy shots and helmet cam for replays.

There’s no misunderstanding. People just don’t agree with you. It happens in life.

When the source of information is Facebook comments you know something is seriously wrong.

Lewis Bridger I’d suspect.

We got a medal. To finish second to Poland in Poland is no disgrace. Turns out all that criticism was, and still is, wrong.

It was the correct decision. They’re building a team spirit and riders such as Brennan and Ellis have time to improve still. Any criticism of our team or the management after missing out on the World Cup in the final race is a little silly if you ask me.

It’s sport. Sometimes it is entertaining, sometimes it isn’t. A minimum requirement should be that tracks are prepared to encourage good racing however. After that it’s down to the riders.

A lot of emphasis is placed on the word development in the title when maybe more could be done to encourage it.

That’s a very different type of Sunday evening entertainment…

Loose lips sink ships as they say. No looser lips than those in the speedway world.

I often think that mental toughness and willingness to put bike and body into more risky positions is what sets Zmarzlik apart. That in turn gives him an aurora of invincibility. If you’re ahead of him it’s very rarely if, but when he’ll catch you.

I’d be very (pleasantly) surprised if Brennan reaches world standard but I hope you’re right of course. Boughen looks like he could be a real talent in years to come if his career is handled right, again the next World Cup would probably be too soon to expect him to be at that level though.

Thoroughly enjoyed last night’s meeting. A real shame that we couldn’t get it over the line. After binning it and costing Poland the SoN final the other year though it was a nice redemption moment for Janowski. While I’m glad we’re not having a World Cup every year (it devalues the tournament), I do wonder how competitive we will be in 2026.

I’ve seen worse meetings and worse tracks. But I think I’d have turned it off earlier on if I hadn’t had a bet on France to score over 19 points. Wasn’t much of a contest but that can happen in sport. Hopefully tomorrow is more competitive.

Makes sense. No different to a criminal court. If you admit your guilt you’ll get a more lenient sentence for honesty (and saving time and expense on hearings, admin etc). As for second tests in this case, both samples need to be taken at the same time for the testing process to maintain integrity.

As is the way it should be done. People awaiting trial for murder don’t get bail, they’re kept in custody until their trial. It stops them reoffending if they are guilty.

When Rye House moved into the Premiership I saw a bloke I know and he said “amazing, we get to see Chris Harris every week,” as we had signed him. I told him we’d actually been short changed, even if we’d not signed Harris we’d still have seen him most weeks.

This is the issue with democracy in sport. It can be manipulated. The simple answer has always been to stop letting the promoters write the hymn sheet. That means a real overarching governing body with a “these are the rules. Get on with it or get lost,” attitude. The problem is that promoters won’t cede power for the greater good. If their track is alright for the next season then to hell with the rest.

No brakes. No gears. No effort. Use it or lose it.

There are roughly 21 weeks from the start of April until the end of August. If a team happens to be in contention for every competition they race in they will have a maximum of 16 home meetings. That’s assuming both cup competitions are completed by the end of August and that the play-offs (another three home meetings potentially) will be staged in September/October. There is plenty of time to race a full season. The play-offs are needlessly convoluted with over half the league competing these days too. They could be cut back to the traditional format or, even better, scrapped altogether. The team that finishes top wins the league. That would give even more time to get all the meetings completed at all tracks with no issues. It’s not hard.

Video does Tai no favours at all. He shouldn’t have done that. Even if the fan was in an area he shouldn’t have been.

I work 12 months a year. They know the industry they’re getting into and what it entails. We also bend over backwards for riders here letting them double up so they don’t have to get proper jobs to subsidise their racing, to the detriment of the product. The least they can do is take their holidays in the off season. They take the P enough as it is arguably.