spanner47

Not even proper football, some pointless meaningless friendly with umpteen substitutes. Anyway, lovely weather here in Sweden, looking forward to my first visit to Norrkoping tonight.

Aljack, Do you think Jose Mourinho could take Wales/Ireland/Scotland to a Football world cup final? We've got no riders good enough to get into the GP qualifier, we've got no riders good enough to get into the world U21 final, we dont even bother sending a team to the world U21 team event. Yet some people think it's the managers fault, unbelievable!!! We are light years behind the big 4 that rode last night, and looking into the future, we can only get worse, there's little or no talent coming through. Aljack, take a look at who has been nominated for the wildcard at the U21 final at Poole, yes, your favourite rider, a Premier league reserve with a 4pt average. Yet plonkers like you still think a change of manager could change things, get real!!!!

It'll be interesting to see the effort put in by the Russians tonight. Where would Bondarenko rather be on Thursday night? Earning money riding for Leicester or losing money riding for his country. This scenario probably wont happen, as i think the Czechs should scrape into 3rd place.

The gate positions are on willstaxi's sheet but not on M paul's. P.S. Just printed off the Kandysoft one. it's the best in my opinion.

It's under a fiver to get into Gorzow on Thursday, so i dont think they're expecting the Poles to be riding.

Does anyone know full Russian line up yet? Or is it a case of seeing who turns up at practice?

At least we got a good meeting at Stralsund on the Saturday, luckily it started at 3pm as we had the Mother of all storms 20 mins after the meeting ended. Couldn't understand why everybody went into the stadium yesterday though, we sat in the car and we knew there was no way it was going to happen.

Went there for a U21 qualifier last season on a Saturday night, not many that night either. Shame, because it's a very good track.

[Huge shock to see Lasse struggle with only 5 points! Herxheim is one of the smallest tracks on the continent, maybe thats why it suited some of the brits. It's a small track inside a huge one, you need binoculars to watch the racing from the stand.

In my experience, you cant hire a car in Poland and take it into the Ukraine. Rzeszow-Lviv is ok by train, but Chervonograd is easier from Warsaw.

I can only think of 3 reasons. 1, We're very weak at this level and dont want to be embarrassed. 2, If we did scrape into the final, it's far too much hassle and expense to get to Russia. 3, The powers that be in this country obviously dont give a stuff!!! I'll be surprised if the Yanks can muster a side to go to the Ukraine.

It makes you wonder how many more titles Tomasz could have won if Ole had departed earlier. It cant be coincidence that as soon as there's some dirt on the tracks, Tomasz walks away with the title.

Feel sorry for those on the long tour, missed out on a meeting last weekend too after Gorzow was switched to the sunday.

I was refering to the british in general, 2nd or 3rd is success for us. Hans said last night 2nd is losing <when was the last time a Brit said that>. But when interviewed the brits gave the impression they'd be chuffed with a medal. I'm sure our lads have a better attitude than some of the others, i hope they'll fight for every point and i'm sure they will. But i cant see the danes busting a gut if they cant win it, unlike us they expect to win, realistically we're hoping for a medal. I certainly wasn't slagging off the british riders or their attitude. As in most sports it's not the attitude that lets us down, it's just a matter of not being good enough.

Seems like the Brits will be dead chuffed with a medal, unlike the Danes and Swedes who are there to win. If the poles have a big lead, will the scandinavians take it easy? As Hans said last night "being 2nd is the 1st loser". The Brits dont have that attitude, 3rd would be a massive achievement for them.

Luckily me and the wife picked a good long weekend to go. Leaving in the morning to watch the Polish individual semi at Lodz tomorrow evening.

Isn't the meeting in Mureck on the 10th october? Mind you, if there's any rain about they just call off because they think the crowd wont turn up, it happened to 2 friends of mine at Natschbach earlier in the season. When i turned up at Mureck yesterday it looked ok to me, and there was 2 hours for it to dry out, and they just said sod it, we dont think spectators will turn up as it's been raining. Luckily we got a good meeting in Ljubljana on the Saturday. Best website for this part of the world is still speedway.org just click renntermine 10

Cant imagine Ryan Fisher going all that way to be a reserve. But if Madsen gets kicked out, then i assume Ryan takes his place and poor old Eddie will have a pointless trip to Russia.

He didn't ride in the practice, and when he started his bikes up before the meeting the other riders knew something was up. His bike made a loud noise, there's didn't. They tried to take if off, but the ref <Jim Lawrence> got there in time. He was adamant that he should be thrown out, but the jury <of three> let him ride. This was premeditated CHEATING, he had split the exhaust, took something out <i assume the baffle> and made it look perfect. We saw his father talking to King Ole, we can only assume that Ole had something to do with it, as every rider we spoke to was convinced he should be thrown out <even the other Danes>.

This is the 3rd time i've tried to reply to this, but nothing happened. cant be bothered to keep typing it out but Madsen was found to be CHEATING, but amazingly <and against the wishes of the ref> he was allowed to ride.

Me and the Wife were also at Nassjo last night, as you say Anders, a great finish to the meeting and fully deserved.

Just had a look on google. Is Wayville the track that appears walking distance from Adelaide airport?

As the forecast now looks a bit better, hopefully T.O. will stick to his promise of leaving some dirt on the track. This G.P. has been "unpredictable" over the past few years. Only thing we can be sure off is a small crowd, they put those seats in on the back straight and more than doubled the admission prices last year, i assume it's still overpriced this year.

We walked it quite easily about 20-25 mins. No chance of selling out, as long as you get there in good time. When you get inside be careful where you sit, most of the better seats are reserved for season ticket holders, and it's not that obvious which ones they are <well it wasnt last season>, some friends of mine got moved a few times, most annoying just before the start.