spook

No what was a good selection problem was knowing who to leave out of Malcolm Simmonds, Kenny Carter, Dave Jessup, Peter Collins, Michael Lee, Les Collins, Chris Morton etc etc ....... This really is a difficult selection issue for Jim Lynch and as much as some of us think it is a no brainer in terms of building for the future we dont know what the targets are that he has been given... if indeed he has any

hey thx very much for these can anyone seed the first one please?

dont forget Silverbee.......... only .75

Subedei to be quite honest i'm not interested ... nit pick with someone else please........ you have an opinion ... so does everyone The much greater point is that there is something Jim Lynch can do to help for future years, that people being in denial isnt going to help, and that some very solid and attentive help is required from the powers that be with both policy and structure to help slowly solve this problem

is he? Certainly once upon a time... in fact once upon a time he was the world number 2............... for me he is in the pepe protasiewicz bracket....... can be as good as anyone on his day and can still do a job but has slipped from being world class now The point I was making Sub was to compare the class of the teams and to illustrate the size of the issue for GB now for anyone who is still under the illusion that we are anything other than a sinking ship I would like to nail the point home with a jackhammer but I dont have the British League/Elite League averages handy for the last 25 years to show the gradual decline

am I right in remembering Morten Risager winning the ace of herts a few years back? and also that Holder was well off the pace (until ht15) in the IOW league match at Rye last season? such a shame that Sajfutdinov and Sitera wont be at Rye ...... but on paper the prospects for the Brits look good

I didnt Indeed

I just cannot believe some of the posters on here....... so you really think we have decent riders do you? How would we assess what is 'decent'? Surely we are talking Internationally here? OK so lets look at the teams Poland Tomasz Gollob Jaroslaw Hampel Wieslaw Jagus Rune Holta Krystof Kasprzak Janusz Kolodziej The Poles have 6 bonafide world class riders with a queue of guys behind them who can step in and do a good job Denmark Nicki Pedersen Hans Andersen Bjarne Pedersen Niels Kristian Iversen The Danes have 4........ they dont have much depth behind them but they still have at least 3 guys who can do a good job...... Australia Jason Crump Leigh Adams Chris Holder Davey Watt (depending on what season he is deciding to have) Australia have 4 as well..... but they also have depth behind them to step in and do a good job Sweden Freddie Lindgren Andreas Jonsson Peter Karlsson Sweden have 3 imo..... they are looking similar to us but the difference is that they have youngsters coming through who are likely to make it Great Britain So using the above for grading the quality of our team this is what I think we would have Nicholls Harris Rico (depending on what season he is deciding to have) we have 3 ..... they arent as good as the standard of the big guns in the other teams apart from Sweden and every year it requires a monumental effort to raise their game for the SWC.............. simply put we dont have depth behind them and we dont have many youngsters coming through who are looking like the real deal.............. add to that the most likely difference in backing that the guys will receive from their 'federation' compared to the Poles and the Danes and Star Lady is spot on It is not a case that we are giving them no chance before they start........... realistically they have no chance already! ........ and while people live in denial nothing will be done about it for the future and for those who are rushing to Jim Lynch's defence ........... I thought he concentrated on the right attitude last night..... positivity................... but for me he made the cardinal sin by attempting to respond to those of us who have issues with the state of our present and future international standard by saying we are 'negative' ....... I'm happy for a bulldog spirit to be shown once again but lets get things in perspective and do something about the future we have to take a risk in the qualifier and blood those youngsters who are the most likely to make the grade in the future

Is it Poland's 'turn' to host the SWC again? shouldnt it be going to sweden and then britain first? and even then there is a big argument that the ruskies should have it at their wonder stadium the 12 man squad is a good squad considering what Jim has available...... 2 heatleaders, 2 reserves and 2 PL show the huge issues that we have at international level..... and no matter how you try to promote things on sky Jim, and make out like the people being negative are wrong, the facts speak for themselves I hope GB do as well as they can but time is running out to start investing in grass roots and the Germans and Russians are coming up from behind while the Danes Poles and Aussies sail off into the distance My team would be Nicholls Harris Rico Kennett Woffinden I can see why Lynch will put Stead or Allen in there but once he doesnt use Tai in the qualifier he wont use him later on. Stead and Allen will not be much better than Woffinden ... if at all..... it is time to take a slight risk and one which can be rectified in the race off if necessary

yeah indeed it does Chris I wonder the kind of support they received from the GB federation compared to the support given to the other lads from their federations. We see it clearly at every SWC with Danish and Polish man and machinery financed and prepared to the hilt....... and we read about it every year in the Speedway Star............ this year it was Peter Oakes big spread on his experiences supporting the youngsters which left him massively out of pocket because he had to buy them things like race bibs ....... never mind machinery! Sadly one of the biggest lessons for our guys these days is that they will always have to do it all for themselves .... and learning that lesson at this age and in these circumstances will always put them at a disadvantage ...... never mind your underestimation about the quality of the rest of the field Thx for the report Iris..... it is great to hear about yet another exciting Russian..... it wont be long until these guys are getting in the SWC final........ its a shame for Andrew and Ben but they are both going places all the same

as lovely as you are ML I have to disagree here....... Gollob clocked AJ, where he was, where he was going etc etc....... he knew entirely what he was doing and when he was doing it........ I dont think he would have wanted AJ off his bike in such a serious crash but the chances of it happening with a move like that are high The irony here is that he only had to leave it for a few more metres and he would have had every right to turn left and Jonsson would have been expecting it..... and consequently it wouldnt even be discussed As I said earlier it has been a while since there has been uncertainty over the tactics of someone in the GP field and it will only end in tears if it is suddenly all tactics necessary...even down the straights

are there any feeds for the russian matches?.... live or recorded?

I think the point here is that there can be cases where the guy behind is being a bit of a donut and choosing a line which will end in probable tears ......... but that clearly wasnt the case here It has been well covered in this thread that Gollob often attempts lines which are a bit different to the other riders..... however from a refs point of view he can only officiate the match or meeting as to what is normal in general and what has been the norm during the meeting....... otherwise it would make a refs job a complete nightmare If gollob chose to do a cartwheel while pulling funny faces at the crowd down the straight and didnt cause an accident then there is no issue......... but if he caused one as a result of unorthadox behaviour then he has to go......... and I would suggest that the other rider concerned would be trying to give him a permanent funny face and that is only in a situation where Tomasz is simply choosing an alternate way of riding ....ie the angelic halo version ........................... the fact that he was clearly seen clocking where Andreas was kind of takes away the angelic halo One thing not raised in this thread is our favourite ref Tony Steele slipping under the radar... most likely because of previous good behaviour............... the decision was a rubbish one and he also never had control of the starts..... very odd to see such a mixed performance from him

if Gollob didnt turn too early then it should be clear on all the other laps in all of his other races.............. riders are not turning by the startline at the tiniest of british tracks let alone a monster track like this! This is not F1 sam .... where cars can cover their positions once down the straights..... this is speedway where every rider has to have confidence that none of their fellow riders are going to do something stupid.... if AJ had the better 4th bend (which he did) and there was a chance that he was going to give Tomasz issues in bend 1 then that is the way it is....... Tomasz's job is to deal with that issue in bend 1 and 2..... not down the straight! The bigger problem with this is that it stirs up a hornets nest that we havent had for a while..... we now have a gp rider who the others are either going to be gunning for, ruthless with, or concerned about....... this kind of on track behaviour breeds more of the same.... and consequently injury

I am........ for too many years the flagship of speedway has had slick boring tracks dished up for the worlds best and for fans that have spent hundreds each per gp. What could possibly be the excuse for this? From where i'm sitting as a fan it does the sport no favours and only seems to suit those riders who were brought up on slick tracks and have gating skills (hmmmm) Gone are the days where he would phone the ref and get a decision changed but he still exercises control in the wrong areas and when it comes to track preparation it is got wrong more times than it is got right Ole appears to be very busy in the pits on race night and I am sure that there are sides to his job that he does very well....... but ensuring that the tracks are the best they possibly could be for the riders, the fans and the growth of the sport is not one of them!

The thing is even if he isnt hands on at certain GP's when it comes to track prep the buck ultimately stops with him....... and if he doesnt want the buck to stop with him then an official track prep guy needs to be employed. There is no doubt that someone is regularly getting the tracks wrong .... and usually resulting in slick gating tracks ....which ultimately is not good for the image of the sport and it raises obvious question marks over which riders it does actually suit I fail to see how IMG have no say in who is preparing the tracks that they are financing for the weekend. It is ultimately their purse strings which are at risk and i'm sure they would like to show the event as the spectacle it should be and improve the income...... let alone making sure that regular foot shooting doesnt result in a loss of money and profile I had heard the same about the leszno track and obviously there is an issue with communication between guys who usually prepare tracks for the GP venues and those calling the shots Iris... is that right that Ole picks the wildcards? I thought IMG did? :S p.s. Subedei you make it sound like all is very uncomplicated and straight forward which we all know is never the case in speedway...zero points scored

should we be worried that no one seems to know?

blimey hacket there is so much to reply to there! First of all you sound suprised that nicholls hasnt entered the qualifying rounds and yet very few current GP riders do...... and Scott actually is usually near enough to the cusp of qualifying to secure a wildcard even if he doesnt make it as of right. As I have pointed out before Scott's record of making semis in past seasons is actually almost on a par with the top 4 .... it is qualifying well for semis and making finals that he has always suffered with. Hampel did not make it (and Jagus) because Kasprzak was overdue a crack at it and unless i'm mistaken holta is under a Polish license still ....which makes 3 Poles................. it is a good policy that no country has too many in the gp's unless they have qualified as of right as it would become too lop sided too quickly If we see harris or nicholls on the cusp of a top 8 final standing then I am sure they will be handed a wild card as regardless of if GB's star is on the wain or not they are still a major speedway nation and Nicholls and harris can usually be relied upon to be in the mix somewhere...... it is not like we are talking about Chrzanowski here is it? re: Aces supporting Crump? Well that is their choice but for me it sums up everything that has gone wrong with the standard and fortunes of our riders if promoter and fan alike are willing to raise and back overseas riders (although as we all know that is an interesting thought when it comes to crump)..................... do I shout for Gollob when he isnt a liability? yeah damn right.... would I shout for him in a race against Nicholls, Harris, Kennett, Lawson etec etc? No chance Ultimately less fans would turn up to Cardiff if there were no brits in the top 15

QUOTE (Rob B @ May 25 2008, 04:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No hes not! Watch it again time after time : http://www.svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/...187&d=35828 He had a look coming out of 4th bend but like I said all riders do that but going down the straight his helmet looking straight forward. hang on you are saying he did have a look or he didnt have a look then? are you saying because he looked like all riders look coming out of a corner (not true actually) that it didnt matter if he saw jonsson? Thx for the footage, I did manage to watch it 'over and over' last night ..... however using your clip he clearly sees jonsson at 1:00 and immediately starts turning left while crossing the startline! Sorry rob but you really are trying to fight a lost cause here....... I am a huge Gollob fan but that was irresponsible last night and the product of his frustrations and pressure to make the semi ...... he is too long in the tooth to start going down that road again

QUOTE (Rob B @ May 25 2008, 01:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes he looked left as they were starting the home straight all riders do that to see where the rider is behind them they don't have wing mirrors! He didn't look left immediatly before the crash though. lol Rob he can clearly be seen looking to his left straight before he turned left Maliscious? I couldnt answer that and I think only a rider could answer that but at the very least he chose to shut the door on a part of the track where shutting the door doesnt exist

If bomber and Scotty dont pick things up then it could actually be a good thing for the future of GB riders in the long term. Our promoters continue to stick their heads in the sand and continue to bring on other countries youngsters. We should have 5 or 6 guys who could all survive or succeed at GP level...... at the moment we have 2 who are anywhere near being justified Also our guys that do make the grade fail to step up to the final level...... consistently down the years we have seen our guys ill prepared and simply not wanting it enough.............. it would not be the end of the world for some of our guys on the breakthrough level to realise that it isnt going to be dished up to them on a plate

rubbish he justified his wild card last season by winning a GP and missing out on qualification by an extremely slim margin.............. I may be wrong but i dont believe there has been a gp winner in the recent past who has not been given a wild card for the next season It is difficult to tell what Bombers issue is this season but from what ive seen it looks more like machinery issues than confidence issues................... last season his machinery was very competitive and very consistent. he was usually setup for tracks well from the first heat.......... it is clear that this isnt happening this season Both Bomber and Scotty want to start picking up the pace and hope that if they are relying on a wild card that those outside the top 8 in front of them dont win any GP's (ie Holta)....... if that happens I think the only way it can be justified for GB to have a rider is if it is given to someone new...... but the likes of Kennett, Woffinden etc are too green for this currently

Does anyone know the actual structure surrounding Ole's position? Is he employed by the FIM? Is it the FIM and only the FIM who have a say over his position? Does speedway have any say whatsoever about his position? If it is solely the FIM then this is a problem that could go well beyond Olsen ............... why should guys who play the political game well necessarily be good at preparing tracks?...... or even dare I say it have no bias when it comes to preparing tracks that suit their countrymen?

Gollob is an absolute legend and is probably the best rider never to win a world championship...... and is certainly the most talented rider of our generation.... his bad boy past has become more of a distant memory and along with the Brits he is the guy I cheer for the most.............. but i'm seriously going to have to reconsider that as last night was a disgraceful move Yes Tomasz chooses lines that others dont and it quite often involves an unorthadox diamond shape but it was clear to see last night that he clocked AJ coming up his inside and then simply turned left on him halfway down the straight.... very naughty p.s. Carter was stitched........ by Dunlops and Chips

great stuff Eddie and David