Grachan

I thought to myself when watching his first race that he looked like he was riding the track the same as he would ride Belle Vue.

Looking here: FIM Speedway GP 2022 Ticketing Information - Help Centre (principalitystadium.wales) it would seem that the only option you have is on a phone app. If you don't have that, I guess you need to go to the ticket office upon arrival. What happens if I lose my phone prior to the event? Please visit the WRU Ticket Office which is located between gates 3 & 4 of Principality Stadium on Westgate Street. What happens if my phone battery dies before the event? Please visit the WRU Ticket Office which is located between gates 3 & 4 of Principality Stadium on Westgate Street. It seems that this is a Principality Stadium thing rather than a Speedway GP organisers thing. Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions | Digital Ticketing (wru.wales)

Worth watching for Sam's anslysis moments on Discovery+. Better than Alan Partridge.

There was.

I think so, yes. Certainly Chris and Kelvin aren't aware of it if it's true.

Certainly looks like it. If this is true I'm surprised it hasn't been made more widely known. That is quite a big change.

Qualification now on. It's Kelvin Tatum and Chris Louis.

Not arguing. No issue. Just pointing out that the forecast was mentioned as part of the reason for the cancellation, which was why people were talking about meetings being called off as a result of the forecast.

The club statement did say: "This is due to inclement weather with more forecast throughout the day in the city" which is why people are talking about the forecast.

Forecast show rain now until about 11. Then dry until 4pm. Then sunshine and showers until about 7. Then a dry evening. That would not have been a rain-off a few years back. I think these are financial decisions as they feel the crowd might be down.

I'm not in Sheffield, but the forecast seems ok. Just showers and sun in the afternoon with a dry evening.

What is going on with these cancellations? Surely people are going to lose interest if meetings are "rained-off" like this. It seems a bit foolish to me.

Laguta Sunrise by Black Sabbath

I think they had it right with the 3-2-1-0-1-2-3-4 system. I think that worked well. They should have stuck with that. Unbelievable that they changed that because sometimes supporters went home disappointed that they didn't get 3 points after winning at home and now have a system where home supporters might go home disappointed with not getting a point after getting a draw. The response to someone querying it says it all really. "Let's see." Brilliant.

This is the wording on the website: "Due to limited parking at the stadium, free parking will be available thanks to Unipart at their site just a short walk from the stadium (approx 800m) on a first come first served basis, please remember to select this option if required when purchasing your tickets as this will be required when arriving at the car park." To me that says that you can only park there if you have booked it in advance. I used to use this car park before and it's much larger than is needed for a speedway crowd. You could just drive in and park. Mind you, it's been a few years now!

I don't know why they are doing that. It was always fine to park there in the past. I don't think many speedway supporters are in the habit of buying advance tickets as it's never been necessary.

I suspect that is not going to go down well with some people.

I have to say, I'm slightly confused by the car parking arrangements on the Oxford website. It says there is free parking at the Unipart car park, but you need to select that you want this when you buy the tickets. Does this mean that you can't park there if you don't buy a ticket in advance? I think they missed a trick by not having their opening meeting as a challenge against "Swindon" by the way. Would have got a few up from Wiltshire for that, I reckon.

Won't the away team get 2?

Laguta should be allowed to ride if he's at all able to. I feel that quite strongly. This, to me, misses the point of the reason why Russian's have been expelled from the series.

Did you not originally say it was about where people were born? So what if Artem continued to represent Russia. They hadn't invaded the Ukraine then. He's not representing them any more because they have banned him for speaking out. Surely the purpose of sanctioning Russian people was to get them to turn against Putin wasn't it? So what purpose does the West banning those that have done so and subsequently been banned in Russia? Surely they should be supported so that people are encouraged to do the same.

Well, they've done it again haven't they? They've had their meeting and someone has come up with some thought from the top of their head and they've all gone: "Oh, what a wizard idea" and voted it in. What happened in the Championship? Did they say: "That's a bit silly. The points system is already worked out to account for drawn matches" so just the Premiership voted it in? They even forgot to tell anyone, so a lot of people won't even know what is going on with the extra race, never mind the fact that the points scored are different to in every other heat. If they want to do this, then use it for cup matches not league matches. Daft.

It makes no sense to me. Why ban a rider who the Russians have banned for speaking out against Vladimir Putin? How does that send any form of message to the Russian authorities? It is effectively supporting the moves made by Russia. I don't get it. How does this encourage Russian people to speak out against the war? If anything it will make them less likely to.

Ah, ok. That complicates things a little then!

If he has Polish citizenship then he is Polish regardless of why he decided to have it. By banning him now they will effectively be ending his Speedway career because he said something against Vladamir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. So who is that pandering to? As I said before, this could be that the Russian authorities put out a statement like that because he has revoked his Russian citizenship. I guess we'll have to wait and see with that. If he has, though, I hope he is allowed to rise in the GP.