ajh

Just booked flights with EasyJet to Prague. £68 each flying from East Midlands (Nottingham) on Thursday 24th and coming back Sunday 27th. Bargain price, especially over the Bank Holiday weekend There is 5 of us going and am thinking about getting a couple of studio apartments? Saw some mentioned earlier, any recommendations? PS - Topinka for wildcard please

Thought I would give my thoughts on the whole Norwegian GP experience for anyone who might be interested. Afraid it won't be an Elwood'esque adventure. Alcohol prices soon put paid to any of that!!! As we'd left it quite late to sort out accommodation (as per normal) and with Stein informing the list that everywhere in Hamar was booked, we based ourselves in Oslo. Very much like most of the Scandinavian cities I have been to in that it was very clean and well looked after. Very nice to walk around the heart of the city (Karl Johan Gate etc) and it was no problem in finding a place to watch the Liverpool v Arsenal game. The harbour area was very nice as well and got the bonus of seeing an American destroyer (USS Spruance) docked in the harbour. The only real downer was the price of food and drink. Guess that explains why everything is kept in such nice order, no one can afford to get hammered and trash the place ;-) A round of 5 beers came to about £25, which hurt :-( :-( :-( Soft drinks weren't much better, 2 beers and 3 cokes still came to about £20. We later saw some other Lynn fans who had made the trip and they said it had cost them £90 for the three of them to have a pizza and a a couple of drinks each. The trip to Hamar from Oslo was a beautiful drive on the E6, driving up into the hills with a massive lake to our left hand side for most of the trip. The weather for nearly all our stay was very nice, hardly a cloud in the sky and there really is some beautiful scenery. Only took about an hour and a half and the road system as with most of Europe, put ours to shame. The stadium is quite a strange site, not come across anything quite like it before. Not sure speedway is ideally suited to the venue as by the end of the meeting, the lack of ventilation meant that the bike and tractor fumes were heavy in the air and it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences. Certainly (and no offence intended to the Norwegians) that Hamar was not the ideal venue for the climax of the closest GP series ever. The crowd was a little over 6,000 according to press release and really the night deserved a bigger audience to help build the atmosphere up. The crowd was pre-dominantly made up of Swedes and Danes. I would guess that maybe only a 1,500 or so were actually Norwegian (maybe less). When I picture the World Champion being crowned, I always imagine a scene of say 50,000 screaming their heads off, not the 4,000 that were probably left in the arena come the end. The GP itself, it was quite a strange experience for myself with Crumpy and Nicki being my two favourite riders. I was kind of in a no win/no lose situation. Quite shocked to see Alun Rossiter doing the English PA. In all honesty he did a pretty good job and when he interviewed the riders he at least asked sensible questions!!! The overall presentation wasn't too cracky though. They mucked up the Queen "We are the Champions" song that was meant to tie in with the fireworks (which were good). For the first part of the meeting it seemed that they only had about 5 songs on repeat. Maybe they are big fans of the 118 theme tune from Rocky, must of heard that about 6 times on Saturday night . As for the track, the surface held up for about the first 6-7 races before the ruts started to appear. Didn't seem to offer much chance to anyone missing the gate. I'm sure this was the main factor as to why Crumpy made his move in the semi final. We were on the third bend looking down the back straight and Holta moved slightly off the line and it's a split second judgement by Crump whether to go for the gap or not. In all honesty he had another 3 laps to get into the top two but the nature of the track meant that unless those in front made a mistake it was so difficult to pass. The whole arena was hushed while waiting for the announcement and it seemed to take an age before the white light came on. When it did I felt almost numb, gutted for Crumpy and delighted for Nicki. In then end the emotions just sort of cancelled each other out. I'd had my heart set on a final race showdown and the matter being settled on track rather than in the referee's box but alas it wasn't to be. The Grand Prix seemed to be like a penalty shoot out. Crumpy scored the early advantage by beating Nicki twice and of course with Nicki having crashed and facing elimination. However the way Nicki got through the eliminator and the great ride to come form last to second in the first semi final heaped all the pressure back onto Crumpy. Tony Rickardsson also got a large cheer from the crowd and he showed what a sportsman he is by losing his crown with grace. He's not everyone's cup of tea but he is a consummate professional and a good ambassador for the sport. I know Nicki is never going to be the lists choice of World Champion but it can never be said that he wasn't worth his title. Been highly consistent all season, making the final in 7 of the 9 rounds (1 Win, 3 Seconds and 2 Thirds). He has also been on the end of quite a few incidents and each time he's picked himself up, dusted himself down and got on with it. That's the mark of a champion. It was a hell of a tumble Nicki took and he looked in a fair bit of pain when coming of the track and he didn't have a lot of time to fix any damage to machinery and sort himself out (crashed in Heat 19, and out again in Heat 21). I've followed Nicki in the GP's since 2001 and the improvement in his set up and thinking has been massive. There are people on this list who would be way more qualified to tell you the workings of the team. What I do know is that much of the improvement has come from a calmer outlook on matters and a more settled personal life. He's also looked at how the other top guys are set up. Having Otto Weiss in his camp (since mid 2002) has made his motors a match for those around him, something he never had before. All combined it means he's the 2003 Grand Prix Champion. Mentally, I think Nicki was better prepared for the evening. Crumpy just seems so tense for these occasions, like a string waiting to break. It was quite a contrast seeing the two prepare for their races, Nicki seemed to have time for a smile and a joke with his crew, meanwhile Crumpy's crew looked as uptight as he did. There is no doubting Crumpy's desire, think he just wants it too much. Nicki seemed that he looked on winning the title as something of a bonus, even if he had of come second it would of still been a hell of achievement. To Crumpy, second would seem a failure and I think that showed. Danish speedway should be in line for something of a boost as Nicki certainly seems to be the darling of the Danish media, some of the press guys looked more excited at him winning the title than he did! Finally I'd also like to make a special mention to two of the sports really nice guys. First off Todd Wiltshire who got a good send off after his elimination. British (and Grand Prix) speedway will be a poorer place without him. Also Greg Hancock, who rode very intelligently for his win and spent a bit of time with the fans despite BSI's Nicola Sands trying to usher him off for the press conference. All in all it was a great experience, glad I went along to see a small part of a beautiful country and sample the tension and drama first hand. Just wished I could of celebrated in my more normal manner, rather than a couple of quiet beers back in Oslo ;-) ;-) ;-) PS - If you've got this far you've done well :-o :-o

No probs Falcace and Addy have a great birthday Stockholm is on my to do list and with flights at £41, it looks like 2004 might well be the year. Went to Gothenburg last year and have been to Vojens twice. Have always had a great time on my GP trips and I'm hoping Hamar will be the same this weekend. Also really want to do Prague and Bydgoszcz but by the looks of the calendar they may only be 2 weeks apart and that may well stretch the budget to far :!: May have to choose between the two, any recommendations folks :?: :?: :?:

For anyone that likes to plan a trip in advance. RyanAir are offering flights to Stockholm for the GP on May 29th (well flying out on the 28th and coming back on the 30th) for £41 return (inc taxes). Can't see there being much chance of the date being changed, BSI have to book the stadiums well in advance. Hope that helps someone get a cheap deal. Probably see you on the flight as well

Will be flying out on the 7.00AM RyanAir flight. Will probably be wearing a blue KL speedway jacket so please feel free to say hello. My proper name is Andrew, if someone said AJH at that time of the morning it properly wouldn't click There are five of us flying out, 3 blokes, 2 lasses, they are there to try and keep us in line For our night time entertainment in Oslo, we will probably be starting off at the Sports Bar on Rosenkrantzgate (near Karl Johans gate) which is dead in the centre of Oslo, well so we are told anyway. If anyone fancies tagging along for the night then they are more than welcome though they had better be drinkers (though not sure we are in the Elwood class, those of you on yahoogroups will know who I mean)