IainB

How old is Jack Holder then?

Why would this force Chris Holder out? I didn't think there was a points limit... sounds like they might be trying to reform the team that got them relegated

You should look at the Talking Dirty Show (Fuelled by Monster Energy) where he carried out an inciteful interview with Bartek Zmarzlik with searching questions like "what's in your water bottle"... oh and he couldn't do it without swearing

You look at the Polish squad and all of a sudden things don't seem to be quite so rosy in their garden. Dudek's drop in form has been alarming, Janowski and Pawlicki's exclusion is inexplicable and Cieslak may well pay for this with his job imo, the other Pawlicki's drop in form is more alarming than Dudek's and Drabik has allegedly retired. After those that have been already named you're starting to look at the old timers KK, Hampel & Pepe. I think they may end up pressing the self destruct button by placing too much pressure on their younger riders. Russia on the other hand have picked 3 riders who will probably just turn up and win (imo). I also note there's no Peter Kildemand in the Danish squad, what on earth has happened to him? He seemed destined for great things a few years ago, was really fast (fell off too easily) and was even a GP winnder then it all seemed to blow up in 2015. He was due to come back to the UK this season, I've only seen him once or twice on TV riding for a Polish club, who obviously don't fancy him.

Tai finished the 2012 UK season with an 8.80 GSA top of the Wolverhampton averages, so he was certainly knocking on the door of a GP place

I thought that was during his first stint in the GP's? It's too long ago, I can't remember

I can only comment on the information given, the original discussion was about the wearing of face masks at speedway events, the poster said they wouldn't go to Speedway while there were ANY restrictions in place because they felt like they were being put on the naughty step. They then went on to say they had their shopping delivered and didn't offer up any reason why they wouldn't do their own shopping to free up that slot for a vulnerable person. No conclusion was jumped to, In fact the discussion stopped... If they'd come back and said they were in the vulnerable category that's fair enough... That would have been the conclusion. Also, I don't know what Christianity has to do with anything? You can do the decent human thing without being a Christian

SGP dodged 2 bullets on Saturday night, if Bartek hadn't made the final he could have been 14 race points clear at the top of the table and not been World Champion and it could have all gone back to count back and delays to work out who was World Champ. And not because he "went missing" in the semis, could have touched the tapes, had an engine failure etc. Look at Janowski, his title challenge was effectively over when he touched the tapes in heat 20 of Prague 1 and didn't make the semis, old points system finishes 1 point behind Tai and Fred, new points finishes 10 points behind. There's too much jeopardy in this points system 1 bad round and you're out of it

Yes... all were proven performers in the top leagues around the world when they got their place, I take your point though

I hate this fixation with Football all the time, I see TalkSport are running somekind of #LetFansIn campaign but they just keep banging on about Football... I'll sign the petition anyway for what it's worth

You obviously seem to have some kind of "beef" with me and I don't know why you seem to want to twist what I say. On the face of it you are doing exactly the right thing, my issue would be for somebody to take up the delivery slot of somebody who needed it because they have an issue with wearing a face mask because they feel like they are being put on the naughty step.

No, there is no directive, you don't need a directive to do the decent human thing and think of those not as fortunate as yourself and maybe if you are able to get off your @rse and do your own shopping when there are people out there who are high risk and can't get delivery slots you should

Not much left after Mr 20% has had his share of the pie

While we're talking technical, nothing to do with Freddie, but when the riders fiddle with something just under the saddle what are they doing? And on a completely unrelated topic... has anybody noticed that more often than not in the Swedish televised meetings heat 1 is a false start must be a good 75% of the time (seems like it anyway)!

Who did he make this pledge to? I think I saw Bomber on Twitter saying he loved the track where it's going to be staged... and that was before Woffy's injury!

Is it being run on cumulative points basis over the 2 days or will countries be awarded points based on where they finish on each day... so as to bring it into line with other sports?

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the amateurish coverage of the Gorzow vs Wroclaw by Premier Sports, reading the above I realise that a couple of heats weren't captured by the host broadcaster but Premier didn't bother with any editing and just showed from heat 7 onwards!

I agree, but the FIM have responsibility for the whole of speedway not just Poland

You're kind of proving my point that the tail is wagging the dog

they've now got 100,000,000 in the bank though

All very safe expected picks... maybe it's time to look at a radical overhaul of the SGP with the new rights holders. It seems to me that the only reason that 16 riders are included in a world final/ GP series is because mathematically this works out that each rider meets every other rider once over the course of 20 heats. Over the course of the World Championship there has generally never really been a rider been a rider from outside of the top 8 who have gone on to win it (although no doubt somebody will come up with an exception Szczakiel, Muller). Maybe it's time to cut the field down to 8-10 riders with each rider meeting each other multiple times, imagine watching Tai vs Bartek 3,4 or 5 times a night instead of NKI vs Lindback vs Michelsen vs Zagar who with the best will in the world are never going to be World Champions, especially under a GP series

Maybe time for the FIM to start flexing its muscles because at the moment the tail is wagging the dog

While I tend to agree with you to be fair NKI did qualify for this years series by right from the 2019 GP Challenge as did Zagar and Fricke. The real strange decision was to offer Lindback a wild card slot and it not to have been offered to Aspgren. Like I've said elsewhere I'd like to see Loktaev in, blew it in this years challenge and was only 1 point adrift of possible qualification in 2019

I'm answering PHILRISING's question of where else it could have been held and I offered Germany as an alternative, as far as I know there are no travel restrictions, they are letting crowds into football events, it's just over the border from Poland and it's a neutral venue

That's great for you and the mental work out is obviously part of watching the event for you... it's not for everybody though. I and many others don't sit at home watching it on TV filling a programme in, I don't even have a programme when I attend live so I rely on what the commentator or announcer is saying (or Speedway Updates when I'm at a track). Put yourself in the position of a floating watcher and imagine how it appears to them.