We caught up with British U21 champion, Robert Lambert, who is now in his second season in the SEC. He has had a hectic year racing in three national leagues, the SEC and as first reserve in the SGP series.

“One of best moments of the year was picking up eight points in the first Speedway Grand Prix in Warsaw”, he said as he paused in the midst of a busy end of season in the UK Premiership.

Lambert won at Gustrow in 2018 but only gained four points there this year. “I used the same equipment as I when I won but, unfortunately, it did not work out this time”, he said about the opening round of the SEC this year in Germany.

In the next round in Torun - “I tried some new things and that worked out better, but then I had a bad crash” - where the young Englishman fractured his T4 and T5 vertebrae. That left him out of action for around a month missing the third round of the SEC in Vojens.

Lambert expressed thankfulness to his physio, former rider Erik Pudel, for getting him back into shape. During the time off he said just tried to relax and enjoy spending time with his girlfriend, Jessie.

Lambert made it to the semi-finals last year at Chorzow and is optimistic about his chances on 29 September. “Last time I was on a purpose-built track was at Warsaw and it was a good meeting. I’m really looking forward to being back at Chorzow and racing in such a great stadium”.

Lambert is currently in 16^th place on the SEC on 12 points and will no doubt be keen to repeat, or improve on, his eight points gained last year at the Slaski Stadium and gain a top 10 finish in this competition.

It was a great captaining performance from Smederna's Fredrik Lindgren who scored a paid maximum with 10+2 as the Eskilstuna team took their third Swedish championship with relative ease in the cool autumnal weather in Målilla tonight.

For Lindgren is was the second memorable night in Småland this year as here, on the very same track, he won the Scandinavian SGP just over a month ago.

Dackarna also have a SGP winner in their side with Maciej Janowski who won the German SGP less than a month ago. But when the talent Pole came off his bike as he overcooked the third bend of the first heat, the home fans must have groaned inwardly sensing that Lady Luck was not going to be on their side again tonight.

Coming into the match they were already 18 points down and by the time they won their first heat advantage, when Frederik Jacobsen and Piotr Pawlicki took a 4:2, they were already another six points behind the reigning champions.

That is not to say that Dackarna gave up, but that rider for rider over the 30 heats Smederna always seem to have the advantage and never seemed likely to drop the lead but rather just continue to increase their winning margin.

The Målilla club scored slightly better than in the match last night with the final result standing at 37-53 but Gleb Chugunov was excellent again for the visitors with 10 and Michael Jepsen Jensen scored 9+1 for the victors. So, Smederna ran out comfortable winners 109-71.

For the majority of riders this marks the end of the domestic seasons for the year with only the SEC from Chorzow and the SGP from Torun left on the international calendar.

However, Dackarna's Swedish national champion, Jacob Thorssell will have one more chance at domestic victory when he rides for Wolverhampton Wolves against Swindon Robins in the UK Premiership semifinals on 30 September and 3 October.

Home team Eskilstuna Smederna took a convincing 54-36 victory against Målilla Dackarna to make them favourites to retain their Swedish national championships and take their third title in a row.

Gleb Chugunov (pictured) was on blistering form again for Smederna scoring a 15 point maximum, whilst Piotr Pawlicki had a nightmare match for Dackarna scoring 0.

Dackarna will need to win by 19 points at home tomorrow in Målilla to prevent Smederna being crowned champions and need their top Polish trio of Maciej Janowski, Piotr Pawlicki and Patryk Dudek to all score double figures and see their B riders score over six each if they are to have a chance of overturning tonight’s result.

The Elitserien final will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week in Sweden as Eskilstuna Smederna meet Målilla Dackarna in a repeat of last year’s final which saw Smederna take their second title in two years.

The final starts in Eskilstuna and the quality of the riders shows in that many were involved the Cardiff SGP on Saturday and then the finale of the Ekstraliga in Poland as places 1-4 were decided on Sunday.

That includes for Smederna, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Fredrik Lindgren and for Dackarna Maciej Janowski, Piotr Pawlicki and Patryk Dudek.

And I think the form of the last named person in these two matches could be the key difference between the teams.

Jepsen Jensen, Lindgren, Piotr Pawlicki and Janowski are reliable top scorers and usually win 10 or more points in each game. In that sense they will neutralise each other in this tie.

That leaves Dudek left in the deciding role - on his best days he is the top rider in this elite group - the person that was joint leading the SGP series in the first four rounds earlier this year.

But the 27 year old, who has already served a doping ban in 2014, can also struggle. He has, for example, only scored six points in the last two SGPs combined and was one of the bottom three riders both times.

In the Semis and 3/4th Playoffs in Poland he scored either 6 or 11 in each of the four matches as Zielona Gora lost both series to finish fourth in the league. His last four matches in Sweden also show similar yo-young tendencies.

So how will it go for him at the end of a long season? Will he rise to the occasion or be suffocated by the pressure?

By Wednesday by 21:00hrs we’ll know who is the new Swedish champion and whether Dudek, alongside with his Dackarna teammates, will be celebrating Gold or commiserate another Silver.

Leszno win the Polish Championship for third year in a row crushing Wroclaw at home in the final, whilst Częstochowa lose at Zielona but still take Bronze in the 3/4th playoff.

The Final #LESWRO

BETARD SPARTA Wroclaw came to FOGO UNIA Leszno off the back of a narrow home defeat in the first leg of the final by just four points They knew that they had to do what no team has managed to do this year - win in Leszno.

So when the talented Wroclaw team only gained their first heat advantage in Heat 8 the final was already well out of reach with the score at 30-18.

Nothing went right for the visitors with SGP riders Tai Woffinden and Maciej Janowski scored just 3 and 2 apiece, leaving Maskym Drabik to get the points, 13 in total, nearly half of the whole team’s dismal total of 31.

Compare that to winners Leszno who only had two of their seven riders with less than 10 points. It was another Pole, Piotr Pawlicki, who topped their list with 12 pts as the team scored 59 to run out winners by 106:74 on aggregate to mean that the Gold remains in Leszno for another year.

3/4th playoff #ZIECZE

STELMET FALUBAZ Zielona Gora ended the season with a win in front of the home fans, 45:44, but it was not enough take third place from forBET WLOKNIARZ Częstochowa is this second leg of the third and fourth Playoff. The visitors had paved the way to victory with their emphatic home victory in the first leg, 57:33.

Zielona started well and by Heat 4 lead by 8 points, but were never able to stretch that out and get anywhere near the 25 points advantage they needed.

The team’s Martin Vaculik (9+1) and Michael Jepsen Jensen (11) played their heat leader role but Patryk Dudek (6+1) continued to struggle and cannot find the form that meant he was leading in the SGP at the beginning of the year.

For Częstochowa it was their SGP riders who would secure a hard fought for bronze medal. Leon Madsen followed up his Cardiff SGP victory on Saturday with another commanding performance just dropping one point with 13+1. Meanwhile Fredrik Lindgren took 10 and Matej Zagar who, in contrast to Dudek, is just getting better and better as the season goes on gained 11 +1.

Częstochowa secured an impressive third place and Madsen continues to impress whenever he races.

FOGO UNIA Leszno won the Polish championship at home last night with rout over BETARD SPARTA Wroclaw to make it their fourth title in five years.

Piotr Pawlicki (pictured) led the scoring for the victors with 13, whilst everyone at Wroclaw struggled, apart from Maksym Drabik, who also picked up 13. However, their next best scorer was Max Fricke with 6+1 on a night to forget for the silver medalists.

For Leszno, on the other hand, it was a victory to savour, as five of the seven riders scored over 10 points when they ran out convincing 59:31 victors on the night and 106:74 winners on aggregate to take home the gold.

Look out for a more detailed update later today.

It took until the last meeting of the regular season to decide who would be top of the table in the UK Premiership, as the Poole Pirates ran out winners of this phase of the championship.

The rescheduled match saw the Pirates travel to King's Lynn Stars knowing that they needed a victory to take first place over Swindon Robins who were two points ahead having completed all their matches.

Australian Brady Kurtz (pictured) led the scoring with 11 for the south coast team as they cruised to a 39-51 victory. That meant they picked three points for the win and an extra bonus point for an away win of more than seven points, easily giving them more than the two points they needed to top the regular season's table.

Swindon's SGP rider and the 2017 World Champion, Jason Doyle, is first in the individual points table with a 2.223 heat average, whilst the best British rider was in fourth place, King's Lynn's own Craig Cook with 1.988.

The semi finals will take place next week with Ipswich Witches at home against last year's champions, Poole on 26/9 and Wolverhampton Wolves hosting the Swindon Robins on 30/9.

Tonight in Eskilstuna Nyköping Griparna were victorious in the Allsvenskan championship taking a narrow 91-89 win on aggregate over hosts, Team Rapid.

The deciding match in the second division of Swedish speedway came down to the final heat when Oliver Berntzon (pictured) and Peter Ljung took a 2:4 victory as Rapid's Pontus Aspgren finished in second and Linus Eklöf fell enabling the visitors take Allsvenskan Gold.

Griparna travelled to Eskilstuna with a eight point advantage over Team Rapid from last week's fixture. They also had the psychological advantage knowing that they were the only team in the regular season to beat Rapid at home in Eskilstuna Motorstadion.

But in another even match, as it had been last week in Nyköping, it was the home team who were on the offensive slowly eating away their deficit and closing in on victory. And when Aspgren, who was their top scorer with 13, and Victor Palovaara took a 4:2 victory in the penultimate heat it set up a winner- takes-all Heat 15 with the teams level on 87 points each.

It was Griparna's top two scorers on the night who would win Gold for the team with that 2:4 in the final heat. Veteran Ljung amassed 10 points and Berntzon dropping just a single point, with 14, for the victors.

Berntzon and Eklöf, who faced each other in Heats 8 and 15 tonight, will be opponents again on Tuesday and Wednesday next week when Målilla Dackarna (Berntzon) and Eskilstuna Smederna (Eklöf) meet in Elitserien final.

Summary:

Team Fjelsted won the Danish Metal League Superfinale in Slangerup tonight with SEC riders Anders Thomsen and Peter Kildemand scoring 12 and 11 to lead the underdogs to victory in the four-way match.

The team finished fifth out of six in the regular season and had no current SGP riders in the team. But a narrow victory over Hans Andersen's GSK Liga and then a convincing win over Michael Jepsen Jensen's Region Varde Elitesport in the playoffs paved the way for a superfinale place. But few would have expected the team who only won four of their ten regular season games to triumph in tonight's final.

It wasThomsen's wins in Heats 8 and 10 that put Fjelsted in the lead and they never gave up until they were crowned Metal League champions 2019.

In depth review:

The Superfinale of the Danish Metal League was a four-way match between home team Slangerup Speedway, Esbjerg Vikings, Holsted Tigers and Team Fjelsted.

Holsted Tigers had won the regular season without losing a single game, thanks to Nicki Pedersen who competed in 9 of the seasons 10 races. But his broken hand sustained in Poland on 25 August has meant that the team has gone through the playoffs without the three times world champion.

The league is on a par with UK Premiership, Nice Liga 1 or Liga 2 in Poland so each team has riders you will recognised from international competitions and the national leagues:

Slangerup - Mikkel Michelsen, Andreas Lyager, Dawid Lampart

Esbjerg - Niels Kristian Iversen, Luke Becker

Holsted - Kenneth Bjerre (pictured), Nicolai Klindt, Rasmus Jensen

Fjelsted - Anders Thomsen, Frederik Jakobsen, Peter Kildemand

It would be hosts Slangerup who took the early lead through wins from Andreas Lyager and Mikkel Michelsen in Heats 3 and 4, but both would fade as the night went on. It would be Lyager who scored the most points for the team with just eight.

And Thomsen's double win in Heats 8 and 10 would put Fjelsted in the lead as the match developed into a three-horse-race between them, Holsted and Esbjerg.

Holsted had taken back the lead by the end of Heat 13 after Rene Bech, Kenneth Bjerre and then Nicolai Klindt won three heats in a row for the Tigers. Bjerre and Klindt would joint top scorers for them by finishing with 10 points.

For Esbjerg is was Niels Kristian Iversen who lead the way and he dropped just two points on the evening coming away with 13. In Heat 22, the last one of the evening, the SGP rider would come first whilst Holsted's Bjerre collected just one point. Those two points would separate the teams with the Vikings taking home the Silver.

But neither could catch Team Fjelsted. In the last ten Heats they scored two or more points in seven of them including three heat victories, one a piece from Kildemand, Thomsen and Jason Jörgensen to secure the victory and see the Team crowned national champions.

Final scores:

Team Fjelsted - 38

Esbjerg Vikings - 35

Holsted Tigers - 32

Slangerup Speedway - 26

Next year the Metal League is expected to expand but only one of the two expansion teams has declared itself ready to join the elite division. That means that Vojens Speedway Klub will join Team Fjelsted and the others in the Metal League 2020 whilst Brovst have said they will try to be ready for the 2021 season.

Denmark

Last year's league winner Region Varde Elitsport (Outrup) were soundly beaten at Team Fjelsted and will not defend their title on Wednesday in the Superfinale in Slangerup. Mikkel Jespen Jensen scored just 5 for the losers as he was taken to hospital after a nasty crash, whilst Peter Kildemand (above) took 15 and Frederik Jakobsen 16+2 for the victors.

Wednesday's final will be a four way match between Slangerup Speedway, Esjberg Vikings, Holsted Tigers and Team Fjelsted and will feature all of Denmark's top riders such as Kenneth Bjerre (Holsted) and Mikkel Michelsen (Slangerup).

Poland

Row Rybnik win Nice Liga 1 with help of Troy Batchelor, Daniel Bewley and Kacper Woryna over Ostrovia, a team that included Nicolai Klindt and Sam Masters.

Polania win Liga 2 with help of Josh Grajczonek and Dimitri Berge by thrashing Poznan 61-29 even though David Bellego got 11 for the losing team.

UK

Monday night saw Premiership's one and two, Swindon Robins and Poole Pirates, win their matches which means that yet to be rescheduled final match of the season when Poole meet Robert Lambert's King's Lynn Stars will determine the placings of the these two teams. The Pirates must win the match to take first place.

Below them Wolverhampton Wolves will finish in third and Ipswich Witches in fourth. It is these four teams that will start the playoff next week.

For those unfamiliar with the British teams, here are a few of their name riders:

Swindon Robins - Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor

Poole Pirates - Brady Kurtz, Jack Holder

Wolverhampton Wolves - Jacob Thorssell

Ipswich Witches - Niels Kristian Iversen