Sunday afternoon in Poland and speedway fans were treated to two matches in the eWinner 1 league that both finished 51:39 to winning side.

#LODBYD

First on the menu was a mid table clash and Bydgoszcz were again without one of their best riders from the 2021 season, David Bellego.

The match was tight with just two points separating the sides for the majority of the game. So, by Heat 10 it was 31:29 to Łódź who had taken over the lead from Bydgoszcz after Heat 5.

But the final five heats took a completely different turn as Łódź turned on the style. Home fans were treated to four heat advantages in five heats with Alexandr Loktaev (pictured) doing the best with 5 points in his two heats on his way to high score for the home side with 12+1.

The final score an impressive 51:39 and it was the Ukrainian who high scored for the team with 12+1. But they also had Australian, Brady Kurtz (12) and American, Luke Becker (8+1) to help them to a 51:39 win.

Meanwhile, it was Vadim Tarasensko who was by far the best for visitors with 14+1 from seven starts, whilst Dane, Andreas Lyager will be, no doubt, disappointed with just 5+2 for the losers.

#RYBOST

Two of the teams vying for promotion this year met in Rybnik this afternoon when Ostrow came to visit.

But six heat advantages in the first 8 heats gave the visitors a 12 point lead so that the home side were chasing the game from the get go.

Nicolai Klindt was in second place in both the 1:5s in his first two heats for Ostrovia, although he had a less impressive end to the match meaning he only went home with 5+3. Meanwhile, fellow Scandinavian, Oliver Berntzon took 9 points in his five rides for the victors.

Despite being at home, Rybnik was surprisingly underwhelming with only Rune Holta (16) and Sergei Logachev (11) scoring in double figures. Dane, Michael Jepsen Jensen struggled and finished the day off with just 6 pts as his side went down 39:51.

#RAWPOZ

Home team, Rawicz, took a commanding lead, 29:13, with five heat advantages in the first 7 heats at home at lunchtime on Saturday. Kacper Pludra (10), whom had raced in the Ekstraliga with Leszno yesterday, was one of the key riders for the hosts.

However, a 1:5 to Poznań in Heat 8 made the scores look more respectable. But with the lead established in the first half, 3:3s in all but the last heat were not enough to overturn Rawicz.

It was the visitors foreign riders who looked most likely to produce a comeback. Danish U21s Jonas Sierfert-Salk (11+2, pictured) and Marcus Birkemose (9) together with Germany’s Kevin Woelbert (9+1) fought valiantly. But without back up from the Polish riders, Rawicz’s lead was never in doubt and they ran out winners 50:40.

Australian, Keynan Rew scored just 2 pts from four starts for the winners.

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#LANWIT

Noon on Sunday saw the first meeting between the two German teams in eWinner 2 as Landshut hosted Wittstock. And the home team won easily against their rivals.

Whilst the clubs may come from the same country, the difference between the two was clear when the Devils won five 5:1s in a row between in Heats 9-14 to defeat the Wolves, 59:30.

Kai Huckenbeck was Landshut’s top scorer with 13+1, just missing out on a paid maximum whilst Wittstock’s Slovenian rider, Matic Ivacic was best with 9 pts.

When it comes to the TAURON SEC, Andzejs Lebedevs (Andrzej Lebiediew in Polish) is one of the most experienced riders in the competition, having appeared in six of the last eight events. And in 2017 the Latvian stunned the speedway world by winning his first ever European Championships. Although he did not win an individual round, he came to the final in all four events, including a second place in Güstrow, the next venue for this year’s competition.

The Latvian was signed with ROW Rybnik in Ekstraliga in 2020. But raced just 10 heats in the top league due to injury.

Now, in 2021, he is back and is in superb form.

His team, Wilki Krosno, are top of the table in eWinner 1 and the 26-year-old has clocked up an average of 2.135, putting him in 12th place on the individual rankings. That makes him the top scoring rider from League 1 who is taking part in the TAURON SEC, apart from the David Bellego.

We meet Lebedevs in a busy depot before the match between Eskilstuna Smederna and Motala Piraterna in Sweden’s Elitserien. It is a warm summer evening and the Latvian is in a relaxed mood, wearing his black Eskilstuna t-shirt and a pair of mirrored shades. It is just six days since his first TAURON SEC meeting in Bydgoszcz and since then he has raced in three different countries, including qualifying for the SGP Challenge meeting later this year.

“I’m a bit tired,” he admits honestly, “but that’s the job,” he says with a smile. And it is hardly a surprise when we hear that he raced in Russia on Friday, Croatia on Saturday, Poland on Sunday and now is in Sweden on Tuesday.

We get straight into discussing Round 1 of the TAURON SEC in Bydgoszcz, “I was very unlucky,” he tells us, “In four of my five heats, I was first out of the gate. But there was something wrong with the bike, I had no power. The same with my other bike, nothing”.

Despite those great starts the former champion picked up just 5 points and won only one heat.

“We did all we could with the bikes and I was feeling really good. We changed everything but, I guess, well, we were just unlucky,” he repeats still with an optimistic tone of voice.

“At Güstrow, we will do everything we can so that we can be happy with the performance. I hope it will go well,” he says before he gets ready for the track walkabout with the rest of the team.

Lebedevs finished the race with 8+1 as Smederna won to remain undefeated and top the table in Sweden after three matches. Now he will have a few days rest before travelling to Germany to face Europe’s best rider in Round 2 of the TAURON SEC.

#GNILOD

Whilst Tarnow are rooted at the bottom of EWinner 1 table, tonight’s match in Gniezno 6th and 7th teams in the league take on each other.

But the home team overwhelmed visitors, Łódź, who never got into the match, trailing by 8 points after Heat 7.

Both Start’s international riders and Polish brothers, Oskar Fajfer (10+1) and Kevin were on top form. And it was younger brother, Kevin who who top score with a 12-+3 paid maximum.

Finland’s Timo Lahti and Denmark’s Frederik Jakobsen scored 13 pts a piece and further good news for the team was that Peter Kildemand (pictured) was back after injury and took 7+1.

For the guests it was Luke Becker who top scored with 7+1, but that wasn’t enough to stop Łódź going down by an embarrassing, 59:31.

#GORGRU

Friday night’s first Ekstraliga match saw last year’s runners up host this year’s strugglers as Grudziadz travelled to Gorzow.

And Gorzow’s Szymon Wozniak (7) played an important part in the establishment of a lead that Grudziadz would never overcome.

He won his first two heats, 1 and 7 leading out two 5:1s for the team that created the winning margin of eight points as Gorzow won 49:41.

Grudziadz’s Nicki Pedersen (9) was the top scoring Dane in tonight’s match with teammate Kenneth Bjerre (5+2) and Gorzow’s Anders Thomsen (8+1) playing their part. Unfortunately, Marcus Birkemose was again unused at #8 for the hosts. However, with two unnamed riders in Poznań’s EWinner2 match tomorrow, the young Dane May race with them again.

#TORLES

Tonight’s final meet was also a case of top meets bottom as last year’s champions, Leszno, travelled to the newly promoted, Toruń.

The former champions came ready to race scoring three 2:4 heat advantages before the first track break. It was heat leaders, Janusz Kolodziej (7+1) and Jason Doyle (9+1) that won their respective heats for the guests to set up an early six point lead.

Heat 11 saw the home team finally take a 5:1 victory though their two established local riders as first Pawel Przedpelski (9+1) took the flag closely followed by Adrian Miedzinski (9+1).

But whilst that set up a “well maybe we can win” feeling among the home fans, the champions were not deterred and clinically finished Toruń off with a 2:4 victory to conclude the match 41:49. Perhaps surprisingly, the winner of Heat 15, and Leszno’s highest scorer on the night, was Piotr Pawlicki who won 4 out of 5 heats and took home 13 points.

The match contained no less than five English speakers.

Doyle LES 9+1

J Holder TOR 9+1

Lambert TOR 9+1

Lidsey LES 5

C Holder TOR 3+2

Västervik har gjort klart med en spännande backförstärkning. Det rör sig om talangfulle Hugo Gabrielsson.

Den 18-årige liraren kommer närmast från Frölundas organisation.

Hovås-produkten - som var utlånad till Hockeyettan-laget Halmstad under en stor del av den gångna säsongen - väntas NHL-draftas senare i år.

Sportchefen Emil Georgsson om den intressanta värvningen.

- Hugo är en talangfull back som spelade HockeyEttan förra säsongen, men är skolad i Frölundas organisation. Han är skicklig med puck och en bra skridskoåkare, säger VIK:s sportchef till hemsidan.

Allsvenska Kristianstad får en vass förstärkning i båset: Peter "Piva" Johansson ansluter.

Den 55-årige skåningen har meriter från både SHL och HockeyAllsvenskan som tränare.

Johansson - som närmast kommer från seriekonkurrenten Modo - har i övrigt bland annat hunnit med att vara tränare i den norska högstaligan.

Huvudtränaren Mikael Gath om den vassa rekryteringen.

- Vi har äntligen hittat en lösning med Piva efter flera tidigare försök. Piva känner jag sen tidigare och vet att hans erfarenhet och driv kommer stärka vårat lag, säger KIK-tränaren till klubbens hemsida.

Noterbart i övrigt är att Joel Gistedt har förlängt avtalet som målvaktstränare och videoansvarig för A-laget. Han kommer dessutom hjälpa till med klubbens hockeygymnasium och målvaktsträning på ungdomsnivå.