Islander15

Yes I completely agree.

There's a lot of negativity on this thread and lots of it I haven't witnessed first hand so cannot comment. But one thing I am sure of is you'd rather have some speedway, even if it drives you crazy, than none at all!

I know you only used it as an example HT but I think Kent missed the experience of Mason when he left and I don't think it was coincidental that they improved massively when he returned. From their point of view how does Kurtz improve the other riders? He may pass on experience etc but even if he ends with a 12.00 average I very much doubt that he will be able to give as much information to Freemantle, Blake and Chessell etc that Mason would. Good luck to Jones. I hope the score he posted in the illegitimate Scunthorpe meeting will be more like his scoring this season as opposed to what he posted for the Islanders. But having said that, he experience will be massively beneficial which is what the management want

Fair enough. As others have said I remembered him being linked to a permanent transfer and obviously Ipswich were happy with letting him go. I haven't seen Joe at Ashfield but having followed his NL progress closely I'm confident that his 2014 average will be in excess of 4.00 and nearer 5.00 than 4.00. He has a lot of talent and has often beaten the biggest name in the league, I just think he needs to find a bit of consistency and with having the same men behind him at Peterborough as he had at Coventry last year and going back to Mildenhall I'm sure he will. Having said all that he bucked the trend of the 'Brits don't want to travel' trait and I'm sure he'd have been more than happy to stay because my impression of Joe is simply that he wants to race and will put in the effort wherever in order to repay the faith someone puts in him to race.

Nick Morris? But that would mean dropping another rider.

You should have just kept Jacobs.

I think you're right SKJ, which means Rob is referring to an NL rider who will count as a 3.00 NL guest. Nielsen doesn't as he has achieved an average of over 4.00 in the PL. The likes of Ritchinfs, Morley and Sarjeant look good to me.

It seems to have been unclear for a while as to whether Branford will or will not return to Britain next year. If you remember he didn't start last season with a team place as he was in a similar situation. From your list Knight and Hazelden have retired, Fenwick isn't riding speedway this year and N. Stoneman has turned down offers of team places. It may or may not happen obviously bit I'd like to see Blacklock and Priest at Buxton and you could potentially add Branford to that if he comes over.

He tweeted that he had some offers of team places but turned them down. I think he'd rather mechanic for someone than race. And star shooter he rode for Mildenhall last year until he was dropped about August time.

=3 No but one of your pair is on the list. No, Ellis got 12 5-1s but with 6 different partners. There is an Islanders pair though. No. There's one more Mildenhall pair but not including those two.

Yes sorry SCB I stole the idea off you but you haven't posted one yet so I thought I'd go for it. Name the pairs to have scored the most 5-1s in the NL last season. I'm not sure on SCB's requirements but I've used league meetings only. 1. Armstrong and Bates (11 times) - Mr Mungo 2. Blackbird and Morris (9 times) - phillipsr =3. Blackbird and D. Greenwood (7 times) - phillipsr =3. Lambert and Kerr (7 times) - Ommer Mon 5. Blackbird and Starke (6 times) - phillipsr =6. xxx and xxx (5 times) - =6. xxx and xxx (5 times) - =6. xxx and xxx (5 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - =9. xxx and xxx (4 times) - And as a clue, 1 rider appears 3 times!

=3 5 2

Yes that's what I meant. They're at 1.

1. Stefan Nielsen 8.00 2. Luke Crang 4.78 3. Liam Carr 6.87 4. Lewis Rose 6.76 5. Steve Worrall 7.09 6. Brandon Freemantle 3.00 7. Danny Phillips 3.00 39.50

Buxton Hitmen 1. Tony Atkin 7.75 2. Stefan Farnaby 3.00 3. Tom Woolley 3.64 4. Ryan Blacklock 4.43 5. Liam Carr 6.87 6. Adam Extance 3.00 7. Sean Phillips 3.00 Total: 31.69 Remaining: 8.21 Coventry Storm 1. Stefan Nielsen 8.00 2. Luke Crang 4.78 3. Oliver Greenwood 6.89 4. Dan Greenwood 5.74 5. James Sarjeant 7.38 6. Martin Knuckey 3.00 7. Ryan Terry-Daley 3.00 Total: 38.81 Remaining: 1.19 Cradley Heathens 1. Paul Starke 9.93 2. Nathan Greaves 4.00 3. Tom Perry 6.30 4. Max Clegg 6.27 5. Steve Worrall 7.09 6. Matt Williamson 3.33 7. Danny Phillips 3.00 Total: 39.92 Remaining: 0.08 Devon Demons 1. Tim Webster 8.30 2. Dan Stoneman 4.29 3. Lee Smart 5.76 4. Matt Bates 4.47 5. Ben Reade 7.70 6. Richard Andrews 3.41 7. James Shanes 3.46 Total: 37.39 Remaining: 2.61 Kent Kings 1. Simon Lambert 9.46 2. Luke Chessell 4.22 3. David Mason 6.38 4. Benji Compton 6.37 5. Ben Morley 7.13 6. Dan Blake 3.40 7. Brandon Freemantle 3.00 Total: 39.96 Remaining: 0.04 King's Lynn Young Stars 1. Lewis Rose 6.76 2. James Cockle 6.24 3. Darren Mallett 6.04 4. Darryl Ritchings 5.94 5. Kyle Hughes 6.22 6. Josh Bailey 3.00 7. Scott Campos 4.54 Total: 38.74 Remaining: 1.26 Leicester (National Trophy only) 1. James Sarjeant 2. Dan Greenwood 3. Tom Perry 4. Max Clegg 5. Oliver Greenwood 6. James Shanes 7. Tom Woolley Mildenhall Fen Tigers 1. Joe Jacobs 8.71 2. Jack Kingston 4.20 3. Josh Bates 7.49 4. Brendan Johnson 4.84 5. Danny Halsey 7.43 6. Connor Mountain 3.00 7. Connor Coles 3.67 Total: 39.34 Remaining: 0.66 Scunthorpe Stags 1. Steve Jones 5.33 2. Ryan Macdonald 3.00 3. Danno Verge 3.00 4. Danny Ayres 3.00 5. Arron Mogridge 3.00 6. Liam Sanderson 3.00 7. Reece Downes 3.00 8. Tyler Govier Total: 23.33 Remaining: 16.67 Stoke Potters 1. Ben Wilson 10.17 2. Chris Widman 3.50 3. Ben Hopwood 6.89 4. Lee Payne 4.90 5. Jon Armstrong 7.93 6. Rob Shuttleworth 3.00 6. James McBain 3.00 Total: 39.39 Remaining: 0.61

I think Scunthorpe will have one or two 3.00 men who will significantly increase their average! It's your thread greyhoundp and you haven't had a go yourself

I wasn't thinking about which club he rode for at that point just that he's from near Leicester. Mr Mungo was obviously thinking solely about locality as was I.

When this team was rumoured a month or so ago I said something similar Vog. You're asking Webster to score big points when he's had a while out, Reade to hit form coming back from nearly all of last season out, Smart to be a third heat leader when he deteriorated badly last year, Bates to possibly increase his average as he's likely to be partnered with Smart who may or may not get back to his best especially as Smart has EL duties now, Stoneman I'm sure will improve slightly, Shanes should continue his development and by starting at reserve will probably improve the most and Andrews is a strange one, he's been around for a fair few years now and never really progressed and I would have preferred them to have gone with a new 3.00 man especially seeing as it's a development team maybe someone local like Tyler Govier. Apologises for the poor grammar and for the negativity but it's a team that has a real Plymouth look about it, but not one that I can see challenging this season, but in Shane's and Reade they do at least have 2 potential stars. What's your thoughts on the team Mikey?

So the Isle of Wight 2013 are back Presumably as Malcolm said, they will have a 40.00 limit like everyone else and stick to those riders the whole season. The press release also says they want to use 2013 Lions riders but Kerr and Blackbird are ineligible now so maybe Branford has decided to come back over or Sarjeant will be included. I think their problem is how can you contract a competitive side who will ride only 6 or 8 meetings all season? If those riders are good enough they are going to sign for league teams. There are riders out there that don't have league spaces but after a good performance for Leicester, are you going to let him sign for a league team... I think the idea of borrowing riders in principle works but maybe if they come up with their own 3.00 men if there are some around the Leicester area, or give 2 MDL riders a chance at reserve and borrow 3 to supplement Perry & Clegg. At the end of the day those 2 MDL riders could become full-time National League Leicester riders next year and you're already quickening their progress. On another note if they do borrow all 7, I hope Chris Widman is one of them. They're using it to gauge support to possibly enter the league next year. If Cradley ran there then it wouldn't tell them how May Leicester fans would turn up. And anyway I thought it was said last year that you had enough dates at Monmore for PL racing so you must have enough to do the NT as well.

Leicester have joined the National Trophy and will track Perry & Clegg as part of the team. Hopefully Lions fans you will turn out to support our next generation and produce some exciting British talent! http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.23754

After today's AGM the club withdrew from the league, BUT have until January 31st to rejoin. They need £20k for a new air fence and have so far raised just over £9k, so a lot to do, but speedway community don't let this club fold! It may be the team that I support, but surely losing any side is disastrous, so dig deep please. http://www.gofundme.com/iow-air-fence DONATE!!!!!

I agree with home and away wins especially as it'll give Dan a chance to ease back into league racing on a former track. But this round might not take place as Speedway Star reported that Devon are considering their position in the KOC due to a potential shortage of dates for fixtures.

Have a read of this http://www.speedway365.com/scunthorpe-dimiss-douglas-rumour/ The club says he has had his visa granted already.

You ignore most of my first response and only answered a few words of my second, so that rather sums up your argument. I never claimed to be of expert knowledge and left it to others to form a judgement. The more people that say what they know then the more we know overall and the better informed we can become.

I maintain that what I said was neither derogatory nor a put down but a simple fact. If you or Rob took it that way then that is up to you and not me, and probably shows your true thoughts. I posted a fact, and didn't include any of my opinion on him at all, and that fact you cannot dispute. This is a forum for open debate for fans and anyone can post, within reason, what they want. I could not include the length of time he had been riding a bike because I did not know it and I was making no argument so it wasn't imperative that I looked up his riding position on the day. For example if I was to say Ricky Van Wolfswinkel cost Norwich £8.5million it's your opinion on him if you think I'm suggesting that's too much. I may well be of the opinion that he needs a year to settle and will do really well next year (which is the case btw). I think it shows that my post was purely fact based with myself making no judgement on the rider and nothing negative towards him when you consider that nobody else bothered to complain about it or my similar post regarding Adam Extance.