Fortythirtyeight

I’m not privy to his or anyone else’s championship deals but the NDL pay rates at the club are not a big secret as most of the lads can’t keep a secret and talk openly about their deals in public, usually in the form of moans about who is getting more than them at other clubs! The club are not paying ‘top dollar’ but it’s my opinion they have been very sensible in the rates offered to ‘development’ riders and obviously the seven/eight concerned are happy with them too. Tigger and his family come across as very sensible and have been regulars at Redcar with the Gary Havelock connection in 2023 .

No double headers planned and the lad has been very sensible in his deal as he realises the benefit of riding for both Redcar sides. Bearing in mind how many local lads are in the NDL team the club have saved a fair bit anyway.

There isn’t a written rule regarding pay structure but it’s easy to work out which clubs are paying the larger wages, just look at the predicted finishing order, Edinburgh and Redcar at the bottom and it’s no secret they aren’t paying over the top rates, very sensibly. Clubs have different outlooks on ‘development’ and winning at all costs. Besides , the SCB might just award you a title anyway like last seasons fiasco.

You must think Redcar have Glasgows piggy bank ! Try much much closer to home, about two hours from Middlesbrough.

You need to keep up with the times. The GTR engine fiasco died years ago and only 16 were ever brought into the UK so you’ll be lucky if there’s two or three still in a running condition.

How can Gavin do that ? When he won’t be at their away meetings and possibly not at many of the home meetings either. Now if you had said Stuart Swales ……

Yes, Senna had agreed to go to Redcar but was ‘persuaded’ to go to Oxford. Dicken would be a surprise and a gamble.

Don’t worry folks, your team is sorted as Lemon has just dumped one rider saying he can no longer can fit him in …..well why did he sign him in the first place ? especially as he had turned down two other teams and now hasn’t got a place ! Great way to treat the kids. No wonder the sport is in such a mess.

So one season at Edinburgh and one at Belle Vue makes one season ? whatever…. The lad still has a long way to go to be considered a decent heat leader standard rider.

Still not reached any great heights is my point so does need to push on this coming season.

Interesting, no places for local boys Lyden , Davison or Goldsbrough so they must be already signed up elsewhere ? Doesnt look a very strong side but then it is supposed to be about development.Phillips is the most experienced one and rides Redcar well but the rest are mid to low averages and a couple of them have yet to get above a four average after a few seasons ( Freeman, Kelly , Rathbone, even Halder ) so they need to impress this season. Sounds like the seventh rider pulled out at the last minute and is heading elsewhere , a mirror image of the seniors !

So Belle Vue have seen enough to think your ‘Wobbler’ is worth a team place . The old adage of ‘ if you ain’t falling, you ain’t trying ‘ comes to mind.

I thought you were even more informed as you would be running it ?

Paid seven on his debut for Belle Vue says he isn’t a ‘ Wobbler ‘.

As Plymouth are saying Trigger has signed for the Bears it must be assumed he will also be in the NDL side ( the Cubs ? ) with possibly Mulford if he’s a Bear and not in a Premiership spot. so… Club assets are Freeman and Goldsbrough so pencil those in. Local riders are Phillips, Crang ,Kelly, , Lyden ,Rathbone, Embleton and Davidson. Could also add Bullets riders like Watson , Blair , Halder etc. so perm seven from that list. I have no idea about avareges so…. Id say… Mulford, Phillips Trigger, Freeman, Kelly, Lyden, with Goldsbrough or Davidson

Probable that 3 of those could be at Redcar

Let’s face it, he’s only putting a team in to make up the numbers to keep the NDL going and obviously needed a helping push to do that, but at least that is doing something !

are you telling me that YOU don’t know ? Looks like you will be a very busy boy next season.

Better question would be :” who’s in the NDL ?”……then work out which phone box to hold the AGM in.

Not sure TJ is going to improve on his current average but with a weaker league he’ll do a job with Bailey & Edwards likely to improve . Mulford is basically starting again but showed promise. Replace Trigger with Hodder as travelling from Plymouth for home meetings isn’t a great idea .

Bit risky taking three of them are coming back from injury / illness.

None, I would have thought. IOW chose to leave, they appear to be very happy staging amateur stuff , might possibly be joined by a couple of other southern tracks doing a mini Nora ‘league’ racing so why look to rejoin a crumbling ‘professional ’ set up ? ( I do use the word ‘professional’ lightly ).

Is that why 80% of the crowd left after heat 13 ? That was one of the reasons they extended the main match to 15 heats as that’s what the fans wanted.

SJL had three rider teams with three rides each. The current format for the NJL is four rider teams with three rides apiece.

That’s not going to happen for a number of reasons. The club will have double their ‘running bills’, staff, electric bills etc when the ‘2nd team’ may only attract a very small crowd so it’s a big financial loser. The NDL struggled to find enough riders of a reasonable standard this year so if there were more than 6-8 teams wanted to field a side it would be of a low standard, possibly MDL/ NJL standard, that won’t attract a crowd. If you try this with a 5 rider team, how many heats ? How many rides per rider ? What happens when the inevitable junior gets withdrawn after an injury leaving only 4 ? Aussies and Yanks aren’t going to be attracted by a ‘junior’ league. The sport struggled to complete its fixtures this year with the small number of clubs so it’s not the blank weeks that’s an issue, it’s the way the fixtures are planned , starting too early, finishing too late as October is no longer Speedway friendly.