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Duckworth Lewis for Speedway

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How would everyone feel about a Duckworth Lewis style formula to decide abandoned matches or even totally washed out fixtures.

Not great for season ticket holders and lost earnings for riders but it would avoid matches being run on unfit tracks and end of season fixture congestion.

Might be useful if league matches can't start in May as hoped.

Roughly there'd be a mathematical formula to determine each riders match specific 'average'. The formula would take into account the riders average and recent form. Home for the home riders Away for the away riders.  Could even include previous performance on the specific track. Importantly the formula and data would be visible so the match specific averages would be known pre match. Then the result of un-run heats would be determined based on riders match specific average.

Worst idea ever?

 

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1 hour ago, enotian said:

How would everyone feel about a Duckworth Lewis style formula to decide abandoned matches or even totally washed out fixtures.

Not great for season ticket holders and lost earnings for riders but it would avoid matches being run on unfit tracks and end of season fixture congestion.

Might be useful if league matches can't start in May as hoped.

Roughly there'd be a mathematical formula to determine each riders match specific 'average'. The formula would take into account the riders average and recent form. Home for the home riders Away for the away riders.  Could even include previous performance on the specific track. Importantly the formula and data would be visible so the match specific averages would be known pre match. Then the result of un-run heats would be determined based on riders match specific average.

Worst idea ever?

 

Yup - guess so. :unsure::)

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2 hours ago, enotian said:

How would everyone feel about a Duckworth Lewis style formula to decide abandoned matches or even totally washed out fixtures.

The obvious question is why would it be needed given that speedway teams have had the same opportunities to score at any point in the match?

Duckworth-Lewis(-Stern) exists in cricket because teams bat alternately and the side batting second may not get a full innings, along with all the complications of how they may have been pacing their innings before the stoppage. 

If you want truncated speedway matches to be decided fairly, there are particular break points when most/all riders have ridden the same number of times (e.g. after Heats 4, 8, 11 and 14 in the 'classic' formats). It's not perfect as some riders may have ridden against each other more times, and/or not every rider may have ridden against every other rider at any given point, but that's no different if you ran a full match and the DLS method has its imperfections as well.

What would be worth considering, is replacing guests with a handicap system. Bring in a junior, but give their team a starting points advantage based on the difference between their average and that of the rider being replaced.

It's actually more complicated than it sounds if you have tactical subs and/or rides because you'd need to distribute the handicap over a given number of heats to avoid the situation where the handicapped team simply uses a tactical option and quickly wipes out the deficit. So I'd guess you'd need to allocate the handicap as happens in golf over particular holes, which would probably cause fans to give up the will to live, but if it could be done like DLS on the scoreboard... :D

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Just imagine if those in charge brought in such a system... ?

The mind boggles as to the amount of various rules, regulations, logistical data and permutations that they would come up with...

And at the end of it all...

Both teams would lose...:D

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Speedway is not very complicated but still there are many varied ideas as to how it works to bring in a DLS type system would involve a lot of brain power.

The British speedway nativity struggled to find 3 wise men this last Panto season

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Speedway is the simplest of sports, tied up by complicated rules. None of the nonsense the mafia come up with, will bring the crowds back again. 

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On 2/4/2021 at 4:56 PM, mikebv said:

Just imagine if those in charge brought in such a system... ?

The mind boggles as to the amount of various rules, regulations, logistical data and permutations that they would come up with...

And at the end of it all...

Both teams would lose...:D

Rule 21/DLM/69

In the event of an abandonment the Management Committee will convene to allocate a maximum of 4 match points. 

Points will be allocated on the basis of a maximum of 2 points for the participants and a 2 point bonus for Scunthorpe. 

This Rule is unappealable

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2 hours ago, cityrebel said:

Speedway is the simplest of sports, tied up by complicated rules. None of the nonsense the mafia come up with, will bring the crowds back again. 

How many u21’s showed up to the training day you organised and paid for?

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On 2/4/2021 at 3:57 PM, RS50 said:

Who would be doing it? Jack Duckworth and Jerry Lewis? 

Vera Duckworth & Lennox Lewis.

That pair probably know the square root of diddly squat about speedway, and that would probably be their biggest advantage.

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Is that Bob Duckworth and Tony Lewis?  (One for the old gits like me)

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