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But they wouldn’t have done. The only way Jenkins would have gotten in at Ipswich this year was at rising star. You say “tough” which of course is your prerogative and opinion, but I’m pretty sure nobody else would have picked him as a senior reserve at number six either so a young Brit would end up missing an opportunity if he’d “opted out” of the scheme. The whole idea to start with was to help these young Brits. A staggered pick based on league positions from a totally different season was a really poor idea in the first place so lord above knows why they came out with it. Worth remembering also that all signings made including rising stars are “subject to ratification by the BSPL” so if indeed there wasn’t any priority picks and they were all content to let everyone choose who they wanted, then why bother announcing that rule to start with? 🤷🏼‍♂️

What next is a good question and one that I'm sure that Forever Panthers will be watching very closely. This, from Peterborough Today - "In particular, there was huge opposition to the fact the development would mean the end of more than 50 years of speedway racing at the Peterborough Panthers track. However, the refusal does not automatically mean a return to the venue for speedway." - is a step up from Butterfield saying that speedway will not return irrespective of planning. That was just bullying, and with the EEAS allegedly fallen out with AEPG, I suspect that decision is now out of his hands? Unfortunately no quick fix though it would appear.

That just reinforces what a daft system it was allowed to become. It is really classic speedway that something as straightforward as a draft can end up in a mess. X clubs, X riders, everyone picks one each in the reverse order of last year's league - how can anyone possibly mess that up? It's amazing. If Jordan Jenkins didn't want to lose all of his local sponsorship - which is absolutely fair btw - then he had the choice to opt-out of the RS scheme and wait for Ipswich to sign him. If they didn't, that's life. How many other riders have to go elsewhere up and down the country to get a job?

Loftus is a good prospect, as is Jody Scott. I'd love to see both of them, but honestly, I hope they re-sign with their respective clubs. They gave them a chance and it would be nice to see the clubs reap the benefit next year.

Any thoughts on who would offer scope to improve with less risk if we did have 5.89 left available IF we signed the other 6 I mentioned. Besides Mcdiarmid has a lot of potential but still only 17. On the who's within that points range mentioned on page 1 by A Speedway Fan there isn't much that inspires me. Of course there is Kevin Juhl Pedersen who made a short visit in Oct for The Blue Ribbon plus a Worky Ind event. But he has ridden for Holsted in DK last 4 years which of course is a Wed night. His Av in 3rd tier of POL for Landshut was only 4 points per meeting from 12 meetings so arguably even worse then Bowes who at least rode one decent meeting at Poole. I think Pedersen would be a worse signing than Bowes in my opinion. Would point out we can all get it wrong. I thought when Ben Cook came over in 2020 (before season cancelled for Covid) that ba\sed on his Aussie form that he would struggle in UK. Fair to say I got that thankfully horribly wrong 😃. He av 5.31 or 6.11 incl bonus in that first season from 15 meetings as missed some with injury. The rest is history. Anyway do you have an idea who would be ideal bearing in mind that if we do sign Bailey/Rushen with Cairns they would all be very young at 16 when season starts.

I thought it was interesting at the SON that Marcelina came across as a lot more natural than Abi often does. Maybe she's just a better presenter, but it is clear she's genuinely a speedway fan. There was one point in an interview with Kurtz that she recalled his league debut at Torun. It was completely minor at the time, but it stuck in my head. Does Abi have a clue who most riders are riding for outside of the meeting she's at? I feel like that depth just adds something. It might be team mates in Poland facing off, a rider's Polish/Swedish track compared to that meeting's track, etc., it would get that whole close-knit family aspect of speedway.

Just seen heat 15, that was a fantastic ride from Harris, really amazing what he can do on a well prepared track. So the Poole promotion, realising they'll have their biggest crowd of the season, with one of the most exciting riders in British Speedway visiting, decide the best option is to make a super slick track with no option for passing! Which is what their fans want apparently? I really can't understand that. I'm not saying design it so Harris can have a blinder, but a track where you go backwards if you drift off the line, surely not? Don't really like either team, but I'd rather watch racing at Glasgow each week & finish 2nd, than watch Poole each week & win the league. Also makes me question why Howarth was used in heat 16, don't get that decision by Cami.

His home form was ok I think but some away performances were not great apart from one amazing meeting at Kings Lynn! As you say probably a lot to do with Nick Morris being too difficult to turn down. Would not mind him in the Pirates team next season either.

Looking at the stats (don't scream at me people) Joe T's away ave is almost 2 points higher than Barker's. If you want to be stronger away should pick Joe ahead of Barker. Joe's away ave is almost as high as his starting average, so he's definitely done well imo. Especially as I'm sure it's his first season being completely away from the reserve berth. I'd personally have both of them, especially thinking surely Barker can't be as bad away from home again (averaging less than 3.5). Looks a strong team, think Ingram would be a good choice as 2.00 reserve, he certainly seems to have improved, only saw him once at Scunthorpe & was impressed. Biggest doubt for me is Klindt, not sure I'd want a rider you can't rely on to turn up for home matches.

Seem to remember they did similar a few years back, it will help balance things a bit more, but trade off will be those third tier heat leaders on an attractive sub 8 point average will most likely want more money next year as they know their bargaining position is better. The bigger issue is though its a tiny effort against the wholesale restructuring that needs to happen obviously not helped by the fact there is currently by the sound of it no tv contract on offer, hopefully Flagrag's words of wisdom to the promoters will bear some form of fruit.

Kerr was criticised because he was riding poorly and seemed to have a lot of bike issues which is why he didnt last long at his premiership teams, unlike the premiership teams we kept him and recently he has been very good, the form he is showing now I did not think he had in him anymore. I do not blame any club getting rid of an out of form rider. As for Paul Starke he is still not riding well but I suppose my expectations were too high as he has increased his average and we all remember how good a rider he used to be.

Not sure I'd agree with that, he averaged five and a half which I would say is about right for him in the Prem nowadays. I suspect Morris' availability had more to do with it.

I don’t have a problem with any of them although I’d admit kelvin does seem to be making more and more mistakes, I dislike a couple of BSNs presenters more but they don’t detract from the overall product, for me TNT just comes across like an amatuer film crew that have no idea how speedway ticks and they don’t actually want to be there, maybe it’s because BSN actually come from within the sport, most have been through a fence or two and understand how the sport ticks where Tatum and Louis have to put their speedway perspective through someone who has gone through media training and wouldn’t know a speedway bike from a biscuit tin, it happens in all walks of life sadly and in the case of TNT it shows

Rumour on the Championship threads that they’ll have a rule next year of one rider over 8.00 per team to help spread the number 1’s around. Wonder if we’ll see the same in the Premiership? actually after looking at the green sheets there’s only one team (Belle Vue) that have two riders over 8.00 so it would be a bit pointless. If that rule was brought in then Belle Vue would rightly feel a bit aggrieved and targeted.

All the focus seems to be on Jenkins when it comes to the rising star “picks” for some reason. Nobody has ever mentioned Leon Flint! Ipswich actually finished fourth, But Sheffield finished first so had the “last pick”, and yet arguably picked up the strongest rising star of them all! Let’s be honest here. Are we to believe that Birmingham, King’s Lynn and Oxford, all made their picks and left the two strongest rising stars on the shelf? The Lynn fans on here and there were a few of them, said that Rob Lyon was very open at one of their end of season’s meetings, that they wanted Jenkins as rising star, or failing that, Flint was also of heavy interest seeing as they were the two strongest rising stars. He was apparently confident of getting one of them as Lynn had one of the first “picks”. They ended up with neither!!

Scott Nichols and Chris Louis do a grand job. Olly Allen passable, but Tatum and that giggly Abi Stephen’s are a joke.

The ad window is 7 minutes per hour at peak times. Speaking to a Commercial Manager of a Premiership club he said the issue is not only the raw numbers but the demographics. Fans are to old, and to poor to appeal to mainstream brands. The comparison he gave was a netball viewer was 28 years younger and earned £22,000 more per annum than a speedway viewer. This would make the sport a hard sell to free to air channels. BSPL could be faced with decision between a small amount of money per club from a broadcast partner that has the sport "hidden" behind some form of paywall and a free to air deal with no money and where BSPL pick up the production costs but gets the sport to a wider audience. This greater reach could then be used to gain more commercial partners for the clubs as it would appear more to selected national brands.

Blue you did spend most of the season criticising kerr and starke,saying they shouldn't have been signed, even wanting rid,glad you've been won around and appreciate the riders

Kerr has certainly been impressive lately and I would not be against having him back especially as his average has dropped. I would say he wasnt messed about by Premiership clubs but more that he let himself down by poor performances which led to him getting dropped. If Zach is not at Poole then it has to be Lawson,Kerr,Rowe, Cairns, Rushen as a start.

Have to agree, should continue to improve and gives good value for his GSA.

lol of course it wasnt, stop making stuff up.

😂🥸 Sorry mate; went along on Friday night, then had a busy weekend. Gutted, but what a meeting. All credit to both sets of riders who left nothing in the pits. That’s all I wanted on Wednesday night too, but felt the track didn’t allow for it. That’s done though. I’m gutted we lost in such heartbreaking circumstances, but give me a tie over two legs and a loss in the race-off every single season if we’re served that sort of racing. An absolute pleasure. I hope everyone enjoyed it. This fantastic sport might be struggling, but Glasgow and Poole, take a bow. Both sets of riders were like gladiators.

Personally I think Poole would be crazy to let Lewis Kerr go , especially if Zach Cook does not ride Championship. Lewis can be high maintenance and his confidence levels can drop, especially when he keeps getting messed about by PL Clubs chopping and changing. He would be ideal though with Lawson and Rowe as a spearhead and there would be none better.

With the RS it is the case that if you retain the rider from the previous season then this overrides the pick With Dan moving out of RS eligibility and Jordan back into the scheme I think it was this situation that was invoked

Birmingham got Keynan Rew who ended up as their 2nd highest average rider.......