deanr1

Great signing, well done Mick Horton! Joonas has plenty of experience of the EL tracks and should be good for 6 or 7 in most meetings any hopefully a few more sometimes. Looking at our number 3&4 positions this year compared to last we are much stronger.

Beaten by Kenneth Hansen and David Howe already tonight... Josh Bates & Aaron Summers in his next race, can he pick up a point? Seriously though, anyone who thinks he's going to turn the corner anytime soon and become a decent EL second string needs their head looking at! Needs to go PL and try to develop himself first.

I think invincible is a bit optimistic, but there's no doubt that with a quality number 4 we would be a very good side indeed and should make the play offs. I would still see Poole as the team to beat, their top 2 are capable of winning any race on any track, and will be good for a 5-1 in plenty of heat 13 & 15's. They also have decent second strings and Kyle Newman at reserve so they will be a tough nut to crack. If we can get someone who has earned a 6.50+ average riding as a heat leader, we would be very solid. Kylmakorpi would be a good signing or someone of that standard, then I think we could have a good crack at taking Poole's league title off them.

Should be one of the top reserves this year, he did well on Friday night, gave it 100% and was in the mix for a few more points. I expect he will score plenty of points against the other reserves and should pick up a few against the second strings too, having Auty is great news for Leicester as you need at least one good reserve to have any chance in this league.

Must have missed heat 13 then, and Auty was getting stuck in for most of his rides, same could be said for Robbo & Wozniak. Harris was having a good go at Walasek early in the meeting but he's a quick rider when he gates, it's not easy to pass him. I've been to all of the EL tracks apart from Lakeside, a few of the PL tracks, and a few more tracks that are no longer with us. I would love to know where these tracks are with great racing & passing in every heat because I've yet to find them.

Couldn't agree more, BRING BACK CHRIS SIMPSON!

Can't agree with you I'm afraid mate, I like Simon Lambert but he is one of the weaker reserves this season and Jamrog had to work hard to pass him. Auty, Garrity & Sarj were all miles faster and he never looked liked he was catching up with any of them. He was a long way behind in his last race when there were no reserves in it. He will definitely improve with experience but not quickly enough, after the Wolves meeting we have some tough opposition coming up and need someone who can score 6-7 points in most meetings, he's not going to do that any time soon.

Really enjoyed that meeting having fully expected us to get turned over tonight. The track looked great again, the holes and ruts from the last couple of seasons seem to have been sorted out and all of the riders looked in control. I'm sure it would have been very close had Leicester not lost Michelsen in heat 1, Doyle was as average as I thought he would be, never been impressed by him at Brandon. Jamrog was completely off the pace and needs shipping off to the premier league ASAP, Sarj looked great and seems to be a real success story of the fast track system, vastly improved from the rider he was 12 months ago and getting better all the time.

I thought he looked alright in practice but that's the second meeting I've watched him in and he's nowhere near on the pace. 3 of the reserves Garrity, Sarj & Auty were miles quicker than him and even Simon Lambert gave him a good run for his money, did he not get beaten by Max Clegg at Swindon too? He's a million miles away from being a 6-7 point EL rider, the club need to stop kidding themselves that he'll settle in because he won't improve that quickly and we need someone who can score points now. Wozniak had never even seen the place and he was head and shoulders better.

Can only see a home defeat for us tonight I'm afraid, Leicester look strong all the way through and I think they will win by 6 or more. Hope I'm wrong obviously! Anyone know if we can use season tickets tonight? I''m guessing not as it's not a league meeting but thought I would check...

You have to give Jamrog a few more meetings, it will be a pressure meeting for him on Friday. He has to improve. I'm sure he will improve, but is he going to improve so rapidly that he can average 6.50 or more in the next couple of weeks? Because that's what we will need from our number 4 if we want to have a good go at making the play offs, it's a tough league this season. I think he is not at EL standard yet and needs to go and develop himself in the PL for a while first.

Jamrog looked decent, hard to tell when he's just practicing on his own though. Sarj looked good too, riding some wider lines. The biggest plus was the track though, hats off to the track man because that's the best I've seen it for a long time.

My point is that it's not Jamrog's fault he's been signed to ride in place of a 6.80 rider, I think if he averages anything more than 5 then he himself won't have let anyone down, more so the promoter who signed a 5 pointer to do the job of a near 7 pointer. Bridger was a terrible signing because the guys a complete tool who was always going to let us down at some point as he has since confirmed, not because of his lack of talent on a bike. With an change of attitude (and a speedway bike!) he would have been a great signing but that change of attitude will never happen. Can't argue with Pawlicki, he would have made us title favourites IMO but if he doesn't want the job then I guess there's not much more Horton could have done. I get the feeling we will be seeing a change before May anyway!

Would have to agree tbh, the league is a lot stronger this year, Poole look really good again, Swindon & KL will be thereabouts, and Lakeside, Leicester & Belle Vue are massively improved from last season. There won't be any easy meetings, and everyone's reserves have improved so Garrity & Sarj will have it tougher. The whole strength of the Bees side was that middle order and effectively having 4 heat leaders, that strength is gone now. But we know that there will be changes along the way and I just wonder if this is just a stop gap signing and Horton already has another rider lined up. I'm looking forward to seeing Jamrog ride, but as I think SCB mentioned he needs to average 6.50 plus to have been a successful signing and I just can't see it. If he can average 5 he will have done well IMO and it's unfair on him to expect much more than that. I can see us having a very tough start to the season but hopefully we will get sorted out in time to be able to have a crack at the play-offs.

Pleased to see we've signed someone interesting rather than Klindt, although it's asking a lot of him to be pushing Danny King for a third heat leader spot when he's never ridden over here regularly. Hopefully he will do very well for us although we should expect him to take time to adjust. Welcome to the Bees Jakub! Roll on next weekend!

I just can't see his wages being that much higher than other heat leaders, a lot of people seem to think he is expensive but Matt Ford is no mug and seemed happy enough with what he was earning. If he was one of the very top riders in the world (ie a world title contender) then I could believe that he would cost a fortune, but he's not he's a second/third heatleader in the EL. I have no idea how much Shamek gets paid but Klindt/Woodward/Bridger wouldn't have been riding for free either, it would be interesting to know just how much more he would cost compared to those guys.

If we assume an average crowd of around 1500 - 2000, at £2 extra this means you think Shamek would cost £3k to £4k a meeting more than someone like Klindt? Not even taking into account the extra fans having an exciting team would bring through the gate. He might miss the odd meeting but I would rather have Shamek for 80% of the meetings than Klindt for all of them. He didn't seem to miss too many for Poole last season apart from when he was genuinely injured, I remember there was one contentious meeting when he rode in Poland but other than that I think Poole fans were happy with his commitment and availability. When he rode for us before he was in the world U-21s which accounted for most of the meetings he missed. Who knows if he wants to ride here, but I'd like to think Mick Horton would try to get him if possible, or if not him a rider of heat leader standard rather than a 5.5 second string. There's no doubt about it, an exciting and successful team will bring far more in gate receipts than an uninspiring one, speculate to accumulate.

Would he qualify for an average reduction as he's barely ridden in the UK for a couple of seasons?

Horton either seems to get it very right or very wrong, signing Klindt when we have nearly 7 seven points to use would be very wrong. I don't mind Klindt as a rider, if we were looking for a 5.5 second string I would be happy with him, but this whole team hinges on having a strong number 3 & 4 which effectively allows us to have a heat leader riding at number 4 all season. Having Klindt in that position takes that strength away. I hope Horton is doing everything he can do bring in a top quality replacement, they will no doubt cost more but successful teams bring the crowds in, this is why Poole have such a big following because they always put a top team together. When Sandhu was putting exciting teams together, our crowds were so much bigger. Come on Mick... spend the money and get Pawlicki in, we would be right up there amongst the title favourites and the return of a popular former Bee will do wonders for the gate receipts!

No Bridger is the best bit of Bees 2015 team news I've heard so far, he's a complete moron and a pretty poor speedway rider unless it's on a tiny little trick track like Lakeside or Eastie. I was praying it wasn't true when I heard the rumours we might be signing him, looks like my prayers were answered! Now if we could just get Chris Simpson back on board with the presentation this will be a good couple of steps in the right direction! Regarding a replacement I would love to see Pawlicki but I doubt it will happen. A speedway rider with some speedway bikes would be good!

Sad to see our proud and historic club being made to look like a circus once again by Mr Horton. I never used to be a big fan of Chris Simpson's presentation at first, but he's really grown on me over the years and now I really enjoy what he does, speedway nights at Brandon will certainly be poorer without him. I hope this gets resolved and we see Chris back for the new season. Horton really does seem to have absolutely zero people skills, what an embarrassment.

Surely we aren't really going to sign Bridger? The rumours seem to be gathering pace... hopefully they are only rumours!

Just the typical social media bandwagon that we always seem to see these days... As others have mentioned not many Coventry or Leicester fans would be travelling all that way to Rico's meeting in any case, and many more fans will be able to donate to his collection at these 2 meetings who otherwise wouldn't have.

So it's just the last piece of the puzzle remaining... I like Summers but signing him just feels a bit uninspiring, I'm not sure he has any real improvement in him but he could raise his average due to the change in format since he was last with us. He could be the best bet on the limited points we have left and he does do alright round Brandon. I would be surprised by any other outcome tbh, maybe Robbo would fit? I'm struggling to think of any better alternatives.

Really? Who is going to stop supporting their club over having to pay an extra quid? Crowds will dip more if you have a crap team that's for sure, even the mighty Pirates found that out a few years ago when they were struggling at the bottom of the league.