He isnt riding Championship so I doubt its too much, just not in great form although he I believe be does not do very well when riding every day and the travelling. I remember last season in the play offs he was riding every day and travelling a lot and he was awful at Oxford in the first leg,he just looked drained but had recovered at Poole and was very good.

But how do you see the top league working then ? given the current format isn't working and no one wants to move up ?

Scorpions will be hard to beat I tonite, poole tools look weak in the bottom end,every engine room need a good bottom end ,good luck to every rider ,will be a ball tearer

Remember Stuart Douglas saying that the difference between Lakeside running on a Wednesday instead of a Friday was like throwing a suitcase full of money off the top of the QE2 bridge.

I still can't get over how differently the track behaved compared to last week - there simply wasn't the outside line that King used to such excellent effect.  Several riders got caught out (including Doyle who looked uncomfortable on the outside of Bend 2 on more than one occasion) - and KL soon sussed that if you made your opponent go wide, you had the advantage. Also, which I found interesting, was the complete lack of atmosphere. The attendance was no different to last week's match against Belle Vue. Maybe a dozen KL fans? Certainly no noisy group of them during the match - just a few cheers when the team paraded to very empty terraces. Overall though: an splendid effort by the Stars, and a comparatively poor one by the Witches.

He can come back to Poole any day