gazzac

Although I rate him as a rider and will be one of the best No 1's , the signing of Bowen so early before the points limit was known was always going to lead to this situation with reserves. Will leave Kent weak at the bottom end unless someone surprises us. On that note I've always said set the limit for 2 years if it's a sensible one, and 39 is. If we knew that was the limit for next year would mean you could build once the last green sheets of the season come out and know the make up of the team from word go.

Ditto.

Last season there was always a feeling that Birmingham or Eastbourne would win the various competitions from pretty early on with Kent possibly in the mix as well. This year looks wide open. Probably become evident in the first couple of months who's more likely to succeed, but reacon perhaps half the teams will be in the equation instead of 3 last year. Good news for the league.

I think we will be the best strength in depth team, and once Baseby, Extance and Coles get dialled into Arlington will again be hard to beat at home and hopefully the middle/ lower order can negate the big hitting heat leaders scores home and away. Be some tense heat 13 and 15 though unlike last year when you expected Adam Ellis etc to finish the match off. Even with Ellis, Perks, Knight and Wood, our top heavy team still couldn't beat Birmingham when it mattered, so I'm really pleased with the makeup given the points limit.

Pretty good analysis all round really, should make it an interesting season though.

Think you could be right, and Mark at 5 would probably suit him better.

I imagine quiet because we're all fairly content at the moment seeing the other teams. We have a few faults as fans (not many I grant you! ) but I think generally we all like to give the riders chosen by the Dugards a go without bitching before the season starts. As has been said, the Dugards aren't shy of making changes if it doesn't work, but hopefully it will .Ko cup is always a good possibility with our massive home track advantage and top four in the league then who knows. Crikey I've talked myself into our best season yet not forgetting the NL trophy!!!

Couldn't agree more,hopefully mean more close matches which are always more entertaining.

If you get a good last rider at reserve(although not really sure who's left who can do the job) and as looks likely Hopwood will be with you looks a pretty solid team.I think it will be the most difficult team in the league to know where they're likely to be . Last year looked likely title contenders from day one, this year like a few teams who knows. Hope it does all gel as apart from the first matches at Easter last year with all the injuries, had some really good matches home and away against Eastie.

And the circle keeps going on and on! Sure if it's left alone Gustix will move on from the subject as well.

Only problem we find at Eastie is the track is always much better in the evening than the afternoon especially in the summer and I imagine that's the same at Lakeside. Ideally want to run in the evening, and Saturday but the odd 6.30 one we had on a Sunday at the tail end of the season didn't seem to make much difference to the crowd.

Said before one of these could but shouldn't be needed on the NL section,unfortunately looks like it is. Last time I'll be posting on the feud thread but hopefully will free up some other threads so we can get back to fun sensible discussion and banter and not page after page of senseless bickering.

Seems to me the moment Ben Morley and Zach were confirmed as heat leaders, the make up of the team would always have a third heat leader the likes of David Mason. As Lakeside were a fairly late addition to the league, most of the other 6 point plus riders were probably already in place or been approached by other clubs. I remember David Mason coming in at reserve at Eastie year's ago due to an illness to one of the riders on the day, literally stepping into to an Elite league match with an hour's noticed.Think it was in the day's of John Cook being promoter, so he has known David for many year's. Although he may not add to his average this year can't see it dropping by any really .Although I prefer the ethos of the Dugards bringing in riders who look capable of upping their average, even we were prepared to give Ben Hopwood a go last year on an 8 at the start of the season because of his experience, but unlikely to increase it,thing's didn't work out through no fault of his own at that time, but we were happy to give it a go. Give this team a go and see what happens!

Let's keep it that way from now on.

Someone on the Premiership section has started a 'Feud thread' to take away the bickering and slightly pointless arguments away into its own thread. Does anybody think we ought to start one on the NL section, seems there could be a need here as well?

Anyone think we get too much time off for Christmas/New year now? Seems the case!!!

So Eastie aren't the only track with a home track advantage! What a relief all the year's I've been going having read the thousands off posts and thought we were the only ones. Can rest easy now if we happen to win the league!

I think when you see every team when it's completed ours will be far from average with certainly the strongest 'lower end'.Really do think we can win it, but if we don't will come very close again.

If he rides like he did in the second leg of the ko cup final at Eastie he most definitely will be No1 !!

That's 0.73 remaining but if he regains his pre injury form looks a 5 plus rider, so no problem with that. Think it forced them a bit with the reduction to 39 points, and also recon a lot of the teams will be light of the 39 points when they're fully assembled.

That looks a really solid line up, with every rider capable of upping their average which is the name of the game.( Birmingham 2015/16!) Only time will tell, but I'd rather start the year with a team like this who can build together, apart from Adam's 'rustyness' , there is no unknown quantity with the others. Just hope we don't have the disaster of a first meeting like we had last year, and they all stay safe. (That's all riders stay safe! ).

Yes to the passport, but if a rider's riden in the World U21 think it's an assessed 5.

Was hopeful of someone like that a few day's ago!

Save me searching where does Jake Turner come from/riden for!

As I've mentioned before, as Powell is at reserve on a 4.05, both remaining riders have to be at least that, so can't be a 3 pointer and can't be Spiller as not enough points to accommodate him.