Bagpuss

Quite agree mate, I wouldn’t start with two raw reserves but there seems to be an appetite to have three big hitting heat leaders and the subsequent departure of Berge who would have scored bucketloads at home has made the tail very long. Somerset are a club who won’t settle for not challenging so I think changes will happen once averages alter and a stronger reserve will come in somehow. Of course would much prefer the two youngsters to thrive and not need replacing.

Indeed, and I don’t believe it’s so great in the top league. Also it won’t be there immediately with six riders who didn’t race for the club in 2018.

Sheffield Glasgow Scunthorpe Eastbourne Leicester Berwick Redcar Edinburgh Somerset Newcastle Birmingham Somerset likely to make wholesale changes at some point so their position based on starting line up, but likely to finish several places higher.

Precisely this. He isn’t going to intentionally build a crap team which will lose home meetings and nobody will come and watch. The management obviously saw how well these riders worked together in 2018 and wanted to keep as many of them together as possible. Really like the look of Peterborough, can understand why people think Buster has splashed out on them and scrimped on Lynn but I don’t see there being too much between them come September based on the starting line ups.

I think we will see a different Kasper this year but it’s all about performances and points. Sounds obvious but if he can start getting out of the gate consistently he can be one of the best number sevens but if he not he could struggle again, nothing is guaranteed. I think riding in the Championship will help him though.

Welcome back MPT and welcome aboard Poultec.

Scott Nicholls has had a fantastic career but it is now in its twilight and he’s a rider on the way down despite all the other qualities he possesses.

I think that all seven could improve to varying degrees. They won’t all do so but if two or three can (most likely Riss, Andersen and Lambert) we will be ok. I could well be completely wrong of course and will come on here and say so if I am. Just don’t see us struggling though unless injuries bite hard.

We looked the weakest last year sid, and that prediction included Puk averaging 9 or so and he fell way short of that. That means everyone else stood up to cover him and more besides, we were a team way stronger than the sum of its parts and but for injuries we almost certainly would have won the title. I appreciate that people give honest opinions on the strength of all seven teams but when people look at Lynn it’s almost as if they are ignoring what was achieved in 2018. We finished top with a bit of daylight with a misfiring second heat leader and a fairly limited number seven. Replacing those two with Kasper and Lewis certainly makes us weaker but the whole league is weaker and I just can’t see the nucleus of last years side dropping from top to bottom. More likely to be somewhere in the middle.

It’s going to take somebody to step up to Puk’s role from last year but he had a quiet season by his standards and we still finished a very comfortable top so that gap isn’t such a big one to bridge. It just shows how solid the other five below him were and there is no reason why they can’t do it again. There aren’t too many superstar heatleaders around so none of our riders should be frightened of riding at five in 2019, I’d imagine either Proctor or Riss will go there. I don’t see too much for them to be frightened of in heat 13 of any meeting to be honest. I could be wrong too of course but I think we’ll be a handful wherever we go next season.

Yet we very comfortably had the best away record in the division. There must have been a fair few bonus points amongst those averages. I’m not saying that with a few more quid the team couldn’t have been made stronger but I just don’t get this idea that we will be a one man team struggling at the foot of the table.

Precisely. Whether people think this is the best method or not they must be able to appreciate at least what is trying to be achieved. Anybody who buys a season ticket nowadays for speedway with meetings being more and more weather dependant and the fixture list ending up being so different to how it is first published needs their head testing IMO.

Whether you agree it’s the best way or not I’d have thought it’s pretty obvious that the club gains extra exposure from seven relevant press releases over a period of weeks rather than just one. I don’t suppose the riders are fussed either way while for the fans it’s mixed feelings as is usually the case with most issues. As I’ve said before I think the idea is designed to benefit people who don’t eat, sleep and breathe speedway like folk on here but attend regularly between March and October and don’t pay too much attention in the winter, this method would keep speedway in their minds a bit more than otherwise and perhaps build their interest gradually up to the start of the season. Why does it have to be right or wrong? How about just different. One thing I would say is that it might have been better to state when each announcement will be ie dates when the press releases will occur so it’s not quite so vague.

Genuine question GRW, and I say this without agenda or taking sides particularly other than being interested in everyone’s viewpoint, why are you so keen to know information which in theory doesn’t really need to be confirmed for a few weeks yet and isn’t really a secret anyway as it can be worked out through the process of elimination? Why do you think we should know three months before the season starts rather than being drip fed to keep the club in the news? Genuinely interested and not saying you are right or wrong or having a go.

At the end of the day the club can’t control who listens to Radio Norfolk and KLFM or reads the EDP and Lynn News but they have to cover those angles. However they could and probably should be doing more to increase followers on social media, that is where young supporters ie future punters will come from in all likliehood.

I think people are missing the point, if there is a benefit to this drip feeding news approach (and I’m not necessarily saying there is, but I’m keeping an open mind) then it’s not for the benefit of posters on here who think about speedway every day, but more those who stop thinking about it in October and start again in March and those who go occasionally or haven’t been yet. Also struggling to see why this team is so uninspiring and awful....all seven riders appeared in a team which comfortably finished top last year and although we’ve lost a heat leader it looks a competitive team in what is again a weaker league. Perhaps people wanted things freshening up with a few new faces and I can understand that.

Decent team.

I’m sure changes will be made if need be. Iversen may be an option but he was well below his normal standards last season and we coped well, the question is can one of the others step up to the number five position but other teams have those sorts of questions over them too. Don’t like to think about changes unless enforced, riders should be signed with the whole season in mind and being worked with to improve them and maximise what they can contribute.

People (including me) thought that last year, as they did about Swindon the year before. I’m quite happy to be unfancied again, not saying this team will finish top but certainly be in the mix come September and riders will improve and be a side greater than the sum of its parts.

Sidney, whether or not you think it’s the best way of doing it surely you can see the logic in drip feeding the team through the winter months in order to keep speedway relevant in the media in the lead up to the beginning of the season? Surely it will keep King’s Lynn Stars on the back pages of the local papers and on radio and social media with actual news and therefore in people’s minds at a time when there is no racing going on? We all know the team anyway, it’s been sorted since well before Christmas. And I’m pretty sure they all have their sponsorship sorted seeing as they all ride for the club at some point last year.

Championship fixtures take priority on that day unfortunately. The joys of doubling up.

You’ve read it differently to me then, I couldn’t see any such suggestion.

Wolves Poole Swindon Peterborough King’s Lynn Belle Vue Ipswich

This discussion seems to pop up every winter, personally I’m not bothered when riders are announced as long as we know by March but I can see the logic of revealing riders names one by one across several weeks in order to keep speedway in the news and in the minds of those people who don’t use forums and think about the sport 24/7. Everyone on here knows the team anyway so it’s really for the benefit of others. FWIW on paper I think we are going to be battling for 4th with two or three others but last season showed how inaccurate predictions can be