Bagpuss

Rob Henry reckons Mildy missed Jon Armstrong 'big time' yet his R/R rides dropped just one point

Exactly, and riding on big continental circuits is going to be much more beneficial to him in the future than somewhere like Mildenhall. GB has far too many riders who are completely lost when they ride on a big European circuit in World U21, SWC and GP qualifying meetings. In any case the argument is pretty irrelevant as he is honouring the first agreements made, as he should.

Worrall did a great job covering for Lambert, as did Hughes for Rose but R/R for Kerr only accrued five points when Lewis would probably have been in double figures. Certainly is a pity that Lambert doesn't ride in the weekend away meetings but its been known from the beginning that he's committed to racing on the continent most weekends against more experienced riders which must be doing him more long term good.

Especially when you race on a Friday night.

I could, and I could have mentioned Lynn having one too glad that its an eight point lead rather than twenty as it would have made Wednesday a bit of a non event. As it stands it couldn't be poised any better really. Certainly not moaning about Lambert & Kerr being absent, great for their careers that they were racing elsewhere at a higher level. Developing young riders is what the NL is all about after all.

Yep, should be

Had Lambert & Kerr ridden today then the Young Stars would have had the tie well under control IMO. Will be tight on Wednesday but I'd make the Young Stars slight favourites as I don't see Halsey being anywhere near as effective around the NA. We really need the engine room of Mallett & Knight to step up to the plate, they don't win enough races considering their experience and Wednesday would be a great time to put that right.

What an excellent effort by the Young Stars today against a rather top heavy Fen Tigers side. That final heat 1-5 takes the shine off a little but it sets the second leg up perfectly.

Bearing in mind the main purpose of the NL its great to see Connor Mountain and Josh Bailey racing in opposition tomorrow and getting their chance in an important meeting.

Fen Tigers 1 Nielsen 2 R/R 3 Bates 4 Baseby 5 Halsey 6 Mountain 7 Rumsey Young Stars 1 Worrall 2 R/R 3 Mallett 4 Knight 5 Hughes 6 Waldron 7 Bailey Once again the Young Stars head to West Row with more than half the side absent for one reason or another. Need to keep it within ten points to have a chance of winning the tie IMO which appears a tall order. Good luck lads.

I had no idea he had otherwise I may have done

I think Dudley's lead is just too much, don't really see where the 5-1's that Lynn need will come from as the Heathens have great heatleader strength.

I wonder if Cook ever gets bored?

I'm sure I read somewhere that Somerset promised Kurtz a place for 2014 when they couldn't fit him in this year?

Next Wednesday.

Fantastic stuff once again from Lewi Kerr

Extremely biased I'd say 'TheScotsman' IMO it should be a discussion between the two riders and the TM as to who takes which gate in heat 15. If you need a heat advantage you have to give yourself the best possible chance of getting it, and as Cook had been winning races by yards and was the best rider on show it was a big ricket to not put him off four. I quite agree about gate bias but its nothing new and is present at many tracks, especially GP venues.

It does seem bizarre to not put your best (unbeaten) rider off the worst gate when you need a heat advantage.

He should have done it this year IMO. Too good for the PL.

Indeed, we need to be careful not to go OTT with the criticism. How many fifteen year olds don't act like berks? Unfortunately in speedway we seem to knock any decent Brit who doesn't ride for our own team. He can go as far as he wants in speedway IMO and, like Darcy Ward did, he will grow up with experience. Certainly a few EL meetings next year won't be beyond his capabilities or do him any harm.

Our youth set up isn't adequate for guaranteed British spots. If and when something is ever set up to match Poland, Sweden or Denmark so that we have a group of 15 year olds coming into the NL each year who are ready a year or two later to hold their own in the PL it might be different. That is not to disregard the hard work that already goes on at U15 level but it needs to be much more. However rather than see Brits handed spots we should be making it harder for foreign riders who are clearly not up to the job like Edberg, Lykke, Nielsen, Davey, Dilger etc to stay if they don't reach a certain average. While I accept that riders such as Worrall, Branford, Perry & Bates have lost PL places this year through lack of points there are others who haven't been given the chance. Bates has shown in a couple of guest bookings for Embra that he has improved this season and nobody expected Lewi Kerr to produce what he has for Newcastle. Sometimes it pays to give an inexperienced Brit a chance rather than a more experienced foreigner who will never make the grade.

Some of Bridger's retweets on Twitter tonight are shocking whatever happened tonight. Hopefully he will be barred from the stadium from now on as he's not a great role model for young NL riders in all honesty.

Wells looks the best of those lot to me.

Fantastic away win for the Young Stars without their top two.

Not a problem with that as we knew he'd be away at weekends when he was signed but surely a top guest could have been booked in his place rather than R/R and subsequently Ritchings once Worrall had withdrawn. The Young Stars effectively went into today's meeting without their three top riders.