Bagpuss

Hoping he would average 9-10 at home and 5-6 away rather than 2 I'd imagine. Its frustrating as he looked a million dollars in most of his rides at Lynm but there you go.

Because you'd like to see Laguta, Sayfutdinov, Doyle etc on your track? Maybe you wouldn't, my original point was about clubs who seem to have the potential to go further. And you guys have the circuit to go with it.

I refer you to my earlier post where I talked about an ideal world and acknowledged that we don't live in one of those

I'm not sure it's about 'saving the league' but more clubs reaching their potential. You feel Poole, Glasgow and probably Oxford should be in the top division with the likes of Bewley, Emil, Doyle, Laguta and Holder riding there in front of big crowds.

No surprise really. In an ideal world both of those clubs would be racing at the highest level in the UK but we don't live in one of those unfortunately.

Yep fair enough but Bald Bloke was referring to the three meetings he rode in before his injury as an idea of his form, I make it 5.24/6.19 from those three without/with bonuses.

Are you sure? After a poor start at Wolves he scored eleven at Sheffield and paid ten at home to Wolves.

Trouble is if you are giving someone a 28 day contract you want a 'safe pair of hands' for a few meetings, an experienced rider who will hit the ground running. I think if you are going to bring someone new in (like Rew) you need to invest time in them and give them a season to settle in, it's hard coming to a new country with new shapes and surfaces of tracks. Having a look at soneone is for the end of the season when you've nothing to play for IMO.

But Mr Nicholls has or so we've been told......

Or Bewley. Would feel shortchanged had I been there.

Depends what you want to base it on. If you want it to be the best 15 in the world then surely GP, SWC, league form and everything else should come into it too? Kim Nilsson deserves his place in the series as he won the challenge, however would you say he has enhanced the GP's so far? I wouldn't, and I wouldn't want him or someone of a similar standard in at the expense of anyone else better had he not won at Glasgow last year and just missed out instead.

As I've already said elsewhere (and/or liked posts saying it) there are obviously issues at Lynn, but in Lewi's case he had been here a long time and the change did him the world of good. I could argue that Richard Lawson improved during his two seasons here but I acknowledge we have been dire since 2018.

To keep the series a bit more interesting, We don't really want one rider running away with it. I believe its 4+1 with no requirement for the reserve to be U21. You'd imagine everybody will put their best rider at reserve. For GB you'd imagine the 'other' two spots will go to a couple from Ellis, Brennan and Harris, with Worrall, Lawson, Wright and King as outside bets. Ellis and Brennan are Polish league regulars so I'd probably go for them.

I expect he was more confident of finding a gap under Zmarzlik than going round him, otherwise he would have done. The front three in the final have all just stuck to the inside.

He did, just did it round the inside trying to get under Zmarzlik rather than going round him.

Lewi had become stale at Lynn and the move did him the world of good. Its a shame being a local lad but that's sport.

Plymouth fans must be bored of seeing Poole are my thoughts.

None of the Sheffiled riders did. They all looked completely at home, even Gilkes who was worth more than his two points.

I keep reading this 'mates' thing and as far as I can see that relates to Pickering and Jakobsen. Let's be honest who wouldn't have had them back on their starting averages? I think its a red herring, bottom line is that they went for a solid 1-6 like P'boro 2021 and it hasn't worked, nowhere near. For me the biggest issue is the track, nobody can gate or ride on the clay, they all looked uncomfortable the other night even though the track was 'as the riders wanted it'. A unique surface with 24/7 availability for practice should be a fortress!

Bickley got the hump?

Its a good question. Something is wrong somewhere.

Thanks, 'once a month' was just an off the cuff remark really. The point being that the stocks make the money at Lynn and because of that the shale won't change any time soon.

Don't disagree with too much of that. They got it badly wrong in the winter and its very difficult to rectify that once the season gets going.

Few things with this.....the budget was never going to stretch to both Laguta & KK. You are assuming KK would have maintained that average, it was gained from only two meetings and those were against sides without top end power. Laguta could very well average 10 at home, and him coning in at #1 allows Klindt to go into the middle order where his scores will improve. Thomsen probably won't be the strong reserve Pickering would and Jakobsen should have been but since Josh got injured we've had one good score from number six so Thomsen won't do much worse. And assuming Pickering can sort his shoulder he will improve the side in place of Jorgensen or MPT (who I feel is being exposed a little at #5). They still look unlikely to get away results but at least we might be competitive and have at least a theoretical chance of some bonus points. It also has to be taken into account just how good Sheffield are at Lynn, especially with R/R for their weakest top five member. Chalk and cheese compared to Wolves or P'boro.