szkocjasid

Poole nearly always seem to put their strongest 2 at 1&5 (correctly imo). I don't see why you'd keep Ben & Zach at 3&4 just because they ride well together, especially if it makes them weaker with Brennan at 5. Look at Holder & Ward, they were fabulous riding together, but they weren't partnered at 1&2 (could've been) just because they rode well together, would have upset the balance of the team.

Think you're being a bit harsh on Hume. Moving away from reserve in the Champ & moving away from the RS spot isn't easy. Similarly averages riders like Nielsen, Starke, Fredriksen, Borke, Hook, Atkins, Heeps, Pearson, Newman, Rowe, Edwards, Bailey, Mountain & Kemp all got spells at reserve. I'm sure Hume didn't get that opportunity. Otherwise I'm sure he'd have scored more & been on a par with those 5+ averaged riders.

Staying at the same level in 2024, will mean Allen's average going up (weaker league). With heat leaders missing, it should be at the top end of teams that the biggest average rises occur.

He's ok at 4 when you have 3 "heat leaders" but if he's part of a "top 2" I'd 100% have him at 5.

I think 2023 was Hume's first season where he never rode at reserve, so I guess you can call it a season of consolidation. Now's the time to step up for his & Berwick's benefit.

Good signing (Kemp) by Berwick. Glad to see Brits getting signed up.

Plus Plymouth won't make the play-offs, or later KOC / BSN rounds, so they've only got 11 home matches themselves.

Personally I think Starke is a good signing, should up his average to over 5 imo.

Doesn't fit, can't have both.

With a 38 point limit, every rider in the league should put half a point on their average. So adding a point won't be as hard as previously.

Scored better than BWD!

BWD would be a terrible signing imo. If he struggles, he wouldn't get an average till they raced 8 of their 16 league matches, season could be over before they have the opportunity to strengthen up. Even then you'd expect the rest of the side to up their averages (teams should rise from 38 to 42) so even if he dropped 2 points, wouldn't mean they had 2 points available to replace him with. I'd go for Matthew Wethers before BWD.

I agree Joe T is the strongest number 7 so far, but don't think it will be a big enough of a difference to make up for Plymouth's lack of top end. If they had Bowtell, Gilkes or Dan T at reserve with him, I'd have a little more positivity, but Jacob Hook isn't gonna be the top reserve on the league, the aforementioned trip could've been.

I would say Oxford are a special case as they have 2 x 2.00 riders who would be above that average, but didn't ride enough matches to gain an average. Plymouth don't have that luxury of riders being on "false" averages if they are below the limit.

I would've picked Schlein ahead of Worrall & Z.Cook. Schlein rode pretty much all last year as number 5, so his average will be lower due to racing heat 13s, whereas Worrall got heat 8 every week & Cook heat 2 every week, so they should find it harder to maintain their averages (unless they stay in the same spot). If there's no one better out there, I'd have all 3.

I don't think every other team has two world class riders, only Ipswich & Sheffield do imo

The problem is, I don't think they would have two strong reserves all year (unless Joe T improves). If they had Bowtell & a 5.00 reserve, I'd say you could cover for lack of heat leader strength, but not when built 1+ points below the limit.

Technically you can, 15 x 3-3s then a 5-4 "stupidheat" win

Unless your name's Maciej Janowski?

Which of the top 5 riders would you have dropped though? All good signings imo.

If Bailey & Edwards ride to their potential, gonna have an excellent top 5.

Think Poole are going to have the best top 4 in the league. Expect them all to hit 8 point averages in a weaker league.

I'd go for Paul Starke & Ryan Kinsley or Max Perry.

My point was it's not as simple as that. It's not like Woffy has to ride for Wroclaw or he's banned from racing in Poland, there's plenty of clubs he could move to, to earn good money. So why does he accept being "bullied" into racing when not fit?

For me Oxford Cheetahs should have been the Prem side, Oxford Chargers or Rebels or Silver Machine for the Champ side & Oxford Cubs or Cheetah Cubs for the NL side.