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Six clubs have already stated their intention hopefully they'll all follow through with that. But after rumors of no NL, I'm just happy it's continuing.

Fantastic race, I've no doubt Boughen is a tremendous talent & prospect, but still wonder if he's ready for the Prem (RS) now. I remember Ace Pijper beat Sam Masters at Redcar last season, so I was then expecting him to have an 6+ average in the Champ, but he didn't even average 6 in the NL.

My thoughts exactly, those matches weren't advertised as Challenge matches, they were advertised as qualifying matches. Final still should be ridden imo. If the clubs lose money hosting the matches now, perhaps they'll learn to take the meetings seriously - when it mattered.

Good signings by Lynn imo

I actually don't think Clegg is on too bad an average tbh. He's managed to drop if from 5.36 to 4.21 despite riding very few matches. Someone like Matthew Wethers is much worse off, stuck on a 6.47 ave after Newcastle's fixtures were removed. Does anyone know if he still wants to ride?

Clegg rode 7 league matches this year, plus 2 for Leicester in 2022, so his 4.21 average must be a 17 match rolling ave (counting 8 from 2021). Once he rides a match in 2024 (if he does) he should then drop those 8 2021 matches & his average would swiftly drop. But I'm 99.9% sure his 4.21 average (4.10 with Brit reduction) will stay there till he rides again.

The way the format works, it should be best to have 2 strong heat leaders (as Berwick do) as they get an extra ride in heat 15, then 4 second strings on similar averages (meaning one will be at reserve) then having a 2.00 number 7 who only needs 3 rides. Using a second 2.00 rider (meaning 8 rides for 2.00 men not 3) to allow a stronger 3rd heat leader doesn't make sense to me - unless you have very promising 2.00 reserves (like Oxford do). So for me Etheridge is a fair 3rd heat leader in a weaker league.

Just watched the second round (Ipswich) on BSN & cannot stand how much they go on about finishing 2nd & 3rd wins the heat. Even if a team is miles behind & needs 3 x 7-2s to qualify, they'll be like "oh they are in a winning position here". Track was also terrible for this round, seemed impossible for anyone to pass (except Doyle) if your opponent rode a sensible line. Also sadly to say, there was very little team riding at all.

I don't get the negativity behind them, they have 7+ averages for a reason, they must be better than 6.00 riders for example. As Sedgmen was better away than at home, he'd be a clever signing for any Champ side imo

McGuiness scored well on the Island, but that was really NDL standard racing, so is it wise using 4.00 (or 5.00) on a NL heat leader? I'd go for Connor Coles & build a stronger top 5.

Very similar standard imo. Cook has improved every year, Brennan after a great start, his progress has slowed, but still going upwards. Brennan has the advantage of youth, plus getting a British reduction & knowing the track well. Tbh, I'd want them both ahead of Blodorn (if that fits).

That wouldn't surprise me, but as far as I'm aware, he's still eligible as a RS

That's how he'd be available at reserve, if he wasn't "well past his best" that team would be over the limit. I don't know if he's in Scunny's plans, just picking teams with unannounced riders.

I think he's clearly good enough to be a number 5, especially in a weaker league. Even if he's not it's a 7 man team, so one rider "out of position" won't hurt Poole. There will probably be several riders racing in a higher position next year, compared to 2023. I also note that Scunthorpe won the KOC with a number 5 on a 7.16 average.

How about? Edinburgh Josh Pickering 8.63 Steve Worrall 7.84 Paco Castagna 5.30 Cameron Heeps 5.00 Lasse Fredriksen 4.57 Bastien Borke 4.00 Connor Coles 2.63 Total 37.97

Have to agree, I rate Cook, but wouldn't have signed him in place of either of them.

I guess my question would be did he sign a 2 year contract or just verbally agree to return. If it's the first one they can get mad, if it's the second one - well they've practically done the same to Anders Rowe, told him he's 99% sure of a team spot, only to change their mind. Getting off topic now, whoops.

So why were Poole so upset that Basso chose to go to Glasgow? At times their attitude sounded like Basso had just received a testimonial then left the next day after promising to stay (I may be exaggerating slightly lol).

I've never understood that argument against signing a rider, I'd say Sam Masters is past his best, but that doesn't stop Oxford wanting to sign him. Plus if TJ wasn't past his best he wouldn't be available on a 6.4 average.

Very strange, he was one of Berwick's plus points last year.

Scunthorpe ? Kyle Howarth 7.76 Michael P Toft 7.01 Simon Lambert 5.87 Connor Mountain 5.26 Drew Kemp 5.16 Paul Starke 4.00 Nathan Ablitt 2.93 Total 37.99

Struggling to think of any heat leaders heading to Plymouth, so came up with a strength in depth team Plymouth Ben Barker 7.42 Broc Nicol 5.95 Kyle Newman 5.51 Dillon Ruml 5.47 Dan Gilkes 4.84 Alfie Bowtell 4.49 Zaine Kennedy 4.27 Total 37.95

He makes good points about the 38.00 limit, while I believe they may have managed 39 or 40 and had each club being competitive, there was no chance of a 42 limit, unless you wanted what happened in 2023 to happen again (4 clubs well adrift).

I'll add, it's disappointing 2 Brits being dropped.

Totally agree, no reason for Oxford not to start with Atkins (if not using Jenkins) then if Boughen outscores him every week in the Champ - bring Boughen in. Bit of a risk for me starting with Boughen, after all he's not even an 8.00 NL rider!