szkocjasid

With all the issues of organising fixtures in recent year & with apparently all 6? Clubs being second teams. I'd suggest racing once home & once away, no KOC no play-offs, teams will have till the end of October to race 5 league meetings. Should manage that. Not a lot of racing for the riders, but they could pick up rides in seconds half's, plus the new individual series & if you're based in the south (or willing to travel), Nora racing on the IoW.

That's the most bizarre take I've read on this competition, why fine the BSPL for trying to complete it?

Good signing, just hope he's not their number one lol!

Would be happy to see Wethers return to Armadale

One of the bizarre parts of being a Speedway fan, calling a rider a good signing because he had a poor season lol! Also dropping a rider because they did well (sadly).

Does anyone know how to team ride these days? I've seen Musielak & Woffinden losing 6-3 in a best pairs competition, but try & pass the leader, so they can lose 5-4 instead! The most I expect from riders nowadays is to avoid knocking your partner off. I will add Scott Nicholls can still team ride tbf

Nicki Pedersen signed on his 8.61 average from 2011, so can't see how they can re-assess Janowski's. But this is Speedway, so can never tell

Don't know where you got that number from, should be 5.53 converted. While I'd expect Thomsen's average to be re-assessed, Lambert & Lindsey, Kasprzak & Pedersen's (from 2011) averages weren't re-assesed. So who knows?

Not to mention racing for experience, to develop as riders. Probably a fault if lower level speedway is riders assuming because they can ride a bike, they should be paid for it? I know it's an expensive sport, but they can treat it like free practice / an apprenticeship, rather than a paying job.

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.