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It's the right season for Dan to try a RS spot in the Prem, but too early for Joe I'd say. If he can move out of the reserve berths in the Champ I'd say he's more ready

If they don't ride well together, time for the team manager to swap the pairings around? 2. Vissing 3. Brennan 4. Nowak 5. Basso

Just watching this now, most entertaining heats were when Leicester riders missed the gate. Especially the heat leaders who are all so strong, need to introduce handicap racing lol!

Oxford will want Killeen back sooner rather than later (obviously) as he could be the difference in them finishing 2nd or 3rd. Is there any suggestion of how long he'll be out for? Gotta couple of winnable away matches at Edinburgh & Berwick with him in the team, but without him looking for close results to get the bonus points in the return fixtures

There's a few differences, Peterborough always had a strong number 6, not quite the same at Wolves (obviously Cook was awesome tonight) & Peterborough were greatly benefitted by Ostergaard getting injured so they could use guests in the top 5 for a rider who scored well at number 7 - not complaining - it was within the rules. Just feel Wolves are doing well without circumstances helping them along. I also had predicted both teams to do well so find it hard to think of them as underdogs surprising everyone.

It's not just Ipswich fans, I've read Glasgow, Redcar & Poole fans on the forum wanting changes, despite all 3 clubs having good seasons.

I'd agree they're unfortunate to be without Riss, but the RS position is their own doing as far as I can see. Missing a 5 point Champ rider (Thomas) but had two 5 points riders available (Kemp & Rowe) plus 4.5 rider (Bailey) but chose a 3.5 rider (Joe T) instead.

Very good post, especially the last couple of points

It's certainly a bold prediction to make that he'd be in their senior team in 2 to 3 years. How many 16/17 years olds make it to the Premiership at that age?

Predicting the final positions as you say is a bit of fun. But anyone "loudly" declaring that a team is awful / going to be miles behind, would be the time to say "I was wrong" imo.

Even if Kemp was only available for 28 days I'd still sign him up. Could just say to Joe you're resting him for a month to work on his form in the Champ & NL, with a view to coming back in a month? He's hardly in a position to argue he's scoring enough points to warrant keeping his team spot!

Gotta say that was a bad defeat for Witches, against one if their play-off rivals is a 6 point swing (including bonus point). Certainly think their first strengthening should be a new RS.

There were quite a few who seemed to suggest they were the worse team by far & not just slightly weaker, when positioned bottom. I wonder if they'll hold their hands up to that lol!

If I hide some of my predictions I think I've done quite well lol! Sheffield ✓ King's Lynn - miles off Wolves ✓ (my write up was very accurate) Ipswich - close enough Belle Vue - doing better than I expected Peterborough - not far away from prediction - of course I thought they had a strong number one! Leicester - Sedgmen doing very well & is the reason they are higher than I predicted.

Can't really slag you off, because I had Lynn down for a play-off spot too, but at least I didn't say they were "absolute bankers" lol!

MPT has not been reserve standard for years. He even started last year as number one for Peterborough. Now I'm not suggesting he's a strong number 5, but should be doing better than he is.

This is a tough one to call, Lynn now have a superstar number one & a decent guest in Nick Morris replacing an out of form Klindt. While Sheffield are using r/r for Bellego (Ellis, Kerr, Howarth x2) who has hardly scored any points away from home. Both teams look stronger tha normal!

Would that change anything though? Obviously I don't exactly know a speedway riders mindset, but currently Bickley knows scoring double figures & having a 9+ NL average doesn't translate to scoring well in the Champ. So now he doesn't have a Champ team & he continues scoring double figures & having a 9+ NL average - what has changed? How would he ever know if he's ready for the Champ again?

Can only see a big win for Glasgow here.

Is it a massive concern when Poole still keep winning at home & on aggregate? For Plymouth or Edinburgh it'd be a big concern after home defeats, but Poole are so strong, their top mam can drop a point off his average & they'll probably still win the treble!

I don't believe so, any comments I've read from Bickley (especially last year) suggest he wants Championship racing.

Or is it the best time to have only 2 teams make the play-offs? As I see it there are 3 teams stronger than the rest: Leicester, Oxford & Workington. If 4 qualify for the play-offs any fixtures between these sides have less importance as you know they'll both qualify. As it is these meetings now become far more important & interesting as only 2 of the 3 can qualify? With Belle Vue, Edinburgh & Mildenhall all looking strong at home, it's a very interesting league, I'd have preferred no play-offs.

I'm now thinking Hook could go to Glasgow so Berwick can get Complin. Probably suit both riders & teams better?

I'd go for Jacob Hook on a heartbeat. Hopefully he'll learn to ride Berwick, but he's gotta be better than any 2.00 guest for Stoneman

Gotta agree with you in that one. If they'd got Sam Hagon as their 2.00 rider, would have been worth the change, as it is I'm not convinced they're any stronger