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Yes I was meaning would any replacements score more?

Turner has scored a few points & could be ok, Trigger does seem out if his depth at Champ level. Last night was obviously an issue because Trigger had to take all the reserve rides. Not sure any other 2.00 riders would score more tbh? Look at Jake Mulford promising enough to be picked for the Prem, but scores 0 nearly every match for Redcar!

Smith obviously rates himself, I guess you have to be positive as a rider, but when he comments he can win races in the Champ & Prem, while looking for a team spot, I think he's over estimating his ability

I'd say It's the same competition in the way the Premier League & the Championship are the same, the Elite League and the Premiership are they same and the Conference & National leagues are they same? The names may have changed but nothing else - apart from a 3 team final one-off final, which never happened, a 3 team final 3 legged event, which never happened. So now it's back to two teams for the final, it's virtually the same as the premier trophy, Championship shield, summer trophy etc

Disaster for Oxford if Killeen is out for any length of time. Will leave them with 2 x 3.00 rookies at reserve.

Redcar vs Poole still on the 19th on the British Speedway website

There was talk pre-season of the Twins being too good for the NDL etc, but tonight has proved that's not the case. If Dan had gotten a Champ side he may have dropped the NL, but it makes sense to stay as he only has Prem racing.

The rules aren't great, i'm sure clubs don't want to encourage a rider to turn up & slide off carefully to get a facility. Where's the cut-off going to be for riders injured pre-season? Becker - ridden a full season without missing a match vs Kennedy - in Scunthorpe's 2022 side till injury vs Wright & signed as a new rider for Birmingham. I can imagine there would be an outcry if there was different facilities given for 3 riders who hadn't ridden yet this year.

My point was the timing of Middleditch's comments, there hasn't been a "first bend bunching" rule for as long as I can remember (if ever) but he brings it up after Poole lose a last heat decider.

It's been suggested he has on the forum, but nothing official announced by Birmingham

If his average fits, it's the obvious choice.

I believe it should be classed as a converted average, so he'd revert to his 2021 matches for his rolling ave. However the rider statistics aren't 100% accurate as Berwick & Oxford's show 20 match rolling aves, but everyone else 10 match rolling aves.

Looking ahead to what Kent's new averages could be (based on the first 3 matches) Ben Morley 8.62 Nathan Ablitt 7.20 Tom Wolley 5.33 Connor King 4.67 Joe Alcock 4.36 Rhys Naylor 3.69 Sam Wolley 3.00 Total 36.87 (5.13 available) Ablitt & Alcock wont get a new average, but the rest could go up or down after the 4th match, but there's room to strengthen up.

So how many people are going to apologise for basically calling Buster a cheat?

Berwick's next league match is on 9th June, so Knudsen won't get a new average until the 16th. Assuming they use Jorgensen's 2021 matches along with his 1 league match for Berwick this year, the averages should drop to allow a stronger replacement for Stoneman?

There's no proof either way, a team managers job is to weigh up options, I certainly agree with not using the t/s in heat 6. With hindsight you could say they should have but Sedgmen in heat 7 ahead of Nielsen - if Sedgmen wins that heat they'd get a 4-2 instead of a 3-3 (2 point gain). Whoever you put in heat 6, might have beaten Hume but likely wouldn't have beaten Lawson, so again at best they'd be turning a 3-3 into a 4-2. However doing that would've likely meant using Proctor instead of Pearson in heat 12 (or 14) for his 3rd ride, if he loses to Mulford, the points gained by the tac sub are lost!

At that stage Sedgmen was the only Brummie to have won a heat, probably wanted to use the t/s to give him an extra heat, he was also in heat 6, so waiting for another opportunity.

Vatcher didn't tell Scunthorpe they had to drop Joe T, he said they can only use 75% of Kennedy's average. Scunthorpe chose to drop Joe - obviously believing Clegg & Ablitt are stronger than Joe & say Jack Smith? In theory Scunny could've dropped one of their top 5 for Aarnio, Batchelor etc with Ablitt for Kennedy? The decision did allow a young Brit to get signed though (Ablitt).

The almost made an effort to do this with the rising star rule, however this FIVE year plan only lasted ONE year in the Championship. Credit to the Prem teams for sticking with it.

Hoping they'd get KOC or BSN fixtures fitted in to fill the gaps, but got knocked out. At least there's a NDL team at Berwick too. Although I do wonder why they had a double header when there's so many spare dates? Could understand it against Oxford or Edinburgh?

Plymouth could win in the night, but I'd expect Poole to win on aggregate.

Totally agree with these points, lost of people suggesting Buster should leave & let someone else run the clubs, but without him there'd likely be no Peterborough or Lynn, would that mean no Premiership too?

If Kemp turned down a team spot, he was very foolish imo. There's not enough clubs in the Premiership to pick & choose from, if he had the chance, should've taken it.

Maybe Kent's hopes were based on Alcock reproducing last year's heat leader form, I'm not sure if he's still struggling with injuries, but obviously not scoring like he was last year.

I think they've got the ruling right. I don't mind guests, but do feel it should be harder to strengthen up & any rule like this which encourages a replacement (temporary or otherwise) has to be commended