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Part of me thinks if Birmingham are allowed a guest then Morris missing matches won't harm them! But I can also agree with HGould that if Morris isn't going to be available every week they should look elsewhere (2 x 7.00 riders rather than a 10+4)?

Jenkins, Bailey, Dan & Joe Thompson are all clearly still developing, so why shouldn't they be in a "development" league. Not sure why a "development" league has to mean a weak league? Personally I have no issue with the likes of Morley racing in the NDL as he can assist teammates on & off track as well as be a target for young opposition superstars (Harrison, Killeen, Perry) to find out how close they are to Champ level. Interestingly you never hear people complaining about Lewis Miller or Kieran Douglas being in a development league, despite the fact that neither of them can be considered a developing rider! No offence to those two, not everyone can become stars!

I'm sure everyone would admit Jason Doyle is an out & out number one, but he's not qualified for the GPs in the last two seasons (relied on a seeded spot) so can't use that as an example to suggest Masters isn't an out & out number one imo

But if the NL went down to 4 or 5 clubs, would that be feasible. If there was no NL where do the Championship riders of the future come from? Teams could end up flying more riders in from abroad / paying for more visas, making the Championship more expensive & possibly losing more clubs - so even less matches!

Because Redcar don't have a NL team.

Yeah I went via my memory rather than looking it up, but I guess that means they dropped the stronger rider & kept the weaker one. Not meant as a dig at Poole, who want to win no matter what. But certainly think Roynon is more likely to get a full season if he signed for Plymouth rather than Poole.

The Premiership is really hard to call, no weak looking teams for me (so far). 1. Sheffield - everything about the team looks good & a strong reserve in Kerr 2. Wolverhampton - 5 heat leaders & the best rs 3. King's Lynn - expecting Kasprzak, Jakobsen & Pickering to up their aves well. Will have the best reserve in the league in TJ. 4 . Belle Vue - great top two, not convinced in Wright as a 3rd heat leader, also think the bottom half will be weak away & have weakest rs in the league. 5. Leicester - good top end, but can't see any improvement in their averages. Weak looking bottom 3 for me.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion, Lambert has that average for a reason, he's a 5 point rider! It's not like he was at reserve all year getting the easy rides!

Not a big issue for Oxford if it's too soon for Killeen in the Champ, just replace him with the next best 2.00 rider Ablitt!

That's a disaster for any riders traveling from the Sittingbourne area!

Quite a few riders who rode well for Poole at reserve got dumped when their averages went up, Hans Andersen, Artur Mroczka, Renat Gafurov & Drew Kemp spring to mind. I guess it's a risk a rider has to be willing to make, improve your average & you may get dropped!

I wasn't aware of that. But if Mountain wants a Prem team he's not in a position to turn down any offers, so should try & convince the promotion he can improve around Foxhall

It's certainly a shame that even in a 3 team league, fixtures don't get fulfilled!

Because people are allowed to have different options on a forum lol!

But Bellego hasn't been signed as a heat leader!

It was announced they were no longer "rising stars" due to their age, nothing to do with their averages.

My point still stands, you lose the benefit of signing them with 25% off their average if you don't reach the 42.00 limit!

Was that not his first Championship season when signed as a 3.00 rider? I would judge his current potential based on that season!

One thing I don't understand about the RS qualifications are Mountain turned 25 last season & Hume turned 26. This year they have both "graduated" due to their different ages! Surely the age cut-off has to be the same for both riders?

The average cut-offs for RS was 5.5 in Prem & 6.5 in Champ. I assuming they only use Prem aves now as the Champ lasted ONE year of the FIVE year plan, which would mean Flint is clearly still a RS. If that 5.5 average rule is still in place, then a rider could average up to 5.49 and stay a RS till he was 25/26?

However if you sign Hume on 3.07 & he puts a point on his ave, that still below the 4.27 available so not good team building. I'd totally go for Hume or Mountain if I brought them up to the points limit!

Simple solution, put him at number 3 at home & 4 away, won't meet a RS lol!

Wolves team isn't built for Cook to get 6/7 rides a match imo. Top 5 are far stronger than the reserves. Going by Champ averages it should be Flint getting 5 rides a match & Cook 3.

Looking at the teams signed so far, I think the play-offs will make the season far more dull. Leicester, Oxford & Workington look so strong it's not inconceivable that they could win all their matches (except when they race each other), so it's likely they'll clinch their play-off spots very early on & then have a wait to ride in the matches that actually matter! That's the downside of the play-offs, could end up being, six matches between 3 awesome teams just to pick play-off opponents. Followed by 4 matches between them to decide the title?

I'm not, almost certain to up his average imo