szkocjasid

I recommend Proctor on the 7th of December! If he's good I'll remind everyone, if he's poor I'll delete this post lol!

I think Proctor is a sensible choice, especially riding at reserve. Although his form in the French meeting, would put me off a little. But if the option was Proctor who lives over here vs Manzares who would have to be flown from Sweden for each match, I'd 100% be going for Ty.

Think Proctor is the best 4.00 rider available tbh, he averaged 4.55 (5.52) in 2022, which is far better than Hook 2.78 (3.44) for example!

Just watched the match on the BSN. Typical Berwick track tbh, if riders gated on got into the outside line, not much chance of passing. At this stage of the season (pre-injuries)you certainly wouldn't have expected Berwick to lose so many at home. Agree with others that it was a poor show of Bowen & Bromwell to ask about team changes so early in the season, as a former rider you'd expect Bowen to side with the riders & expect them to be given time!

Still waiting for two teams, but this is how I rank the completed sides: 1) Workington 2) Oxford 3) Leicester 4) Mildenhall 5) Kent 6) Berwick

Slight change in my predictions, now putting Redcar top. 1st) Redcar - 3 good heat leaders. Bailey & Edwards could swap the 2 & 6 positions throughout the season with whoever is at reserve scoring well. Not got great home track advantage, but expect them to keep matches close away, so don't need big home wins anyway! 2-6) Plymouth - 3 good heat leaders & 2 good second strings, expecting big things from Gilkes. At reserve Turner a complete unknown for me & Trigger could be the weakest rider in the league. Home track advantage should help with bonus points. 2-6) Glasgow - look pretty decent in each position. Vissing could be a trump card! Think the reserves will up their averages too. 2-6) Scunthorpe - great number one. Then solid throughout, probably have the best reserve pair. 2-6) Poole - great top 2, then race with 4 second strings. So missing a 3rd heat leader, but should always have a decent reserve. 2-6) Edinburgh - fab top 2. Having better reserves than the 2 teams below them sees them into the play-offs. 7th) Oxford - probably have the best top 3 in the league. Then almost running with 4 reserves, too long a tail. 8th) Berwick - top 5 looks good, especially at home with Etheridge. Weak at reserve. 9th) Birmingham - the only team I see with no play-off chance. Great number one (will drop his average though) & Sedgmen rode very well last year, but there's plenty of stronger number 2's. Missing a 3rd heat leader & using up 8 points for their reserves who'll need to improve to even reach those averages.

I'd personally go for Kemp, if you compare his average as a number 6 3.15 (3.65) to Flint who rode as a RS 3.54 (4.25) it shows he's not far behind the man most agree should be the strongest "RS". He may also feel he has something to prove after being overlooked for a team spot in both leagues. There's no real risk with a rising star though, if you get your first pick wrong, just try another! It's never going to be a case of the averages not fitting!

1) Sheffield - look to have strength in all the right places, heat leaders not as strong as some others (but not weak either), but make up for it elsewhere & look to have good reserves. 2) King's Lynn - solid top 6 & should have the strongest reserve in the league. While they don't have any top heat leaders, they make up for it with their second strings / number 6. 3) Wolverhampton - very solid top 5, could all average 7+. No superstars, but a decent number one & the strongest RS. 4) Ipswich - powerhouse top 2. Rest of the top 5 isn't as strong as any of the teams I've placed above them. 5) Belle Vue - fantastic number one & a good number 2. Not quite got 3rd heat leader / second string strength. Have the weakest RS. However home track form could help with bonus points! 6) Peterborough - great number one. But after that doesn't look so good. Not an awful team just, don't see much improvement in the rest of the team. Other teams simply look better. 7) Leicester - top 4 looks great, but think Sedgmen / Allen is where they are weak. Sedgmen would be an ok reserve but don't see him as a top 5 rider. I do feel all the teams look strong enough to win plenty of their home matches, so I don't think anyone will be cast adrift & this could be the closest league for some time. The more I compare teams, I realise most of the number 6s could end up on similar averages: Blodorn, Hume, Allen, & both Cooks. So I feel they cancel themselves out, with King's Lynn & Sheffield having the advantage there.

Because he put near 2 points on his Champ average!

Depends if Kemp or Rowe sign for both Poole & Ipswich, they'll both be "match fit" then. Mind you even if Kemp only signs for Poole on one league, that's no different to the amount of racing Kyle Newman is getting!

Personally I don't think it's a conundrum at all, Poole built the team they wanted, Rowe, Kemp & Dan T are all similar standard to Thomas, so they have a very simple choice imo. If they wanted Batchelor & Ablitt sure they would have chosen them from the start?

I'd second that

1) Poole haven't done anything wrong, so they chose not to pick Kemp this season, it happens to dozens of riders every season! 2) even if Kemp felt hard done by, there's not enough clubs about for riders to hold a grudge tbh

Which is a bit odd tbh!

As long as people aren't please Jack got injured because they wanted another rider, I can't see the harm in speculating on his replacement. Worrying about Jack's health rather than the team won't make him heal quicker. Personally when I talk about replacements I like to add "get well soon" to the injured rider! Many others have said similar.

Interesting to read about incidents years later. But I think it's safe to say Plymouth were wrong to drop Paul Starke for Nicki Glanz lol!

Dan's away ave was 4.37 (5.02) Jack's was 4.69 (5.24) Drew's was 5.20 (6.20)

Too busy trying to make out how unsafe Norra racing is to care about Scunny! Poole are fortunate to have plenty of options, Kemp, D.Thompson & Rowe look the best options. Bad news for Thomas who's had a few injuries sadly!

I agree with most of what you've said except Drew not kicking on in the last couple of seasons, as he's just put nearly 2 points in his Champ ave (which is the highest it's ever been).

Not even their second strings / top reserve? Any two from Kasprzak, Palm Toft, Jorgensen or Pickering?

Still don't understand the many anti Richie Worrall comments, especially ones like "if he doesn't perform could see himself dropped" wouldn't that be the case for every rider in the league? Anyway compare Worrall as a number 4 against other teams: Belle Vue - close to their 3rd heat leader Wright (stronger in the Champ) & far stronger than second strings Blodorn & Brennan. Ipswich - 0.3 below HL King (stronger in Champ) stronger than Riss. King's Lynn - on a par with Jorgensen / Pickering Leicester - weaker than Morris Sheffield - harder to compare as Bellego has missed Britain, but stronger than Howarth (similar in Champ though) Wolves - on a par with Douglas & S.Worrall So on the whole, don't understand why many were unhappy with the Worrall signing!

I agree completely, each team has a positive side to it imo

Jason Doyle 10.0 Dan Bewley 9.3 Nicki Pedersen 9.0 Emil Sayfutdinov 8.9 Max Fricke 8.4 Tobiasz Musielak 8.2 Brady Kurtz 8.1 Jack Holder 8.0 Sam Masters 7.9 Krzystof Kasprzak 7.8

My first thought: they mention Morris being the decision maker in terms of rulebook interpretation - it's a shame they realise the rulebook can be interpreted many ways & have to hire someone to make sense of it! Ideally you'd want a rulebook that can only be interpreted in one way? At least they mention he's in charge of making the rulebook simple & easy to follow. That should be a priority!