szkocjasid

Not so sure about that, look stronger than most teams at reserve, so that should help avoid drubbings on the road!

5.00 average I think!

There's a big difference between making a mid-season change to strengthen up and dropping a rider pre-season with no team spots available though! Anyway as far as I'm concerned replacing Thomas for Thompson, Kemp or Rowe doesn't make Pirates any weaker - so if for example Batchelor & Ablitt is stronger than Thomas & Newman, why wouldn't they start with that team?

There is 0% whatsoever a legitimate reason for Ipswich to be allowed a guest when there are plenty of RS options available. That said this being Speedway - you never know lol!

Sadly that never happens, a rider can get replaced at the drop of a hat, even if they have upped their average. Whereas a rider who doesn't get paid & want to leave to join another team will get a 28 day ban for "withholding their services" Speedway contracts certainly seem to favour the clubs over the riders!

Totally agree with Lisa's comment here, if Batchelor & Ablitt are so much stronger than Thomas & Newman why didn't they sign them to start with? There is very little difference between Thomas, Kemp, Rowe & Dan Thompson so can't understand why Poole would even consider re-thinking the team building strategy they came up with in the winter!

There's both pros & cons for the play-offs. Not a fan of them myself. But I'd be interested to see what the crowd was for Sheffield vs Ipswich on Oct 24th, what would have been a league title decider, basically turned into a challenge match!

Personally I think it would be really out of order to drop a rider in March with no other team spots available, especially as there are options available for a straight swap for Thomas!

I'm sure I read the opposite. Can't stop teams being allowed a guest in case there's no one out there, so in theory a team could use guests from their 2nd match till the end of the season!

Bowen & Hodder seem pretty good reserves tbh!

I make it 8.12 left for the final rider

Jakobsen will get 4 matches before he moved up (2 x KOC) plus an away league match before the home league match he needs to get a new average. Should give Lynn an early season boost. It'll definitely be Pickering dropping to reserve as the rest of the team won't get new averages when Jakobsen does!

There's not a lot between the middle order tbh. I certainly see Jorgensen at 2.

Since Lynn are starting their season with one of their strongest riders at number 6, how about having a weaker rider at 5 to be "protected" by Jakobsen & Klint in his 4 rides? 1. Klindt 2. Jorgensen 3. (H) Kasprzak (A) Palm Toft 4. (H) Palm Toft (A) Kasprzak 5. Pickering 6. Jakobsen 7. Edwards

Not necessarily, for a start he has a higher average than Pickering, so if Jakobsen gets a new ave before the team averages change on 1st May Pickering would go to reserve. Of course if Jorgensen turns out to be the 6th best rider, he may still move out if the reserve berth if he scores well after dropping down (assuming he will).

I'm expecting Blodorn to end up at reserve, scoring plenty points at the NSS, but not away (especially at Wolves).

This would make the most sense, the riders who helped their team qualify for the final, get to race in the final!

My predictions were based on riders averages (where they will finish up) I have no knowledge of Turner so left him at 4.00, after I read enough comments decided to drop that to 3.00! Anyway that's what should happen in a forum, if someone puts up a good counter point, forum users can re-think their opinions lol! It can be done, (quoting posts from different pages)!

I am now thinking Berwick could avoid the wooden spoon, I probably still rate them bottom, but much closer to Oxford & Berwick than I first thought!

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