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If Edinburgh have agreed to be back at Armadale in 2023, it wouldn't be fair to call the Scottish Open the "farewell to Armadale". Wouldn't be right to try & get a big crowd under false pretences. As for Glasgow I think the days of lots of away fans turning up are long gone & home crowds are what keeps clubs going. But especially with no Edinburgh, Berwick or Workington, it would be the perfect time to step up! No point Glasgow saying they'll only move up once they've won the Championship. May as well just admit they'll never move up lol!

I don't really believe rumors until I see an official announcement. But find it very hard to believe a club could qualify for a final & then pull out of the competition! I'm sure I read that Leicester wanted to host their leg on the August bank holiday weekend, but Glasgow didn't agree to the date (riders missing). That suggests they wanted to win the competition. If they are pulling out, why would they have been bothered about putting out a weak side two months ago? Best punishment I can come up with (if it's true) if any club pull out of Jubilee league, then they are banned from the following season's play-offs! If they don't qualify - ban rolls over till they next would qualify! That would ensure all 3 clubs race in the final!

As Worrall could still be at Leicester next year in the Prem, I see nothing wrong with Plymouth announcing his signing for the Champ

At least two of the clubs have had blank dates since the finalists were known, so there's no good excuse for leaving it till the end of October

1) is there anything wrong with that? 2) I'd rather be champions, than considered the best team (but not champions)

Look at the 4 new riders to the Championship in 2022. Fredriksen, Hook, Pearson & Congreve. None of them reached the minimum 4.00 ave for foreigners. Was signing these riders really better than keeping the RS system going? You could argue only Knudsen (on a 5.00) for Berwick was worth signing!

I have to say there is far too much "gardening" at the start for me these days. I was at Berwick for a NDL match on Saturday & even a junior in his first NDL match has already learnt / been taught to get off his bike & dig for ages. Heck even when Mildenhall had to go to the tapes for an easy 5-0 in heat 13, the both dug a little at the start, not for a long time but seemed unnecessary as they didn't have any opponents! I also feel video companies do the sport no favours by showing all the gardening in the one-off heats they show on social media. You'd think they'd want to show the best (the racing) of speedway and not the worst (time wasting).

We say that every year though. In the last two season the gap between fixtures for some teams seems even worse!

I suppose in Berwick's defence it wasn't like they had an obvious non-scoring reserve to replace. Weakest rider throughout the year as been on a 4.00 ave (ish). Probably also don't want to give Harrison enough matches to get an average!

Still wouldn't solve the problem of the league being decided by a team losing their weakest rider & strengthening up with the "next Dan Bewley" - not that you can solve that problem, can't tell a team not to pick a good guest! Actually you can solve the problem - don't have play-offs!

Why announce a 5 year plan then? They keep doing it also!

That's why I said 2 or 4 points, while Pijper may or may not have beaten Harrison, I'm sure he would have beaten Warren! I was very impressed with Harrison, just needs some coaching from Chris Harris about riding the deep outside & he'll be unstoppable! He's a must signing for the Bullets on a 3.00 ave for next season!

1) to make it cheaper so the likes of Eastbourne or Workington would join? 2) to spread the top riders around so the likes of Birmingham & Newcastle being far weaker doesn't happen again? 3) to help the best NL riders step up? 4) to have a bigger gap between Prem & Champ and a smaller gap between Champ & NL? 5) to encourage clubs like Leicester, Poole & Glasgow to step up? Tbh a lower points limit isn't needed so much for next season if the Champ are missing 2 more teams, meaning the top riders could get spread round more evenly!

As soon as Brits clinched 3rd in heat 18, I was hoping Edwards would get a shot in heat 19 at least!

I feel my point was proved correct last night. Pijper, as expected, couldn't beat Edwards in heat 8. Having Rathbone in that heat likely wouldn't have cost them any points (Rathbone looked stronger than Muff). But Pijper would have been favourite to win heat 12, so Berwick could have added an extra 2 or 4 points onto their first leg lead!

That's the point I was making, why put r/r at 2? Jenkins may get an almost guaranteed win in heat 8, but that was never gonna be enough for Oxford to beat Leicester over 2 legs! They needed him to take as many points off the 3 heat leaders to give Oxford a chance to progress imo

I suppose that's because no riders moved out if the RS criteria, they just dropped the RS rule (after 1 year of their 5 year plan)!

The rolling aves are from the last 3 seasons, 19,21,22. So anyone with an average from 2018 wouldn't use those figures for a rolling ave, would need to race 3 home & 3 away to gain a new ave.

When the RS rules were introduced, it was stated when a rider was no longer a "rising star" he would get a 25% reduction on his ave (to help them get a team place after improving enough to no longer qualify).

Lambert's 7.81 ave (7.61 with reduction) is based on his last 20 matches. If he rides against Lynn his final ave will then be based on his last 9 matches from 2019 & the Lynn fixture. Could change a lot!

Don't see it happening in the Prem or the NL tbh. Half expecting the jubilee league to be abandoned to!

Surely it won't become a one-off final again due to lack of dates? One thing I will say, ignoring this competition since August & racing the final in October just suggests the clubs have no interest / feel this is not an important competition! If the clubs appear to act like that, it's a terrible way to entice fans to come out on a potentially cold & wet October evening!

That happened before the play-off era if the Champions won with meetings in hand. But they still completed their fixtures. But I do agree it looks stupid completing league matches after the play-offs, not that I'm suggesting the matches shouldn't be run - just make sure the league is completed first!

Gotcha, I thought you meant 39 plus RS, not 39 total. Yes that would be weaker, but don't see the limit being that low!

Don't agree that's diluting the product, teams should average out at 42, so 39 + RS is no weaker than this year?