The middle tier needs to be far closer to the NDL to allow riders to progress! Even riders who can get maximums in the NDL Crang / Mulford / Smith, often score 0 at Champ level!
How can a NDL rider know if he's ready for the Championship if scoring maximums at NL level isn't an indicator?
The top 6 are so far clear any lack of matches raced will not change the top 6, maybe make a difference to the top 2!
The biggest issue will probably be so many matches being raced after the cut off date for the play-offs, or even after the play-offs themselves, which could be hard to convince fans to turn up to watch!
Birmingham & Newcastle were open & honest with the fans & asked for help! Eastbourne chose to kept it quiet (I certainly had no idea they were in trouble till riders missed rides at Leicester) until perhaps too late!
I don't understand the rule as it's different to the normal guest rules! As Newcastle are below the points limit can they bring in Sam Masters to replace Wethers - no, so should only be able to use a 2* rider to replace a 1* or 2* reserve!
If teams can replace 1 or 2* reserves with a 3* reserve they should also be able to replace a 6.00 rider for a 9.00 rider if 3 points under the limit! I can't understand how similar situations have different outcomes?
One thing I would say is if they call off matches whenever there's a chance of rain, they will run out of dates to race fixtures! I'd imagine you'd get bad crowds racing in cold / wet October!
There is no easy answer to this, call it off early & the weather is good, people will say "should have waited"! Try & get the match on & it's rained off & people will say "should of called it off sooner"!
I hate that the qualifiers aren't even, 4,4,4&3 qualifying! Just have 16 qualify & if a track thinks they won't get a big crowd without a home rider - don't offer to host the meeting!
r/r lost to Nicholls, Batchelor & Starke, so with a fit Worrall you'd maybe hope for 1 or 2 extra points gained, but on the whole r/r did a fair job for the Monarchs!