szkocjasid

Happy enough with your U21 suggestion, question - if Lambert & Bewley were "rising stars" at 20 years old, would you have them riding at reserve or on the heat leader positions their averages dictated? Re, riders not being allowed to return to the RS scheme once they've "graduated" if a rider gets 3 3.90 ave one season, 3.80 the next, 3.70 after that, do they really deserve to be a "rising star" over someone who averaged 3.98 then 4.02, then 3.98 again?

Think you're being harsh on Ablitt as he's just had his best season in the sport.

Brennan would be a number 1 in 6 of the 9 clubs, he's already at that standard. Only at 5 because Poole have Lawson.

Fair points, I guess if I was Cami or Middlo I'd say, "we want to give ourselves the best possible chance in the second leg, so we want to keep it within 10 points" I wouldn't even say "we don't want it going to 14-16 points, as it prob too much to make up" - that's just negative. I'd focus on the positives for the riders & fans.

Scunthorpe have been really disappointing in their last couple of big matches losing at home to Poole and then Oxford. I really thought they'd be strong enough to at least win at home, even if they'd struggle on aggregate, due to being weaker away. After a strong season at home, very poor show when they needed their riders to step up. From a neutrals point of view means the BSN final will be a no contest too.

Still confused why Kemp is being overlooked, or Bowtell / Joe T as Barkers replacement? If highest average was the priority then Ben Cook & Jake Allen would've been in before Vuolas & Barker to start with? Have they changed the qualifying criteria?

They might think that & it may be true, but surely they'd never publicly say that. Would be terrible motivation for the team to announce "we don't think we can pull 14 points back". I was surprised at Gavin Parr's comments ahead of the Oxford KOC ties, saying along the lines of, "we won't give up" we'll give it our all" etc. to me that sounded like someone who knows he is beaten, but calling for his team not to give up, rather than a team with an equal chance of winning!

I would absolutely love Ipswich to qualify for the final, mainly because I'm very much against Leicester being gifted top qualifying spot when they finished 2nd.

Think he could put a point on his average & be one of the top men in the league, average shouldn't put anyone off.

But that makes no sense, they would've just called it off at 5pm if that was the case. Calling it off at start time is the refs decision not the home promotions

You can aim for a closer match, but still be satisfied with a 14 points deficit. Poole still favourites, but gives Workington a little more belief & could help the second leg crowd.

Think Pirates will have one foot in the final after tonight, but for Workington's sake, hope it's close enough time keep the second leg interesting.

The National League Riders’ Development Series is a series of individual events, but they are not connected to each other, there is no overall winner. Sadly there is no NDLRC this year, despite Poole calling their staging that.

That's easy to answer, highest averaged rider from every club, top 7 second heat leaders. Cook & Allen are 3rd heat leaders. Talking about available riders here, even though he's 5th in the averages Vuolas is Workington's second rider for this event, so ranks above Cook & Allen (but below Kemp).

For an event on the 15th of the month, you'd think they'd use the September averages?

Of course Barker isn't the rider he used to be, that's why he'd be available as a 6 point second string not a 9+ heat leader. I've never understood that argument, if you had to sign him on his old average, of course you'd be like "that's a mistake he's not the rider he was" but the way averages & team building works, Barker can still do something in the middle of the team. I'd try & get the 3 mentioned plus Bowtell back.

Don't understand your logic, if clubs can't find replacements surely you'd want to lower the limit? If they increase the limit, where will the new heat leaders come from? If commitments in other leagues is an issue, make all teams use 2 x NL riders at reserve, at least they won't miss matches to ride in Poland!

So Kemp (6.63) overlooked behind Barker (6.32) & Vuolas (6.29)? All 3 are second choice riders for their clubs!

Harris should be on the radar for every Championship club, who wouldn't want to sign Bomber?

How it should be, both Glasgow & Workington agreed to the date, so no need to wait, let's get in with the play-offs, well done to Poole. Premiership should've done the same thing, plan the 4 home dates, once top 4 positions were known (as they were on Monday) slot in the opposition.

To me it would be very stupid to restrict how many leagues a club could ride in. If clubs can make it pay, why shouldn't they enter them all? Now if we had 12+ teams in both leagues & there was too many fixtures, I could understand restricting them, but until then - let them ride in all leagues.

That's a fantastic looking team.

Yeah I don't get where all the talk of Zmarzlik struggling came from. It's like every round the question is, will Zmarzlik win or not, rather than "which of the 16 riders will win". He's a great rider, but it shouldn't be regarded as Zmarzlik vs everyone else.

Once Fricke had 3rd choice for the final, I was surprised he left Bartosz grid 2, after Zmarzlik had done well off 2 in the semi final.

They can't be split, so must've been GP ranking, number 17 is better than 18. This situation where 0,0 is better than 0,0 which is better than X is another example of why the current scoring system is the worst ever!