Arch Stanton

Well Jenkins as rising star then. That’s a massive boost.

Lots goes on behind the scenes. Birmingham struggled to be competitive, last thing they need is someone pinching one of their leading lights from a season that provided very little. We’ve just read there’s been meetings as recently as yesterday, wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there wasn’t a gentleman’s agreement not to pinch the riders they wanted to keep to help them be competitive next year. All guesswork though, he might still end up at Ipswich we’ll have to wait and see.

Excellent news.

Depends if a deal was done whilst there was uncertainty at Birmingham. I’d heard Brennan definitely agreed to return to Birmingham before the uncertainty so we’ll have to wait and see. Birmingham hoping to announce first signing this week, wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s Brennan.

That’s a fair point. Looking at the 2024 stats there’s been very little between them. You also have to factor in that King was riding the last third of the season injured so that will have affected his scoring. Not sure about his position in the team though. I think I’d prefer Rew at 2 with Doyley, King in the engine room with Brennan.

There’s still weeks to go until the AGM so anything can still happen. If the worst happens and Birmingham don’t come to tapes, they may decide to drop the points limit to help another club come up and be competitive.

TBF to King, he was riding injured. He still had/has issues with his broken hand right up until the final meeting. Not sure whether he’s going under the knife again this winter to correct it, but it’s an issue that needs sorting. He can’t grip the handlebars properly and is restricted in the movement of his hand. “Why ride then”? It’s his living, no riding no money. Let’s have it right, the team Blue Witch has named above is an excellent one.

So much more to come from Rew. Huge talent. You have to include him if he’s open to a return.

Probably very close if it’s 40.

Not quite. Some riders can/will be signed in any eventuality of rules and points limit. Nobody though, will be signing the majority of their riders until the rules and points limit has been confirmed at the AGM. as I’ve said before, some things have been loosely agreed prior to the AGM in the past, only for them to change at the AGM itself. I still to this day, don’t understand why they leave the AGM so late. It should be done as soon as the last competitive fixture has been ridden IMO and I haven’t heard one decent argument why that isn’t the case.

I’ve also seen some good racing at Ipswich too this year believe it or not. The majority of tracks are much of a muchness, mostly processional with a few highlights thrown in here and there. The NSS is the only track in my experience that provides good racing more often than not.

Every track in the Premiership is predominantly “gate and go” except for the NSS. That wasn’t my point though. My point was there’ll be very few if any, that would choose Lindgren over Emil Sayfutdinov.

Absolutely fine, you’ll be alone with that opinion though 😉

Lindgren over Emil? Nah you’re alright thanks 😜

Not sure that’s the case with Ellis Mike. Even if his 8+ season was an anomaly, his GSA’s since around 2018 have been close to the 7 point mark bar the last couple of season’s. I take Pinny’s point about injuries, they do seem to have crept in recently, but the ex British champ is surely good value on 5 and a half particularly the way he rides Ipswich. Unlike the likes of Bomber and King with all due respect to them, he’s still the right side of 30 so has plenty left in the tank. He won’t be short of offers. I don’t see many of those similar “3 and 4” riders who look the same value. I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t return.

You’re not the only one who has said this and I don’t get this argument at all. Neither rider you mentioned is capable of “stepping up” to cater for the loss of two world class riders because they’re simply not at that level. It’s unfair to expect either to do so. Take your point about the injuries, and that’s clearly a factor in his average being what it currently is. But it’s only three season’s ago he finished with an 8+ average for Sheffield, and he’s still only 28 years of age. He’s still for me a bargain on 5 and a half and worth the risk on that figure. If you have a rider who would be 5th in your averages who’s averaging 9.42 at home then nobody is beating that team at Foxhall regardless of who they stick in their teams.

If Brennan is available he has to be targeted. Rides Foxhall well and he was outstanding in the Semi at Leicester. He’ll have plenty of offers though you’d assume and it all comes down to numbers also, especially if it drops to 39 and Sayfutdinov returns. That will make fitting Brennan in very difficult. We have to retain Ellis also for me. Again, unlucky with injury which meant he had a stop start season which affected his progress but when he had runs injury free he showed what he can do. 9.42 including bonus points home average this year. Current GSA of 5.47 still looks very cheap for his ability.

But it’s competition. Where do you stop trying to manufacture performance/results by throwing in a “helping hand” to clubs? If you continue to do that then you slowly take away the competitive nature of the competition itself. It’s a brand new season, the clubs that finished towards the bottom now have equal opportunity to build competitive teams for next year to compete better. They shouldn’t be artificially helped in my opinion.

It was 23 or under from January 1st according to this/last season’s rules. We’ll have to wait and see what the criteria is for the 2025 season.

They’re not building teams as in getting signatures on paper bar the odd one or two riders that won’t affect team building regardless of points limit. There are frequent meetings leading up to the annual AGM where everything is discussed and things are loosely agreed prior to the AGM itself. But there are promoters that know (and there’s a few that lurk here I promise you), that nothing is set in stone until the conference. There can be a points limit agreed by the majority, only for a few to change their mind at the AGM and swing it the other way scuppering plans that certain promotions had in place. There isn’t a single promotion that can make concrete plans until the conference has been completed.

They really don’t.

I honestly have no idea on King. The only certainty is Doyle will be number 1, and Rew has another offer but the club want him to stay.

Hope you’re correct, but I’ve heard similar to Phil. A few clubs pushing hard for a reduction due to a lack of top class number 1’s that three clubs in particular hoover up every year leaving the others feeding on scraps. Ipswich have a team A, and a team B for both a 39, and 40 point limit.

Missed out last year in the final heat of the final meeting and missed out this year when both become injured! It’s no coincidence that the three clubs that seem to be competing for the title in recent years (Ipswich, Belle Vue, Sheffield) all have two big hitters. Emil/Doyle, Bewley/Kurtz, Holder/Woffinden. Poole another example, won every year with a top heavy team with Chris Holder and Darcy ward. It’s clearly the way to go to have the biggest chance of success.

The points limit isn’t set in stone as yet. Half are pushing for a reduction, the others want to retain the 40 limit. Doesn’t take a genius to work out which clubs want what.