Brian De Boise

OP has a good point here. The ownership/planning permissions/time restraints etc which bind a lot of British clubs mean training time is limited compared against the Poles, Danes and Swedes so it seems logical that senior clubs who might have difficulty funding a junior side should link up whether its to enter the National League or a step lower into the junior tournaments. If plenty of the senior sides signed up to this sort of arrangement they could even consider regionalising the National League to cut down on costs.

I'm not sure who is in charge of trying to help the British riders these days but whoever it is needs to have a proper set-up made available to them through the BSPA. A set-up which helps the young British riders with sponsorship, training opportunities, contract negotiations/agent type work getting on the phone and bending the ears of all the EL promoters. Then there's also physical fitness and nutrition, things which not only make them better riders but make them look 100% committed. In essence the British riders need to have a set-up behind them which is pro-active in getting them into the Elite League and then proving themselves at that level.

Two things I'd like to see introduced would be a) the obvious standardardised engines owned and maintained by the teams (as was being looked at by Jon Cook, I believe) and the minimum average for 1 or both reserves should be around 4.00 as this would help the back of some races to be more competitive.

It's a shame that one or two Rye House fans won't support a team that will be made up of the same riders they would have supported if they'd remained as the Cobras. Nonetheless there will be a few Hackney fans who probably wouldn't have gone to many Rye House NL matches who now will.