Islander15

I wasn't thinking about which club he rode for at that point just that he's from near Leicester. Mr Mungo was obviously thinking solely about locality as was I.

When this team was rumoured a month or so ago I said something similar Vog. You're asking Webster to score big points when he's had a while out, Reade to hit form coming back from nearly all of last season out, Smart to be a third heat leader when he deteriorated badly last year, Bates to possibly increase his average as he's likely to be partnered with Smart who may or may not get back to his best especially as Smart has EL duties now, Stoneman I'm sure will improve slightly, Shanes should continue his development and by starting at reserve will probably improve the most and Andrews is a strange one, he's been around for a fair few years now and never really progressed and I would have preferred them to have gone with a new 3.00 man especially seeing as it's a development team maybe someone local like Tyler Govier. Apologises for the poor grammar and for the negativity but it's a team that has a real Plymouth look about it, but not one that I can see challenging this season, but in Shane's and Reade they do at least have 2 potential stars. What's your thoughts on the team Mikey?

So the Isle of Wight 2013 are back Presumably as Malcolm said, they will have a 40.00 limit like everyone else and stick to those riders the whole season. The press release also says they want to use 2013 Lions riders but Kerr and Blackbird are ineligible now so maybe Branford has decided to come back over or Sarjeant will be included. I think their problem is how can you contract a competitive side who will ride only 6 or 8 meetings all season? If those riders are good enough they are going to sign for league teams. There are riders out there that don't have league spaces but after a good performance for Leicester, are you going to let him sign for a league team... I think the idea of borrowing riders in principle works but maybe if they come up with their own 3.00 men if there are some around the Leicester area, or give 2 MDL riders a chance at reserve and borrow 3 to supplement Perry & Clegg. At the end of the day those 2 MDL riders could become full-time National League Leicester riders next year and you're already quickening their progress. On another note if they do borrow all 7, I hope Chris Widman is one of them. They're using it to gauge support to possibly enter the league next year. If Cradley ran there then it wouldn't tell them how May Leicester fans would turn up. And anyway I thought it was said last year that you had enough dates at Monmore for PL racing so you must have enough to do the NT as well.

Leicester will ride in the National Trohy alongside Stoke, Mildenhall and Kent. They hope to include Lions Tom Perry & Max Clegg and will get their other 5 riders from other teams not competing in the NT. http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.23754 Good luck to them and I hope the Leicester public turn out in force and they can compete in the league as well next season!

I agree with home and away wins especially as it'll give Dan a chance to ease back into league racing on a former track. But this round might not take place as Speedway Star reported that Devon are considering their position in the KOC due to a potential shortage of dates for fixtures.

Have a read of this http://www.speedway365.com/scunthorpe-dimiss-douglas-rumour/ The club says he has had his visa granted already.

You ignore most of my first response and only answered a few words of my second, so that rather sums up your argument. I never claimed to be of expert knowledge and left it to others to form a judgement. The more people that say what they know then the more we know overall and the better informed we can become.

I maintain that what I said was neither derogatory nor a put down but a simple fact. If you or Rob took it that way then that is up to you and not me, and probably shows your true thoughts. I posted a fact, and didn't include any of my opinion on him at all, and that fact you cannot dispute. This is a forum for open debate for fans and anyone can post, within reason, what they want. I could not include the length of time he had been riding a bike because I did not know it and I was making no argument so it wasn't imperative that I looked up his riding position on the day. For example if I was to say Ricky Van Wolfswinkel cost Norwich £8.5million it's your opinion on him if you think I'm suggesting that's too much. I may well be of the opinion that he needs a year to settle and will do really well next year (which is the case btw). I think it shows that my post was purely fact based with myself making no judgement on the rider and nothing negative towards him when you consider that nobody else bothered to complain about it or my similar post regarding Adam Extance.

I fail to see how it is irrelevant when I was answering a response asking if anyone knew anything about Rob. And it is fact that he guested for Buxton and failed to score. Yes I agree that riding at number 2 is harder than at reserve but that was the only point that you can really take up with me on the comment (that I didn't mention it, but I said it from memory and couldn't remember he rode at number 2 anyway) rather than the attack you just made against the poster rather than the post. And the BSF is always going on about attack the post not the poster which is not what you did. The statement wasn't alluding to anything other than one NL outing because as I'm sure you know that is all he has ridden in the NL. I'm not aware of his NJL scores so how can I comment on those? As mentioned I was providing the information that I knew of. For example, I am not to know that he had 3 months experience at that time (only that it was a short period) so I can't add that information. In any case riders who are just starting out improve the fastest so it is obvious to anyone that he would have improved since that day. You will also see that on the Buxton thread I posted something similar about Adam Extance who guested for Buxton at Kent and failed to score. That didn't receive any negative remarks as it was meant with in malice whatsoever and everybody understood it for how it was meant: simply a fact that both Rob and Adam have ridden in one meeting in their careers and both of which failed to score in it. But again, my statement is a clear fact and not suggesting anything about the ability of Rob. Nor would I even want to. I will encourage all riders who want to ride speedway as a career and wish them the best of luck. Most non-NL fans moan that there's no British talent, well I disagree my grievance is at times these riders aren't being given league opportunities, and Stoke have consistently designated their reserve berths to this very reason and for that I applaud the club. I hope that Rob and James have successful careers, not just a successful season at Stoke, but a successful career but that this starts with a successful season at Stoke. As to the previous occasion if you look I 'liked' your post because it was a comprehensive and fair explanation to what I had given. As you say yourself, you explained my inaccuracies, and for that I thank you for that which I did. You raised points that I had not considered and ultimately I, and everyone who has read it, knows a little bit more about Stoke 2014 than they do about other clubs in the league. I was in the similar position to another reader who didn't know why Steve Worrall would be in Poland on Sundays but you answered him before I read your response. There was no need for me to reply by actually quoting and typing and for that reason I didn't. I respect that there are things a club cannot say in public so why would I ask the same questions again, when presumably the points you didn't answer are because they are private? Without checking this is probably only my third post on this thread so I fail to see how I am offering 'implied and actual criticism of Stoke'. One thing I do know is that there has been a lot of criticism of Stoke's track on this thread of which I have replied to none of for the simple reason that I have never been to Loomer Road so do not know the situation myself. Yet you have responded to none of that criticism. I have no reason whatsoever to have or show any dislike towards Stoke and I want as many teams in the league as possible and I am offended that you say I am disrespecting Stoke's name on the forum. As to your distasteful closing comments you are not aware of my life at all, and it certainly doesn't revolve around Stoke speedway, and you are not aware of anything I have done regarding the club I support. You claimed that my comment was irrelevant but surely answering a comment about Rob by telling me what I should be doing with my life is irrelevant!

I think the fact that Williamson & Phillips signed for Dudley is more to due with the fact they were Dudley riders before the Stags returned. But equally I expect rookie riders who will make their league debut like Ryan MacDonald to make up most of the team with maybe just a number 1 of note. Adam Allot has been at Scunthorpe's winter series this year so maybe him.

He guested for Buxton at Stoke last year and failed to score.

NL team officially return as Scunthorpe Stags. http://www.scunthorpescorpions.co/News.aspx?Team=Saints

http://www.scunthorpescorpions.co/News.aspx?Team=Saints Brilliant news!

He had a thread... It did descend into an unnecessary and irrelevant argument, so just ignore that bit. http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=75348

Garrity to add 3 points Carr, S. Worrall, Douglas, B. Kurtz, Kerr, Heeps & Blackbird to add 2 points.

That's not fair. Jayne is very bothered and does more than most.

My memory seems good enough, I've looked it up and it was 4.14 in 2010. So I assume he's been reassessed as a 3.00 due to missing 3, nearly 4, seasons?? Having said that, Shane Waldron was assessed as a 5.00 last season and he had even longer out the sport than Blake. Kent fans, his Islanders scores at the start of that season were 5+1 from 4 at home to the USA Dream Team, 4 from 4 at home to Weymouth in a challenge, 7+1 from 4 away to Weymouth and riding in the main body this time in a challenge, before his season ended in his first official fixture which was a league meeting away to Newport when he scored 2+1 and broke his leg in his fifth outing.

Williamson says in the Speedway Star that he's signed a contract with a NL team.

When he signed for Isle of Wight his average was about 4.14 and he only rode about twice before injury... So how can he fit in??

Philips alongside Williamson or Stoneman would made a quality pairing imo. I expect Greaves to be announced tomorrow but hopefully it's one of the bottom 2 to give us a clue as to the pairing.

How about: 1. Rob Branford 8.53 2. Ryan Blacklock 4.43 3. Liam Carr 6.87 4. Luke Priest 4.75 5. Adam Allott 8.15 6. Adam Extance 3.00 7. Tom Woolley 3.64 That's assuming Williamson doesn't return and Branford comes back next year. I can genuinely see Carr as one of the top riders in the league and pushing a high 8 average if not into 9!

Scunthorpe, Workington, Ipswich, Peterborough, Newcastle & Berwick.

Extance guested for you once last season and Carr is doing NL this year. Edit: His guest appearance was away to Kent.

I think a lot depends on the individual team rather than using a general rule. Kent are named after the county yet are getting substantial crowds. Poole fans didn't seem to relate to Bournemouth yet Scunthorpe fans seemed very proud of a second named Scunthorpe team, which I'm not sure of but a Scunthorpe team named Saints didn't exist before their CL team. Similarly Coventry Storm apparently didn't make a loss yet Belle Vue Colts presumably did. Whether that was down to the name is debatable, but my point is a lot of fans need something to relate to and I dont think that can be generalised to say this works and this doesn't as every club is different. Hopefully people come out and support the Devon Demons! Edit: Regarding the projected team I would have liked to have seen some new names. Shanes is but I would have prefered someone like Tyler Govier to get a chance alongside him rather than Richard Andrews again. The same applies to Smart & Bates, I have nothing against them but they're not realistically going to break into Plymouth's PL team and isn't that what it's about? It's good to hopefully see Webster return though and I'm surprised Tom Brown isn't in instead of one of the aforementioned two. However best of luck to the promotion and everyone involved and I hope we see you for more than just 1 year!

Speedway Star suggested it's Tim Webster, yes.