Islander15

That was a truly outstanding meeting put on by Scunthorpe and the 16 riders. It was thoroughly entertaining throughout and a fantastic race track!!

I thought Ellis had a continental meeting at the weekend, but I may be wrong. And yes Phil, Jason Pipe is Buxton's manager.

So clubs can come to gentleman's agreements regardless of the rules. Hmmm... So the NL takes priority from now on. It also conveniently means that Bewley will stay at reserve longer.

What's the explanation for sometimes PL taking preference but sometimes NL?

The thing with the KL team is their strength is at second string and reserve, but they came up against a team with the best second strings and reserves in the league! The PL has really helped Bailey to kick on this year and Kinsley is very good around Lynn. I wouldnt criticise Stokes either. But I agree with the comment on Greaves, and I wonder whether being removed from the pressure of the PL would be a help for him. Campos is there because he's a good leader for team on a personal lever and it's not like the team is full of oldies tbf! Cupitt, is a strange one. He clearly has talent and got some expert advice over the winter and I keep thinking he'll kick on but I'm still waiting. Nevertheless time is on his side.

That makes sense. Cottham hasn't ridden yet so isn't allowed to be covered by a guest (JPB). Of course though, that rule has been debated already!

Lucifer Sam, when will Friday's riding order be released?

Yeah as jubilee says its because Wilson is on a 6 average, having not completed a home meeting yet!

By working tirelessly in the MDL and giving some of those riders an opportunity to step up to the NL.

Definitely strengthens Stoke and good to see Hopwood with a permanent club but sad to see Widders go.

The strange way the BSPA runs the sport anything can happen! Our current highest averaged rider, even above Tai, isn't even in the semi-finals! That's Ellis btw.

it's more than just one bad result! Last season showed that home defeats mean Scunny fans don't turn up so changes are vital to avoid that at the start of the league programme imo.

The original post mentioned riders who starting winning races from the minute they entered the NL. Perks did with Scunthorpe Stags, he got 20 in like his third or fourth meeting.

Haha Josh Bailey 2.0! Like Ben says, Rob Lambert. Or Adam Ellis, Perks or Wajtknecht.

Now that would't be 'in the best interests of British Speedway'

The rule book has no mention of what year a rider previously rode in or whether he's continually in the declaration or not. Campton's rolling average could be easily be calculated by using his 2014 figures.

Well technically it won't need changing for Karger and the like. Next season he'll come in on a 5.00 average but won't be a 'new' rider so his average will drop to 3.00 and the team can strengthen up! Also Campton is on an assessed 5.00 at Workington, yet he isn't 'new' to the PL.

He's been scoring consistently well this season.

Hoping for a good performance from the Warriors, but it'll be tough around Arlington. Good to see Ellis is fit and I expect a max from him and Knight (if he's sorted out yesterdays machinery issues). Kelsey has been a bright spark to the season so far so hopefully he carries on and we have to look at packing 3-3s ahead of the 'weak' bottom 3. Jason Pipe never got to prove or disprove his point haha. All in all I think Eagles' top end power will see them to a 10-12 point win.

Yes Young Stars by 10. Knight replaces Halsey so that makes MFT much stronger.

What was Compton like? Surely he he's ever going to ride like a number 1 then it'd be round Central Park.

Due to the nature of the league, using rolling averages can be manipulated too because riders improve much faster when they're new to the sport. Take Mildenhall as an example with Bowtell, Isle of Wight with Dugard or Birmingham with Hume. Both improved massively at the end of last season and has nearly scored a maximum already this season. Yet his rolling average would still include his relatively poor scores at the start and middle of last season. So he would likely drop to reserve, as his average isn't going up as much as it should do as the assessed 3.00 reserve gets a new average.

Even if a rider ended the season impressively, his average uses his scores all season long (not just the last 4 meetings). So it would even itself out and a strong finish might make himself look more attractive by teams thinking he could maintain that form.

7 days after the last meeting, which was 25/4. So effective from tomorrow, I believe.

The number of meetings used to be more and there used to be a home/away ratio. But you just got clubs fixing the fixture list so that their brilliant 3.00 reserve didn't get a new average and he kept taking 7 rides well into June/July. So they reduced the number of meetings.