mdmc82

Was asked yesterday

Harris seems to think Coventry haven't signed anybody yet and they haven't been in contact with him.

He would weaken us in the top 5. Would have just about coped with him I'd at reserve but not in our top 5, esp when going to need a strong top 5 to compensate for reserve

Exactly. If Sarjeant was moved up to the tier 1 then why were none of the other tier 2 riders?Sarjeant was terrible at the end of the season. He's also a reserve in the PL whilst a lot of the other tier 1 or 2 riders ride in the main body of the PL teams including Newman, Auty & Howarth who have been PL number ones!

Why when he had a shocker of a season last year? He's average is lower than a lot of the other teams 2nd reserves!

Because the reserves play a huge part in a team. We have two tier 2 riders. Sarjeant does have potential but as a 2nd rider like Bates, Ellis or Starke. Definetely not with the pressure of being the main reserve against the likes of Newman, Auty, Howarth or Worrall. He had a really bad second half of the season where he struggled at times to beat most 2nd tier riders and spent a lot of time off 15m. Think of the reserves announced so far we definetely have the weakest as we have no real first reserve. Should have picked Bates or Sarjeant, not both. Also there is the question of how many meetings Bates will miss due to PL and will we again struggle finding replacements. Pairings so Far: Auty & Starke (Leicester) Newman & Ellis (Poole) Blackbird & Mears (Lakeside) Howarth & Clegg (Wolves) Worrall (Belle Vue) Wright (Swindon) I would imagine Rose & Kerr will be at Kings Lynn I think with the exception of maybe Lakeside, we will really struggle against the others

And yet Coventry don't even have a tier 1 rider really

I thought he was a 3pt average. What's Sarjeant and Bates averages then?

So Poole have Newman (one of the best last year) and Ellis whilst we have Sarjeant and Bates who were near Ellis on the draft. Can see us having a lot of 5-1s against us. Expecting a huge top 5 to make up for such a lower end

Tuesday November 03, 2015 FORMER British Under-21 Champion Josh Bates will join James Sarjeant at reserve for Coventry in the 2016 Elite League season. Bates (pictured), who won his major national title last year and followed up with British Under-19 triumph back in September, has joined the Buildbase Bees following the completion of the sports AGM in Rugby on Tuesday. He has previous Elite League experience with Leicester and Wolverhampton, and is already confirmed at Sheffield in the Premier League next year. Sarjeant, meanwhile, will go into his third season with the senior team at Brandon having formed an effective reserve combination with Jason Garrity over the last two campaigns. Garrity was not involved in the reserve selection process this time around, and the other key difference to previous years is that Elite League reserves are now included in teams on a starting average, which means all seven riders in the team are subject to the points limit of 40.50. Promoter Mick Horton said: We had protection on Sarj and we always wanted to bring him back, and we look forward to him continuing his progress of recent years. For our other reserve Josh was very much on our hit-list so were delighted to secure him. Ive always been a fan of Josh, hes a young kid with great backing and he can ride well at Brandon as hes shown on several occasions. Hes one of the up-and-coming youngsters in the sport. The boy can certainly win races, and he has good sponsors and good equipment which is half the battle. Hes young and hungry, and I like that in a rider. Jason wasnt in the draft, and he will now move into the top five - Ive still got to do a deal with him for next season, but he wants to come back and thats great news.

The thing with riders now being able to move in to the top 5 after 4 meetings is you want riders like Howarth and Newman who are capable of holding a top 5 place and which would also mean a member of your original top 5 could keep you strong even if they switched places. With Sarjeant and Bates, I don't think either of them are ready to be in the top 5 or will push enough to be which will mean we will always lose points at reserve.

Chris Harris has said a couple of days ago on Twitter that Horton has still not been in touch, which may mean either we have not got a team in place or if we have then Mick hadn't included Harris which would be madness

Let's hope we still have Garrity although will miss him at reserve. Big risk having one reserve who is always going through the tapes and another who comes off a lot esp when other teams have riders at reserve who can be match winners on their day

Looking much weaker when you look at other reserve pairings. Won't Sheffield also get priority over Bates so will mean him missing meetings? Not sure how Sarjeant will cope with the pressure of being our main reserve when he struggled at times with Garrity there Wolves

How have we ended up with two riders who were both tier 2 riders last year when other teams have the likes of Newman and Howarth! Shocking choice

Wolves have Kyle Howarth and Max Clegg at reserve. Going to be interesting to see the rest of the reserves as they are announced if Howarthbis on the list

@sportbbcwm: SPEEDWAY: @WolvesSpeedway have signed Kyle Howarth and Max Clegg as their reserves for the 2016 Elite League season. How is Howarth a reserve?

Heard it on tapes up

It's great to hear that Coventry Storm will be returning next year. After the progression and excitement this year, I am hoping Martin Knuckey is the first name on our team sheet. Daniel Spiller might also be a good option as well and his mum has stated he likes the Coventry track.

Havelock talking about working on the team at the moment so sounds like he's back again

Possibly Coventry as his mum says Kent & Coventry are the two tracks he likes

Your right, it shouldn't. However that doesn't mean it won't

No what it means is because PL averages are used, Newman will be at the bottom of the tier 1 draft!! Therefore because Poole will have a low ranked tier 1 riders, they will get one of the first picks of the tier 2 riders.

What else was he going to say when he hadn't been announced anywhere yet. Only a couple of days earlier, he said live on tapes up that he wanted to be with Coventry again and was also looking forward to his testimonial. I guess we should know soon though

As a Coventry fan I wouldn't mind having Spiller next year. I'm hoping Martin Knuckey is our first signing though