jbell1995

With Bowtell at 5.07, could be a good battle for that reserve spot IF Cluff is a 5.0 or higher rider

Would Mitchell be on a 5.00 average? Don't know anything about the lad but fingers crossed it works out. Welcome to the Gladiators

Crikey, there won't be a better 1-5 in the league that's for sure. Some job by the Glasgow promotion, if that team won't excite fans up and down the country in the Championship this season then none of them will. Fair play to the team up there, exciting times for Tigers fans

At the moment, I don't think it's a stretch to say the team is: 1. 2. Bowtell 3. 4. J. Thompson 5. 6. Fredriksen 7. Total: 15.3 We can probably add Barker to that who's around 5.8 I think? So that will leave 18.7 for Garry and Mark to get in a No's 1, 5 and 7. I think that's potentially a strong position to be in assuming the No.7 will be someone on an average up to 4.0 but no more perhaps?

Lasse Fredriksen is signing number 3 of the winter for the Gladiators. Happy with that, there's scope in his 4.6 average and he scored well (9+1) on his visit to Devon last season. Could be a strong first reserve providing we don't sign two riders below his average

Points limit will have a lot to do with team building for Garry and Mark you'd imagine? It simply can't get any lower surely? We've seen this season how tricky its been for a number of clubs to replace injured riders because of the points limit and commitments in other leagues etc

Is someone able to merge this topic with the one @lbw has created please? Saves having two threads

Would make sense to have squeezed it in before the deadline of that competition. That does ring a bell I must say

I can’t actually find any record of when this fixture was due to take place so I’m starting to doubt myself about if this is a rearranged fixture or not haha

I’m trying to find out when the original staging was meant to be but can’t seem to find it at the moment. It’s been a wet night in the city but it has now started to brighten up, a lot of time until tapes up

Yes I believe so

Another fair effort from the team last night. Does make you think with how the Thompson’s have improved all year and with Alfie and Jacob pitching in with points here and there and Barker now returning to a bit of form, if the team had a settled number one would it have been different. fingers crossed 2025 is less stressful for Garry and Mark

I'd be surprised if the Gladiators went R/R at No.1. Surely, given his exploits earlier in the season, Troy Batchelor is the first person Garry has spoken too about guesting tomorrow evening??

Might as well create a thread for the middle of the Gladiator's triple header this weekend. The Pirates are back in town tomorrow night looking to defend their 20 point aggregate lead.

A lot of people interested in this one obviously... Not sure of any team news as yet either..

Gladiators begin their busy bank holiday weekend with a trip north to Redcar on friday evening. Unsure as to what the situation is guest/rider replacement at No.1 but will be a tough ask for the Gladiators you'd imagine with a Bears side featuring Wright, King and Edwards.

It was another good meeting at the Colosseum on Saturday night. Track was in great shape and another decent crowd in. Great to see some Tigers fans down in Devon as well. Some good racing on track, Harris obliterating the track record was a treat in heat 1. Miracle both Jordan Jenkins and Joe Thompson walked away from that crash under their own steam. Best wishes to Joe and hopefully Jordan is okay as well. Fair play to Cami Brown and the Glasgow promotion for getting the fixture on with their guest choices. Both Jenkins and Jason Edwards gave everything they had for the Tigers cause. Wish them all the best for the rest of the season and look forward to their return to Devon in 2025

Whilst I accept Barker got a jump on Harris in Heat 11, people need to look at the video again and see the initial movement at the tapes comes from Jack Smith

That’s not great. Shame for Cami and the Tigers promotion. Could be tricky trying to put together a team. I guess this where it’s beneficial to build such a big lead after the first fixture

Morning all, Another fixture tomorrow at the Colosseum. Chris Harris and Glasgow in town. Always a bigger crowd when Harris is in action due to a number of Cornish supporters joining us. Should be a good meeting but interesting to see what teams are announced

Due to the outage this thread hasn’t been overly active but just a little thought from Wednesday. What a great night. Some brilliant racing and some great individual performances, most notably Scott Nicholls and Dan Thompson. As one of the 20 or so travelling party at Sandy Lane on Wednesday just a huge thank you to Oxford for their kind welcome and messages of thanks via the PA system throughout the night. We had great fun and always look forward to our trips there. Sure we made a lot of noise but it’s all in good faith and we tried our best to really get behind Garry and the team and hopefully you all enjoyed the joviality of it all. We’re made to feel welcome at so many tracks and it’s always the case at Oxford. Best of luck in the playoffs. I fancy us to maybe nick this aggregate point however with only a 12pt deficit to overturn but that should be a great meeting to end the campaign for Plymouth (unless something drastic happens in the coming weeks!)

Some people might scoff at Jason as the guest but I’m a big fan of his. Always gives you 100% and he’s a good guy too. Look forward to getting behind him and the team tomorrow

The Gladiators head to Oxford on Wednesday night for the first of three vital away fixtures before the end of the season. Team News will be interesting as Garry looks to try and secure a strong guest booking in place of Covatti. Good number of Plymouth fans making the trip for this one with a bus coming from the track. We will make sure we get right behind Garry and the team

Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed last night's meeting. Great crowd, beautiful weather and some excellent racing by two committed teams. Plenty of close, good and occasionally hard racing but a good, jovial atmosphere in the pits between both sides. Track was in good shape if not very dusty at the end but it has been a very warm week. A great advert for Championship speedway in my opinion. Ben taking the law into his own hands was a first for me and I'm sure it'll be the last time we see that from him but he contributed to a great meeting with his 3 completed rides. He took some stick on here for Friday, personally thought that was the most comfortable he's looked on a bike all season last night

I’m not sure what your expectations were of the side Garry May could’ve put together? As someone has eloquently explained on the Gladiators Facebook page when someone questioned the choice to go RR at No.1 - Out of the 14 riders available to Garry and Mark, 6 are reserves, 5 are second strong with only Kemp, Cook and Heeps as second string. Realistically the only two who could score as well as rider replacement is probably Zack Cook and Drew Kemp. However stepping up from being in the middle order for their teams to being the team’s leader at No.1, against a side who’ve been excellent all season is a really tough ask. Simply put there’s a lack of riders. There’s also a financial decision to bring into the mix. Plymouth’s chances of the playoffs are about as small as they come. They’d need to win AT LEAST 5 of their last 8 and claim a bonus point win or two in there as well, why waste money on guests when you can give your other riders track time as we try and shape the team for 2025?