Big Al

From a Lions perspective, choice of guest is a vital one to get right. Is Steve Worrall already booked, or could it be Jake Allen who on the evidence of yesterday could be more likely to win races.

Maybe someone who is into stats can produce the combined CMA by Leicester's Worrall guests so far this season. I wouldn't even like to make a guess whether the figure would be above or below 8.25. But I'd also wonder if Worrall's CMA would have stayed at or around 8.25. - more likely it would have gone down from that as the season went on?

Yes, I'd put my shirt on it

We dodged a big bullet there, and with unpredictability of weather and track conditions its a one-off match coming up on the 12th with Redcar up by 8 points at the start, and anything can happen in these far from normal circumstances to cause a decisive shift to one side or the other. Not over by any means!!

Ideally it would have made sense to bring it forward to an even earlier time, but with today's rain (another downpour about an hour ago, but blue skies now) I guess it's going to need every minute available to get the track ready, and staff & stewards can't all make a big change to their day very easily to accommodate more than an hour alteration. So it's going to be a case of keep fingers crossed and just hope there are no delays, unpredicted downpours, and that Josh Bates doesn't make a surprise comeback.

The BBC forecast for today is light showers, but what we've just had is a heavy downpour and from the looks of the skies there's more to come. Tomorrow's forecast is better than it was 24 hours ago, but if what's just happened is anything to go by, it can't be relied on to turn out that way. Main problem must be getting saturated tracks dried, even without any rain falling.

When the going gets tough, Iversen disappears

There's a forecast of rain coming in on Saturday evening from 6pm with it getting worse as the evening goes on. Bringing the start time forward to something like 5pm could give a better chance of completing the match, but that might not be possible to do at this stage, and there's no guarantee the weather will do as predicted!

Small item in today's SS, states that S. Worrall is booked for the second leg by Leicester.

Scotty showed over those two matches that he can raise his game when he needs to, and help to get better performances from team mates. A real captains performance and let's hope he can replicate it for the playoffs. Just one thing to sort out, though, Dougy and him have a tendency to both go for the same piece of track at the same time, they need to sort that out asap! The post-match presentation would have been much improved if the track lights had been switched on for it, even just those on the home straight. It was a bit difficult to pick them out of the fading daylight. And yes, that first bend problem also needs sorting.

Some comments made by (I think) Dale Allitt in the SS last week were worth reading a few times. I came to the conclusion from his words that at Wolverhampton, Cook was taken out of the match by Paramedics because he was experiencing some kind of mental meltdown, which Allitt found distressing to witness. If that was actually what happened, then shouldn't Craig Cook have been automatically barred from riding for a set time period, both for his own well being, and the safety of other riders?

Why did Birmingham not include Danyon Hume in the team at the start of the season? He has been an absolute class act for Leicester Cubs, both on and off track. Ellis Perks has achieved an average of almost 6 for Leicester Lions this season, yet Danyon is, I would say, just about the better rider for the Cubs.

Youre right Elmo, it must be Pickering. His scores since coming back from injury seem to have been a bit down compared to early season, but we seem to have the knack of getting our guests to perform well. on the night.

Oh well I hope he gets another shedload there

It's looking like Worrall will be riding for the Lions on many occasions over the next few weeks. The question is, which one?? My money is on Steve. If it's to be a guest at Eastbourne on Saturday, is Broc Nicol worth a punt??

I think Newcastle have changed their name to Newcastle Blades for this one, Sheffield now known as Sheffield Wednesday. Should draw a good attendance.

It's a pity they are doing this and being allowed to do it. In a development league how can rider replacement over such a prolonged period be in the best interests of the league? Leicester's going ahead and putting a team into the league has been beneficial and welcome, but it's disappointing they have continued with this arrangement for so long even if it is being done within the rules. It does tarnish an otherwise commendable venture.

He injured it by celebrating Scunthorpe's win at Glasgow a little too vigorously.

There already is something in place to stop it. It's the rules governing individual and team averages for making changes!

Could Sam Ermolenko be the man for the job?

If R.Worrall does resume, at least he won't have to do it as No.1 because Scott Nicholls has moved his average up to just above him from Sunday. BUT with Poole having just decided to replace him with THJ, Richie would not now get the benefit of riding several matches for them, before the Shield final, which would now be his comeback matches, and after those, straight to the playoffs. From a decision making point of view for the club, his consultant appointment date being Friday is not exactly very helpful. But as of now, with the deadline either passed or almost passed, no announcements about a replacement, either. It's a cliffhanger...…...

Or somebody who looks like him and walks with a limp

If Worrall is seeing his Consultant this week, he could be cleared to return for this. But even so, it could be worth getting his brother in for this one, nobody would notice the difference.

Programme notes by Dickson yesterday included a section about Ty Proctor. Interesting that he chose to "go public" and attribute high importance to Lions chances of success, to solving the puzzle that Proctor seems to be. His decisive first bend move to get in front of Schlein in heat 3 was world-class, and in hindsight it had a big influence on the match. But we also had a case of tailed-off Ty later-on albeit when the match was effectively over. He does seem to dance to a bit of a different tune, so the issue for Dicko could be one of how much slack does he cut Ty in that respect, and how much and often he kicks him up the backside to come more in-line. I wonder if getting him a Leicester race-suit sorted out asap might help a bit?

The new Jensen impressed by the way he rode at Leicester though. He was under pressure from Ryan Douglas, and bend 4 catches out riders because you run out of track very quickly, it's happened a fair bit especially with riders who are less familiar and it only needs a second of lapse in concentration. For what it's worth in that race I thought that Connor Mountain had got past the other Glasgow rider (can't recall who) to take second place and was surprised when the ref only gave him third. Maybe her attention had been distracted by Jensen's crash. When do the playoffs start? Is it October? If so, that gives Worrall and Proctor decent chance of getting fit by then. We "just" have the Shield final to focus on, in September hopefully.