Noelinho

I am not so confident. I’d just be happy with a win of any sort. I think we will struggle big time at reserve, and I fancy Nicholls to have the better of Worrall tonight.

It does at Ashfield

Remember, averages include the BSN Series this season, so rider averages will update quicker than we’ve been used to.

I’d rather have either of the other two. If we have Jack Smith, we’d be better off just putting Ace out three more times and going light in heat two.

Not quite the averages I have for them. For championship league meetings, I have (exc. bonus points): Tarasenko 10.22 (yeah, two meetings, but I'm a Glasgow fan!) Douglas 9.73 Masters 9.23 Basso 9.19 Harris 9.14 Cook 9.13 Kerr 8.94 Lawson 8.81 Nicholls 8.75 Wright 8.56 Scott was actually third in averages on his team. Glasgow had the best two two (and three) in the league, with Oxford not far behind. Oxford definitely have the best top two now though, I would agree. If I had to take any #5 in the league, it would be Scott. He's really come back strong the last couple of years.

Officially, yes, but included the abandoned home meeting against Berwick, where he scored 6 from 2 rides.

77% of home meetings, 83% of away meetings, 80% of all meetings.

He signed on an average of 5, and matched or beat that average in 80% of meetings. I don't know how many riders beat their average that regularly, but I'm going to guess it wasn't loads.

On the gearing front, it’s correct that gearing affects the speed vs acceleration, but it’s still all relative to the performance of the engine itself. Starke did much better last night (and nothing broke!), but he’ll be found wanting against some other opposition unless he finds more speed. But it was an improvement, which is a good start. Claus really showed us what we’re missing - unfortunately, his average will be too high next time Leon is unavailable. Borke has a lot of potential, but I will say, he has a lot of average races, and whilst he looks great at Ashfield (and did well on his visit to Berwick last year), he needs to show improvement at other tracks. It’ll be interesting to see his progression this year, but if he does, he’ll be a great asset for the Bandits. I do think his performances haven’t quite justified the hype just yet though.

We never have got a workable team in with both Basso and Bomber, and much though I do love Ben, Bomber came first, for me. Their combined average would have crippled the team building.

It wasn't one of the highest - it was *the* highest.

Odds are suspended on that one, I think.

I’m not sure, but the programme for tonight’s Glasgow match might give us a clue, as the track record was broken last week (as the track length has changed). I believe the Speedway Star listed it as a new track record this week…

Why would he bother to show up and leave points money for someone else?

You can use it for any match this season.

I think most speedway riders make the money they can, when they can. They're always someone else's accident from being out for the season, so why worry about it too much?

I assume the result must stand for the guest appearance to count.

Yes, that's what he's doing at the moment.

Yeah, and Claus was booked weeks ago. Also, Tom is at the Under 23s this weekend with Leon, so he wasn't an option anyway.

I prefer Claus over Leon full stop - definitely makes us stronger. Looking forward to this one.

I reckon Craig will be fine this season. He looked decent to me, probably just needs a few more meetings to really settle in. But I don’t think many people will be questioning his signing come the end of the season.

Ah yes, I remember that!

Might be best to avoid 19 May as that’s the final day of some league football in Scotland.

Let's hope he doesn't steal a march at the tapes.

Yes, they both do. Only Bomber frantically grabs every corner of his Kevlar just before lining up at the tapes after going for his spin though. The guy can’t keep still!