IronScorpion

Up North, Birmingham have had 2 showers in the last few hours, 1 tropical as 1 poster put it & their meeting is now off. After going to the rain radar website, I noticed the rain headed eastwards but there looked to have a few showers passing over or around Oxford. I hope all is still well & good to go(decent track staff?)

Oxford have had a P & P day incorporating 2 rider races. I am pretty sure they will not have turned out for an hour of photos & a quick spin but with Crump & Nicholls involved, it would have turned into a 3 or 4 hour full on practice, set ups & racing lines session. Even the junior riders have come out & said racing lines will develop out wide & dive bombing into turn 1 could make overtaking opportunities.

So, by that theory then, the Monarchs will lose 75-15

Good luck to all involved tonight & hope it is an entertaining meeting for all the punters. Shame, as others have said, it is not being streamed, even by BSN, as being a sell out for a reopening after 15 years. It could be difficult for most teams riders as having no set up information in these early meetings(unless guest appearances) so Oxford should hold an advantage for these early meetings. Even though it is 15 years, would it be worthwhile to tap up Tai, Joe Haines or Byron Becker who last rode there in '07 for info? Just Joking. I have not found any information of track size, shape or whether it is similar to other tracks.

But it is not. Your heat leaders will score 40 points. A no1 scores 15, a no 3 scores 12 & a no5 scores 13 as he has ridden with the no1 in heats 13 & 15. If you go through all the heats as in my previous post then 10 heats will be 3-3, 2 heats(13 & 15) will be 5-1 & 3 heats(2,8 & 14 where no neat leader rides) will be 1-5. This would give a 43-47 score line to the team with 7 x 6 pointers. Your best riders score more than they average BUT your weaker riders score almost zero.

If teams are made up to 42 points & one team has 3 x 9pt riders then it also has 4 x 4pt riders. Another team has no "big hitters" but 7 x 6pt riders. It is then up to the team of 6pt riders to beat their opposing lower riders keeping the score tight. If a teams 4pt riders "step up" & the other teams 6pt riders struggle then you end up with the 60-30 score line but on paper, both teams were equal before the meeting.

You can not GUEST twice in a week at the same track but you can guest then ride for your own team within that period.

It gives you a chance of being Champions. NO medals handed out for being League Winners.

Dave Peet mentioned it in this weeks SS about getting some laps in as some of the lads were rusty. I think it is more to do with too many of our lads disliking technical tracks like Leicester, Edinburgh, Kent, Plymouth in which we should have organised a private practice at Leicester in March as their track is similar to ours in access at any time of the week.

If he was rotten, why use him as a guest or try to sign him? "IF", was one of the reasons why Rob Grant quit before changing his mind.

Really? So how come your management tried to tap him up just before the transfer deadline with the promise of better gear & a place in 2022?

The new assessed rules are in the bumper edition of the SS & Premiership is 3 home 3 away & Championship last 8 (qualifying) meetings.

The last 2 posts are for assessed averages. I am not too sure but in the past a rider with an old CL average will have a new average with latest meetings up to & including the 23rd day of the month & including his last CL meetings giving a 20 meeting rolling average. Although, as szkocjasid says, rules have changed this year so an old + new rolling average might not apply.

I wonder how many of our lads have been out to practice on other tracks. I know Ryan has been to Leicester & I would have thought, having 2 ex Leicester riders in our side, we could have benefitted from a private practice session. A mistake seen on videos & reading on updates is that home riders capitalize on away riders mistakes(not just at Leicester but Edinburgh also) is that riders attack the apex of bends 1 & 3, locking up chopping their speed or drifting wide out of bends 2 & 4. It seems, by watching home riders, is to open out the bends riding a few metres away from the inner kerb keeping better control & speed. It also seems that diving up the inside out of bend 2 & keeping it tight to the rear wheel in bends 3 & 4 going round the outside are prime overtaking areas.

It has now been changed in these last 24 hours!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2644668/day1 https://www.metcheck.com/WEATHER/now_and_next.asp?zipcode=leicester&locationID=57243&lat=52.6&lon=-1.1 I guess someone wants it off so he can watch footy on the tv.

I am pretty sure he turned up for the Craven meeting, T Kurtz meeting & the L Cup meeting!

Nikke Lunna got away with it!

Has anything changed from last season? Is it now covered? Is there now cushions?

That was the case as Redcar had to use a NL guest for E Riss who signed mid season with pre arranged meetings. A new rule was put in place for a guest up to 75% of the averaged rider he is replacing. This is the ruling Poole & Glasgow used last year.

At Josh Auty's Testimonial on Saturday, almost all of the riders were giving it a good go as if it was mid season, certainly no cobwebs. There was plenty of decent racing with plenty of overtakes with only ONE grading required. On Saturday, we had a GP style meeting with 23 heats plus junior & 250cc racing every 4 heats meaning 31 races in total in just about 2 1/2 hours.

In the SS there is a story on Plymouth that a Premiership rider turned them down to ride for another Championship club & as there are not many places left, it makes me surmise that this rider is Ellis so is just a matter of doting the "i's" & crossing the "t's" with probably a localised sponsor to help with his demands(wages) being the "British Champion".

According to the ISLB calendar(Speedways Main Leagues), the Danes have priority on a Wednesday so Vissing, if he does not ride for Birmingham on that day, Will not receive a 28 day ban for withholding his services & a guest will be allowed.

Wasn't Jye no1 at some stage last year so there is the benefits of "strength in depth" teams. (Workington 2018 & Peterborough 2021)

The Rising Star has got to be at no7 & can not be replaced by the other reserve in heat 8(protected).