Ben91

Wouldn't be many if any fixture clashes and we could use guests in that instance anyway.

You could bring in Owen and Dan Spiller for Hughes and Andrews, then you'd have a stronger side than you started the season with.

Agree, Hopwood's a good NL rider but that's it. Hopefully Branford's return will coincide with him replacing Karger in the PL team, then both of our big hitters in the Raiders side will also be Rockets, which ultimately should be the point. Priest has started really well but he's too long in the tooth to go any further than the NL now too IMO.

Not sure what makes it a poor showing when our promotion have said that we're looking to use the NL to develop our lower order riders and due to the top heavy nature of the side we have a lot of those.

I don't know the ins and outs but he was declared in the team, then sold to Ipswich who loaned him to Birmingham. Whether Brum waved the chequebook is conjecture really, only Hume and the Brummies will know that.

What makes him too good for a reserve spot out of interest? Because he's been better than a majority of the other draft reserves over the last couple of seasons? His Premier League average is still below seven, if that's a rider who on the whole is too good to be an Elite League reserve then I worry for the state of the sport. This year is huge for Newman, he'll move into the main body of the side potentially, then when he hasn't got two reserve heats each meeting we'll see how good he really is. He needs a big year at PL level too.

Letting go of Hume looks like a huge mistake right now.

The BSPA had put them on ice in the hope that they could be rescued and they were. He was and is still in the declared Plymouth 1-7 as far as the rules are concerned. Has it worked out well for Hopwood? He'll likely be out of a job again once Branford comes back to the UK, more like making the best of the situation.

Big win for the Brummies here.

That's the exact point though, he doesn't. He signed for a PL team, therefore he is ineligible to ride NL because his PL average is too high. If he had signed for a NL team initially and picked up a PL place during the season that is allowed, the rule has been changed to give riders who miss out on the PL in the first instance, like Ash Morris, a chance to get PL racing should it arise. Bear in mind that Eastbourne didn't need to make any changes at all, all they have done is replace Hopwood with Perks now. The season has started and Stefan is in a declared PL one-to-seven, Plymouth were put on ice and have been saved so at no point could he have signed for a NL club unless Plymouth had been unable to continue.

I'd have left it as it is personally, pick of the guests for the meetings Rob would miss, obvious choice would be Bowen at home, he's taken a booking for Eastbourne tonight too so he was available, I'm sure he'd have scored more at Birmingham than he will at Lynn too.

It's not the age so much, Woods has been around far longer than Ayres and yet Ayres is the guy riding PL now, you've either got it in you or you haven't in some cases I guess.

Wethers will outscore Clegg I'd imagine.

Ignore this, should read the recent posts before making my own!

Basically either reserve can move up but only the higher averaged one of the two moves up if both of them are in the top five of their side average wise. The race format should have been reverted to the same one used in the PL and NL, having two reserve races is going to inflate a lot of reserve riders' averages. That and the race format is horrible anyway.

Be interesting to see how Luke gets on, was never great on big tracks in the PL, can't have ridden Lynn for quite a while either.

Karger v Castagna will be worth the admission alone. Teams look relatively even, the winner of the King v Kennett battle will have a say as will Morley's form at reserve, his points could swing it for us.

Woods was re-signed because Hume went off to Ipswich and subsequently Birmingham. Was looking forward to the progress of him, Bowtell and Hunter this year, now two have gone elsewhere which is a shame. We started last year slowly, hopefully Bowdery and Locke can come on as the season progresses. Be very surprised if Priest maintains that kind of form too.

Looks a very competitive field, tried to identify the six weakest riders in that line-up and it's near enough impossible to do so. If I had to stick my head on the block I'd say Dugard, Ruddick, Kingston, Kinsley, Verge and one other will miss out.

In 2014 a lot of those riders shouldn't have been anywhere near the EL, now most of the ones that are still in the EL as reserves are at a standard where they can compete at least. Good to see that we are still enforcing two draft riders in each team but they are able to move into the main body of their EL side. The future needs to see this continue and a proper draft for both reserves put in place in the Premier League.

Boxall's had plenty of chances, it doesn't have to be him though. It's a sport, winning has to come first, that's a very average Somerset side by their recent standards, better sides will come and we won't be in it still come heat 15. Branford would have outscored Karger today, he's as good as if not better than BWD and on an average about 1.5 cheaper. If Karger doesn't hit his five average he has to come back on it next year, there's no benefit to us in keeping him to come back in 2017 on a low average because that won't happen anymore. Nothing against Karger personally but if he's not good enough a change has to be made sooner rather than later and another change has to be made further up the order for the good of the team's results. Adam Ellis is available to ride PL too and on a lower average than Karger as well.

Not much point running the semi then

We've relied on Kennett and Robson again. Kennett can't go through the card every week and Robbo put in the kind of score he is more likely to put in most weeks than the maximum he got against Plymouth, luckily the Robbo/Kennett partnership pulled it off in heat 15. Another poor return from Karger. Get Branford in and replace one of the second strings with a heatleader then we might stand a chance.

Only way to do it would be pay for both meetings on arrival and then open an 'exit' turnstile after the first match, people who only want to watch the PL match can leave and get the difference refunded.

So Hopwood will just be reinstated. Lesson to be learnt here is to not make announcements before deals are finalised if Nielsen being lined up before Plymouth's rescue is indeed the case.