Ben91

Wikipedia is wrong then.

Assume we've been granted it because Branford was a Raider last season, therefore has made his debut for us. Kent should be winning this one regardless.

Morris hasn't got a PL team this year so he has been able to do NL, he's in the Cradley team on double his 2015 PL average of 4.53.

No reason Boxall can't ride NL, he's not got a PL spot. What would Hurry's average be out of interest? Been so long since he last rode and that was in the EL I assume he'd be given an assessed average for NL racing.

Will be very odd seeing Luke Bowen as an away rider at Rye House. He should go through the card. Slightly odd that Kent have gone for Mark Baseby over Luke Chessell who rode for the Raiders last year and was in good form for Cradley in the week. Until Ayres gets a new average it will be slim pickings for the Kings should they need guests who will adequately match his scoring though. Shanes will need to be better than his previous showings at Rye, however the track changes could play into his hands and he should have the beating of any of the Raiders' bottom four. Can only see an away win if the Kent riders carry on from where they left off against Eastbourne.

The fact that it's open to these interpretations says that it isn't clear enough. "Tactical rides are NOT allowed in the League Cup." Is concise and clear, no loopholes, point made.

Surely the best solution would be for the rules to be written clearly in the first place if we're going down that route?

Upcoming talent Hopwood who made his third tier debut in about 2006...

Compton will struggle to keep that average imo.

Boxall, not Boxhall, will save you plenty of ink in your programme across the season

Has to be Boxall. The changes leave the Eagles stronger than they were going into their first meeting tbh.

Nah, kick him out for an Aussie journeyman when he gets his British passport.

Hope the lad does well and keeps his spot. Thrown in at the deep end but sounds like he has a lot of potential.

Doesn't matter who guests in a challenge match, not allowed in a competitive meeting though.

Maybe he's caught nits.

Can't remember the last time anyone signed an assessed Dane on a five average either, some of the seven point assessed Danes don't even hit a five in their first season.

Arnieg posted this on the Redcar thread when they signed Bukhave, thought it was quite interesting with regard to Karger.

The Bowen, Ayres and Shanes heatleader trio could be formiddible for the Kings. Clifton scored his average across the day and should only get better. Mason will be fine at Central Park once he gets into the swing of things too I'm sure. Very impressive points totals from the reserves too. The Kings have struggled with a long tail every season they've raced so far, that doesn't look to be the case this year on yesterday's showings and they've also retained a potent top end.

Three points away from home for Morley as our number seven is a good return I think, not knocking him by any means. It'll be a long season if we're accepting two points a night from Karger on tracks he's not been to before because that's pretty much every track he'll go to. I'd also put the OTA down as one of the easier ones for newcomers to British speedway to get to grips with.

Looks like Verge has kicked on, honestly never thought he would. If he can keep that up and Thomas can carry on in the same vein as yesterday then the Kings are going to take some stopping.

All the best to the injured Eagles, be a shame if Hughes is out for any period of time, was kicking on again last season at Rye, was expecting big things from him this year.

A positive result for the Rockets when you judge it just on the scoreline. Dig deeper and it's a different story IMO. Robbo's early season form has been very good, can we expect him to be banging in double figures every meeting home and away though? If he can that should be a bonus, not a necessity for us to keep meetings competitive. Second string scoring wasn't great, five from Lanham is about right probably but Kasper and Heeps should be doing better. We all know that Ben Morley has struggled on some away tracks in the past, but he won heat two and did his job last night. Where the match really could have been won, or at least some points, for us was the other reserve berth. I don't want to sound like I'm knocking Karger, I have no problem with him but as with Maassen we've made a lazy signing and it has already cost us match points. A decent, established rider in that spot could have had one of Kasper, Heeps and Morley's rides and scored a few points that would have seen us walk away with something from the match.

Hope there's a back up plan should something happen to Wajtknecht or Morley in the first meeting. The heat leaders could both go through the card, even if they do, can the rest of the team score the other 18 points between them to pick up the win? Priest should be scoring eight at least from five rides, is there ten points in the other three? I doubt it honestly. Think Mildenhall can let Morley and Wajtknecht run riot and still walk away with the win. Priest's the key man, he'll have to be in double figures too if the Raiders are to stand a chance.

Hopefully Karger's debut was just a one off, because if we've signed a duff then there's going to be a whole lot of pressure on Ben to carry his shortfall points wise, as well as anyone in the 1-5 who's having an off night.

Good to see that Davey isn't going to be the last rider for Edinburgh, would go completely against what the rule regarding number seven riders has been implemented to achieve.