Ben91

Age restriction, no. Experience restriction maybe though. It is unfair to penalise people for coming into the sport late, with an age restriction of say 21 you could be freezing out a newcomer that can go on to be a good rider and giving a reserve spot to a lad who has been riding for 5 seasons without ever moving out of an NL reserve berth.

This is the team to watch in the NL this year without a doubt. Three heat leaders, one of whom is the brightest prospect in British Speedway at the moment, then the bottom four all have big potential. If the riders can stay injury free this side will walk the league, Spillers or no Spillers at Eastbourne it's simply a cut above.

A couple of individual meeting victories between them then.

For about half a season, horrible injury and never got back to that level, as we found out when he was here.

Blackbird, Poole and Hawkins hardly pulled up any trees.

It didn't have to be an assessed rider at all, plenty of riders out there that would have had experience of the PL tracks and still given us a strong reserve. If Karger struggles then that's a lot of pressure on Morley and Eddie will be carrying a very poor team, yet again.

Meh. Oh well, a point under the limit, that's more like it for a Rye team.

Probably just a typo.

Greg Hancock, World Champion in his forties. It happens.

JPB's scores in his NL meetings last year were better than Smith's generally. They'll both do well, would have JPB down as the one who will do better out of the two though.

Half a half-assed job each? What could go wrong?

Still has?

Ridiculous, he's not British and he's been around for longer than electricity.

If it was that bad he should have just pulled out...

Mear? God no. I'd rather have Kurt Shields back.

Nothing like a good excuse for a poor meeting.

Roy's nan is a lovely woman.

Why is it a bridge too far for him and not for BWD then? The counter side of your argument is that Zach will be racing a whole lot more regularly than BWD, the confidence he will gain from scoring well in the NL will show in his PL performances, plus the fact that he will be getting lots more track time. As for being disappointed, I don't really care who does better to be honest, I won't lose any sleep if the kid doesn't score a point all season. It's just my opinion. The only pressure that goes with being a number one is mental I think, less likely to bother a youngster who has the talent and gets his head down and races. He's had plenty of big races in 2015, it shouldn't phase him too much IMO. There may not be any improvement in his NL figure but it's a pretty high one to begin with, shows the quality he possesses.

Zach's also a fair bit younger, their averages were almost the same in the NL last year. He may not be a Woffinden or a Lambert but he'll be a good rider in future. If he ends the season at Somerset as their highest averaged rider I'd be incredibly shocked, unless they have a terrible season. But he'll probably end up on a figure similar to whatever BWD puts in, if not better.

Zach will end up a much better rider than BWD. Need to take those rose tinted specs off.

Hence why the improvement comes from lower down the order, riders on averages that are below their ability. While I can't see JPB or Smith replicating Zach's 2015 efforts they should both average 4.5-5 across the year. Add Bacon's likely improvement of a point or two and that's a very good bottom end for the Brummies.

Be plenty of amendments to the individual meeting line up too I bet.

It's not as if they've had all winter to find a way to make it work is it...? Oh wait. It is something different granted but to say the fans have been listened to is a little patronising when the fans who wanted changes to the format were calling for regional qualifiers. If the fans are the justification for the changes being made then give them what they want.

Be awkward if you have a rain off or two and Holub doesn't get a new average before Klindt leaves.

The governing body needs to be independent from the people running the teams, it's quite simple. Otherwise there are vested interests, promotors need telling "These are the rules, play by them." Not to be suggesting rule changes that will benefit themselves each winter and then hoping they get voted in.