Ben91

Entertaining meeting and a fair result too. Bowtell and Hume both look as if they are going to develop into good riders. Bowtell had a couple of falls at the back in his last two heats when he seemed to be trying to get the job done in the first lap. Something which will be ironed out with the more competitive track time he gets I'm sure. Look forward to seeing these two progress through the year. Chessell could be a heatleader in this league if he stayed on his bike a bit more. Shanes didn't impress as much as I thought he would. Didn't look comfortable on the track and took a nasty spill, hope he's back on track very soon. Ayres looks good, seems very passionate from his post race reactions, think he can progress to the PL in future if he carries on in the same vein. Couzins also looks like he'll become a tidy rider in future.

Think this will be close. Branford should just about have the beating of Morley IMO. The 2-5 spots look pretty even and the Raiders reserves seem to have made a better account of themselves than their Kings counterparts so far this season. Looking forward to seeing Ayres (hopefully) and Shanes around Rye.

Need to be beating teams like Redcar while they are struggling. Kasper should be beating his reserve opponents in every encounter while Greenwood is on par with Morley and Konopka so should have a good chance of picking up some points on his debut. Not sure how Palm-Toft goes round Redcar, hope he is guesting for Boxall and R/R is in place for Robin. If it's the other way round we may have shot ourselves in the foot.

Wish Greenwood all the best but this is going to leave us very long in the tail. Frees up points higher up the order, will we be ruthless enough to make another change? Probably not.

Booking Edberg showed more intent than we usually see from Rye when booking guest reserves. We're early in the season, far too early to be putting NL riders in to gain experience. I don't buy Mellgren still coming back from injury, he had half a season racing last year and a whole winter to prepare. His form hasn't been that bad at all though. He always has a duff ride here and there, that's why his average isn't higher.

Don't see why not. Stumbling block over Shanes would be that he is a Plymouth asset I believe. Wilson-Dean doubling up would be no different than Perks at Scunthorpe and Cradley although he did start the season an an assessed 5 point NL average. If someone did move for him and it was blocked it could have big consequences in the NL.

In terms of entertainment the NL can be one of the best however I think the Premier League is the best product. In the EL and NL it is rarer to see reserves challenging and beating heatleaders because of the differing levels of quality between them. The PL offers a lot more close races. The ideal scenario IMO is to have a PL team and a NL side to help develop your own riders.

When all else fails sarcasm always beats logic.

An extension of the argument you instigated. And as I stated and you have agreed here, no fans = no sport, no sponsors = a lower level of competition but not to the extent of the sport dying out. Sponsorship is a method of advertisement in most cases, these sponsors are not doing riders a favour, unless they want no acknowledgment of their financial help, they are advertising their businesses.

That's irrelevant, the sport of speedway wouldn't completely die without sponsors, it may end up a shadow of what it is today but there would still be fans and riders willing to fund themselves. If all the fans gave up on speedway then it would die a death. Supporters are more important than sponsors.

To say sponsors are the lifeblood is false though. Fans are. Without fans there'd be no sport at all. Sponsorship is basically advertising, if nobody is seeing that advertising then it is just an unnecessary overhead for the company.

Priest's injuries sound pretty bad. Hope we've been on the phone to Brendan Johnson as it looks like Priest may be out a while.

Have to disagree on this one Derek, purely because pairs meetings should be about the best, or most consistent pair being victorious in my opinion. It puts an emphasis on team riding too and that's never a bad thing I say!

Not the best line up, the fact that a 3-2-1-0 scoring system has been used is laughable too. Morley and Sheppard were the best pair because Morley went unbeaten and Sheppard only finished ahead of an opponent twice. That's not how pairs meetings should work.

Bridger has been eligible to double up between EL and PL in the past and not done it, that wouldn't have changed this season.

It's spelt Craig Cook.

If he can learn to trap he'll go a long, long way in this sport IMO.

I'm voting for the Green helmet cover Party.

Wonder how many bites this comment will get? Fear for Plymouth this season, got absolutely ruined tonight.

Chapman and Shanes will be in the mix to win too.

Not expecting anything so won't be disappointed if we get hammered. Will need the top 5 to all be on song if we're to put up a fight.

Should be using Edberg as a guest for Bowen on the Friday and someone like Graversen for Kasper. Pretty sure the NL guest rule has been scrapped this season for your lowest averaged reserve.

New promoters need an "experienced hand" to guide them for their first few seasons in the sport I believe, so until Scott has been owner for that period of time at lease I assume Len will still be on the scene.

I could be wrong but I thought the doubling up age only came into play after a rider had spent a year doubling up. I think it may be too soon for Ayres, if there is a debut pl season exception to the doubling up rule I'm sure it'd be better for him to be geared up for a year's PL racing in advance. Phillips wasn't any better than Hughes/Chessell round Rye on Saturday so I personally wouldn't consider him. Plus he's a Peterborough asset and I don't think we need to be cultivating another team's asset when we have our own that could use the development time.

An on form Bowen will be hard to replace with the points available to us. Think Ayres is the next Silver asset in line for the Rockets but he needs a full year in the NL behind him first IMO. Have a suspicion we'll go after Wilson-Dean, if he's good enough then he's ready. That being said he's only had two meetings over here so far, I remember a lot of Rockets fans were calling for Andrew Aldridge to be given a Rockets team spot after his first couple of Raiders meetings, his work permit prevented it luckily in the end because he turned out to be nothing more than a NL second string. Owen and Shanes are probably the two standout NL riders without PL spots otherwise, either of those or Ayres would do me but it'd have to be on the fans understanding that they probably won't do much this season. Halsey had a chance as a Rocket 7/8 odd years ago, wasn't good enough and hasn't really improved since, a no to him for me. Hughes needs to prove himself in the NL again while I think PL is too soon for Chessell. All the best to Luke for the future whatever he decides, he has been a fantastic servant to our club and has always bounced back in spite of some horrific injuries over the years. Perhaps he will carry on as a Raider in future where his experience could be so very valuable in helping develop our own riders.