Ben91

Thought we'd lose but this takes the biscuit. I can understand Lykke still finding his feet and Simon coming back from injury to a certain extent but Nelson is much better than 0 points. 3 points for Elite League rider Robert Mear... that was a woeful performance. We've missed Jason Garrity's balls to the wall performances and the sooner he is back the better. The frustration on my part is that on paper we have a side capable of living with the likes of Somerset home and away.

The fence we have at Rye is the safest I've seen anywhere in the world, there are always going to be crashes in Speedway but our fence cushions the blow riders take then offers a run off area rather than chucking them back onto the track into the path of oncoming riders. Most tracks will benefit from an air/foam fence, there are a few however that won't.

That makes two of us

Was Tommy in 05, as he'd ridden for us the previous season a facility was granted which is acceptable IMO.

No Bech has settled it then, no Rye for me on Saturday!

We won the league (through the play-offs...) with two three point reserves in 2007. Granted they were Woffinden & Roynon though!

Not seen much mentioned here about Jack Kingston. The lad tries his heart out there can be no doubt about it, he comes off a lot perhaps but it's not because he's struggling by any means that can be seen when watching him race. He's not afraid to try the outside line and once he gets more track time behind him I reckon he's going to flourish into a real decent rider. On track signs are promising for the Kings, I was sat next to a gentleman who has just started attending the sport yesterday and he was impressed and even said to me he wasn't expecting the Kings to start winning straight away but I reckon that win won't be far off!

Mear is a good stop gap for Garrity, whether he stays any longer is anyone's guess. Rob was a very decent prospect when he came through at Rye originally and regular PL racing again at Rye may get him back on the right track. If it does he can be a force in this league, he was generally a rider we could count on home and away, something which fits with this years side. When Jason Garrity comes back lets hope we have a real headache with 8 riders doing a fantastic job.

Yeah, temp replacement would have to be under Jason's figure and could only be used for 28 days so we may as well bring someone in on a higher average. If that replacement is riding well then it's not a bad situation to be in come Garrity's return to fitness.

The team are riding incredibly well this season considering we've been operating with R/R and a NL guest up until now. If as expected Jason Bunyan returns for our next fixture R/R will be used for Garrity I'd expect although with only Bunyan, Lambert and Nielsen able to take rides I'd want to sign a temporary replacement as the former two have only just returned from lay offs. We've got 7.71 to use, answers on a postcard!

There is always going to be team strength controls and there has been rider control for a long time, even before the averages came into play. A few seasons back when the grading system was used in the NL David was a Grade 11 and if that system was still in place he still would be and wouldn't have got a look in as Steve Boxall would have been too. The National League is always going to be unique because are standalone sides and second sides, when he was at Rye House David was a great rider to help bring the youngsters through with his experience. The Kent side is a standalone one however regardless of Len Silver and John Sampford's involvement and they have to build a winning side which would rely on David scoring his average on track too.

How have they "bottled it" may I ask? Surely if they hadn't got the backbone to lose a rider who won't score to his average then that is "bottling it." I'd say a rider being dropped and replaced by another is one of the more straight forward things in the Speedway World to understand. Kent Speedway need to build a reputation for winning at home at least and the promotion have taken steps to achieve this. As I said before you can't hold on to someone because they are a nice guy. I'm a nice guy but I'm sure no-one would pay to watch me ride a Speedway bike. I hope David gets fixed up, I honestly do as I grew up watching him dominate the Conference League at Rye House. He is a victim of his average perhaps but that's the way the sport has been for a very long time.

There are three main issues being played here as far as I can see, there is a certain blurring between the lines of each in some areas perhaps but nevertheless you have; 1) Personal 2)Speedway 3)Business. The latter two reasons are more prevalent when trying to be successful than the former. David Mason is a nice bloke and has clearly put a lot into being prepared for the season, I feel for him and I'm sure that the fans do too but you can't expect people to turn up each week just to see a nice bloke unfortunately. The paying public want to see a winning team and if they don't they'll soon lose interest which cannot happen from a business point of view. The three pointers at the bottom end are a necessity when accommodating a rider like Steve Boxall. In Boxall the Kings have the National League's best rider, something to be proud of and every time Steve has been on track at Central Park, the atmosphere has been tangible. He comes with a high average but it is good for business as he brings the punters in. Morley is doing his thing and once he settles in at Central Park he will be a very good foil for Boxall, the fans have taken to him already too, why? He has been winning races. Any three pointers in this league are going to be raw, there may be better out there than the Kings trio but there also may be worse options. Kingston and Kirby look very tentative but both have scope to improve and they have shown that on track, that improvement will come with rides, that is something you can afford three point riders though. Woods does seem to be struggling but it's early doors. Coles is a talent, having watched him at Rye last season I can confidently say the lad is a racer. He seems to have added gating to his arsenal over the winter but his machinery is holding him back. Connor Coles on a competitive bike is one of the National League's finest young prospects. That left Mason, he is the rider likely to drop the most points from his average on the track and was always going to be vulnerable if the axe was to fall on any King during the season. It has struck early admittedly but from a Speedway and Business point of view the Kings have done what they had to. On a personal note it is a shame. I'm not taking sides as I can see both, these things need to be looked at from a measured perspective.

The Kings problem isn't the long tail, there are plenty of NL sides with long tails, it's not a negative thing, three pointers riding in the NL means that young Brits are coming through. It is important however that the Kings top three score points to enable the 3 pointers to settle in. It's a shame David has gone as his experience and guidance would prove invaluable but there is no way he would have achieved his starting average, especially with his home track not being Rye House. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the extra point the Kings have gained as David has moved on, it's a new venture though so they have to start winning meetings before too long.

Of course it is. There are two sides to every story at least. There appears to be more to this one but we have heard only one side, no-one except those involved can know what happened exactly and where the blame lies. Who knows, maybe it was just crossed wires.

All we know of the situation is here: http://speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.20252 Blame can be given to all parties in some part, but it would be ridiculous to put the blame completely on those in charge at Rye House with so many unanswered questions. The promotion were told Nelson couldn't travel to the Ukraine, were they told that this meant he could ride in the Cup meeting at Rye? Only they know the answer to that. Teams are supposed to be declared for meetings days in advance. We should surely have declared a guest for Nelson already as he was supposed to be in the Ukraine on Saturday and where was said guest on Saturday in case something like this happened? As for the Ukraine situation, this is an international meeting, Rye House should not be responsible for Nelson getting to the meeting or into the country. That is down to the rider himself and the Australian Speedway governing bodies. What is their take on this? We are also quick to say we had to put up with 3 races with 3 riders only, the Ukrainian fans had to endure three rider races due to the incident too I'm sure. Why was the ban only made known to the rider and promotion twenty minutes before tapes up at Rye House? Why was there no replacement rider in the Ukraine, had they been told Nelson wasn't going to be in the meeting? There's plenty more question marks but it's impossible for anyone to give an informed opinion as there is such a cloud of mystery surrounding what happened and I honestly doubt we will ever find out the true story.

We don't know this didn't happen, all we know is that Rye only received notice of him not being allowed to ride 20 minutes before start time. That came from Len himself at the start of the evening. We still should have had a NL rider on standby at the track as a number 8/possible guest as this happening was always a possibility.

When R/R relies on a 2 reserve rides you should always be naming a number 8 home and away. If we had last night we could have moved him into the team as a NL guest which we were permitted to use in place of Nelson. Three races with any rider is better than three with none, especially as a half decent number 8 would have been better than Sheffield's offering at reserve. I do feel for the promotion over the way it was handled by the FIM/SCB and with the ban. Hope it is successfully appealed.

Glad I decided to reverse my decision not to go at 7.45, after the rain delay the racing was fantastic especially from messrs Garrity and Lykke. The Nelson situation was a strange one, knowing this potentially could have happened we should have had a NL guest on stand by, not ideal but better than no rider. Well done to the 5 man team, they put in a great performance and I think we'll make it through. The days of being scared to go to Sheffield are long gone. Stead may get a max but Allen, Garrity, Mellgren and Nelson will all score well at Owlerton. We're likely to use James Sarjeant on Thursday, he's not Lambert perhaps but I'd take him over Koppe and Knight any day of the week. Kasper saw Sheffield last year and I'd expect him to improve on his 2 points from last season. I reckon we'll take the aggregate win, may even win on the night come Thursday, it'll rest on how well Kasper does IMO.

Overcast, no rain atm at the other end of Rye Road to the track. Quite looking forward to this so hope the weather doesn't prevail.

I'm assuming that the two declined guests are Dyer and Heeps. Get on the blower to Wolves and see if Jacob Thorrsell is available for the night, would come in on a 5 point average and would relish the Rye track being based at Monmore Green.

Annoying to see this was stopped short, regardless of the amount of heats raced. Think we would have taken a point from this one in the end. Lambert would have scored more than Sarj, no disrespect to the kid coz he has a decent future ahead of him but we really should have made an interim signing to replace Simon.

Lambert is the lowest averaged Rye rider now so it has to be a NL guest, Sarjeant is the best available in that category in fairness.

Kennett to Berwick is coup of the season no doubt! As for Starke he gives his all every race, was decent when he was a Rocket, was unlucky not to come back to Rye in honesty. Went downhill the last couple of seasons but finished last year and has started this very well which is good to see as he is a likeable lad. Riding well for Dudley will certainly boost his confidence, could be a trump card at reserve for the Bandits.

Even if the league hasn't started the League Cup is up for grabs still, if it's a competition we aren't racing in to win and we're only interested in the league then why bother? If we progress from our group in the league cup we could go on to win it in my opinion.