Ben91

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.

After Somerset dropped points at Ipswich on Thursday, we really had to get something out of this and it is R/R and reserve scoring which has let us down. As I've said before, we've got a team geared to score solidly from 1-7, whilst on some meetings, especially away, we have to support Kasper which is where having an experienced reserve like Lambert comes in. As much as it is good to give Ben these much needed meetings for his development, not getting an established guest, especially away from home is going to cost us. We've had 5 meetings this season, it's too early to write it off because of injuries.

Mitchell first came over with Josh Grajczonek to Glasgow, one of them sank, one swam, yet the sinker still gets a ride over a home grown rider who is just as good if not better. The Bears may as well sign Arlo Bugeja again!

Genuinely think he couldn't as he struggled once the lights came on too, still it was great acting if not! Me too, clearly got to Morris too, think Olly is going to be good for us this year, his experience and little tricks like that will be worth just as much as the points he scores on track.

Think the Rebels will be the happier side with the draw, the Rocket's were certainly robbed of the win by mechanical failures. Morley and Mellgren both retiring whilst in 5-1 advantage positions in heats 2 and 15 respectively offset the heat 10 re-run which saw the Rebels lose a 5-1 as Olly couldn't clear the track in time. Another note on the Ref, three or four fourth bend incidents cannot have been seen as the red lights were put on ridiculously late, in a couple of cases as the riders were entering the third turn at speed the following lap, could have caused a serious injury. Also the kickboards were dislodged one heat and the ref should have stopped it.

Playing devil's advocate here, Mear's 4.44 EL average converts to 7.40 in PL terms, Bring him in and we have 4.73 to play with to sign another rider under the 42.5 limit, Garrity is on 4.67 so there's not much scope but we could get him to reserve. A rider who would fit, granted, one I've never rated is Lubos Tomicek, but the desired effect of getting Garrity to reserve is met if he is signed. Once Lambert is fit, he replaces Tomicek, by that time Garrity will have a new average and be back in the main team regardless. When Bunyan is fit, he can also step back in too as the two riders who I am suggesting signing have higher averages than the men they are replacing respectively. Of course if the riders we signed were riding better than the others they would hopefully keep their places. My preferred route is still Nedermark and Tresarrieu: 1. Allen 2. Tresarrieu 3. Mellgren 4. Nedermark 5. Nelson 6. Lykke 7. Garrity That team would take some serious stopping.

He seemingly has a good relationship with Rye and I reckon he'll ride for the Rockets one day. As for beyond that, being from Norfolk, I can see him riding for Kings Lynn in the EL.

Lambert can be replaced before Bunyan, I'm sure Kasper will get going but R/R isn't what anyone wants to see and if we pick up another injury it turns a problem into a crisis. Getting Garrity into a reserve berth is pivotal to us going forward from these unfortunate injuries.

How sad that we are discussing team changes enforced by injury so early in the season! A three pointer (Morley) and a heat leader standard rider is the wrong way to go. We need to sign two riders who will push Jason Garrity to reserve. Morley deserves a chance but we would be too weak at reserve with him partnering Nielsen whilst Kasper finds his feet so it's a no go, especially in a team geared to have two strong reserves. If and it's a big if Sedgemen has the right attitude to PL racing he's on an attractive average. I'd personally try and get hold of Claes Nedermark and Mat Tresarrieu. Nedermark has potential and will do well at Rye, whilst Tresarrieu has been good around Rye and will do well on away circuits, think we'd get a lot more from him than Ipswich managed to as well. Plus of course that leaves Jason Garrity back at reserve!