marko

Kids like this need a serious reality check, at this level you should have pretty much a full time job you can work around, ideally a trade which one can harness a skill for if the speedway thing doesn't lead to much, by that I mean for many, they will never attain the levels required to be able to do it as a full time profession. If you want to be a top speedway rider then great, but you have to pay your dues, same as every other rider did generations before you.

Speedibee, what i would say is in an ideal world the NL would be full of youngsters all keen to try and make it as high as possible, the more we have the more chance of stabilising the British scene over the next decade, fact is we don't have anywhere near enough riders to do that. It gets into a grey area but we really don't want is certain calibre of riders of a certain age taking places which could be filled by a promising youngster, now lets take Mr X and say he is 30 years old, good for maybe a four of five point average, only rides for a bit of fun, now he could still ride, there is a perfectly good amateur scene for that. edit: of course though it all comes back to costs, the sport is too expensive to do properly as a hobby, although that should not be the case, the older riders should be able to have a skid without it costing them a fortune.

I think having an older rider is not just about passing on knowledge, these teams like those above are a business and it has to remain attractive to fans therefore the side must be competitive, since you can't go abroad to strengthen then you must look at home to try and find ways of helping a weak team, the only way is to utilise experienced riders who are very much winding down in their careers. Biggest problem the sport has and Ive been saying it for years is that it's too expensive to get into, not enough youngsters take it up because of costs, not only is there a shortage of riders in the top two leagues that means many riders ride in both we even have the situation where some riders like Zach W ride for two different teams at the same level albeit in different competitions. We constantly hear riders saying they don't ride enough, why is this when before doubling up/down it was never an issue. In the old National League riders would have had 30 to 34 league meetings a season and in between meetings they would have another job. If there were youngsters knocking on the door to be riders then the current NL could be filled with riders under 25, once you get passed that age the chances of picking it up to a good level reduce unless your a John Louis.

Heat 13 looked a cracker and in fact the meeting as a whole came across well from what I have seen, nice composed ride by Zach almost forcing Luke into making a mistake, I would be amazed if opposition teams riders are able to go through the card against this trio of heat leaders, Paul Hurry is looking a steal even on a nine point average right now.

I don't need to be their when i evidence such as this and frankly you only make yourself look an idiot trying to defend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w155a3lhsS8

They say the camera never lies, well I've seen several heats from every home meeting and the constant trend has been processional racing around the inside. Maybe there has been the odd classic? But I can only go by what I've seen and read on the speedway updates and YouTube and that has not been enough to convince me to want to see more in person.

Having seen some clips from today's and other meetings I have to unfortunately agree, the track this season has resembled one that we have seen all too often when it's on the telly, dry, with a blue groove soon appearing and very little in the way of passing. In fact it's gone back to circa 2004/2005 under big Ron.

I have not been there so far this season and won't be there today, but this change means i will consider going in future provided i hear good reports about the race experiance offered on race days, today for example i expect passing to be a premium but only because of the weather rather than a perceived lack of track preparation.

There is a nasty band of storms coming up from France, should stay clear from the East side of the country but will be worth keeping an eye on, humid days like this, they can pop up at a moments notice.

Feel sorry for the track staff today, keeping any sort of moisture on the track will be almost impossible even if they have the big water tanker going around between heats.

I would be more concerned with the weather, its supposed to get a higher risk of storms breaking out during the humid afternoon and if the traffic is as bad as its been the last 48 hours then it wont help.

I am purely guessing Spooner is replacing Hunter directly and they will see if they can shuffle him back in at a later date.

I feel that Lakeside are determined one way or another to get Paul in even if it means releasing another rider on a temporary basis. I don't think other clubs will be able to argue with that unless their gripe is about us replacing a forty something with another forty something.

And Mason was? Hurry has far more to offer younger riders in terms of advice than career reserve Mason ever could. And Liam your spot on, its not Lakeside who decided Paul's average, its the SCB, Lakeside merely are taking advantage of shall we say a judgement of error on the control boards part and if anyone thinks others clubs would not have done the same given the chance they are deluded because promoters are all as bad as each other when it comes to putting their club first. I'm starting to understand how Poole fans feel now as every move they make is dissected under a microscope.

If his average was set at 7.44 before the season and any team could have opted to try and utilise him on that figure, no one can complain. But if i was to be neutral on this i would have to admit i would have assessed his realistic working average to be nearer the nine point mark, maybe 8.50 as a minimum.

One possible way to settle this is what was Paul's average listed as when he guested for Zach recently in a challenge fixture?

Its time to do away with averages and use a type of grading as most of the riders are not on figures that are representitive of their ability, the heat formats the leagues have been running have played a major part in that, so who is to say what is and what isn't a proper average anymore, last season Poole brought Antonio back with an assessed figure that was agreed to by the governing body, whether others agreed with it or not makes no difference, only the opinion of the board counts and it will be the same with Paul Hurry, if he can be fitted into the side he will, if he can't he won't end of. I'm still of the opinion though if this was IOW, Buxton or Kent, it wouldn't be getting even a mention, at least we know why everyone else was so keen on us having David Mason, they knew it would keep us in what they perceive to be our place.

It seems no matter what league Lakeside are in, if their team is average or poor, no one gives a crap about them, yet as soon as they look like they might be half decent side, those toys coming flying out of the prams of other clubs. I must apologise on behalf of Jon Cook for forgetting that our club is merely a Cinderella club there to make up the numbers, give other teams easy victory's and is strictly not allowed to win anything ever (apart from in 1991 when we won everything) We are now the Millwall of the speedway world, no one likes us but we don't give s--t

Since you have so much passion for David, maybe you should suggest to Len, he resigns him. I never wanted him in the team in the first place, I'm glad he is gone.

It doesn't matter, averages mean very little anymore.

And of course KT will be optimistic, you never hear any manager or promoter admit in public that they feel they think they stand no chance, it's just not the done thing to do because if they don't have faith in the team then why should the fans.

Missing David wont make any difference he wouldnt have likely done much their, i would guess its got to be a home win of around 36-40 points

Is Iwade not operating anymore? Last I heard they were going to operate on a different licence to get away from the petty red tape of the SCB.

Trouble with your top riders is most only ride rather than race when they feel like it, it doesnt matter whether they like the track or not, if it was a grand prix you can bet they would give it a good go regardless.

I meant as a downside guarantee Steve, they get paid points money so if they score a max they get paid accordingly but they might be guaranteed the equivilent of 6,7 or 8 points a meeting even if they score only two or three. It happened at Lakeside a few years ago, they let PK go because they said it was "costing them money" even though he wasn't scoring, because his contract would have seen him paid to a minimum of x points and he frequently wasn't scoring that.