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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.

Said it so many times, worst thing ever was the promoters agreeing to pay riders regardless of points on the board, now they complain when they don't give 100% For businessmen they really are terribly short sighted.

A can't blame Eddie for wanting to ride even if it wasnt in the teams best interests, the fact scored nout probably made little difference to him personally as most heat leaders and some second strings seem to be on contracts now that have a downside payment, so even when they score nothing, they are still paid for X amount of points, would Eddie have rode if no points meant no pay bar travelling expenses? I don't think so. Guaranteed points money is one of the worst things to ever happen to our sport.

There is a fine line between putting on a brave face and riding through a bit of pain and riding in no fit state to the point your no use to the team and the fans, it's a selfish attitude.

That's exactly what David's job is, to hold the fort until we can make our own heat leaders. I always recall a quote years ago from when Wembley reopened after the war and there were not a vast amount of riders around, and they wanted to have a really good team so this one guy, might have been Sir Arthur Elvin but I could be completely wrong told another to go out and "make" some good riders. That's what Lakeside I suspect are trying to do, soldier through this season but next year they might have a couple kids ready to really hit the ground running and in the meantime Hunter and Bowtell will only get better and that is hopefully the start of a conveyor belt system. They have the perfect setup their to do that, it's all in the execution as to whether it will be a hit or a miss.

Seeing the clips on YouTube looks like there was some classic races last night

​​I know its not in the spirit of things, but should we be giving track time to riders before the meetings that are going to be assets of other teams? Anders Rowe was their most weeks last season, to hear he was always earmarked to go to Kent, feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth after all the track time we gave him.

Most of the heats on the updates site are listed as FTG and having seen a few heats on youtube i can see why, gate and stick it to the inside, even Hurry went backwards trying the outside line. OK, You cant make it too grippy at this level, but you need something there for the real racers so they can at least have a go. Wasnt a very good crowd there by looks of it (never seen the stock car section so empty) better track prep will be required if they are to retain more supporters or tempt those of us who have thus far stayed away, doesn't matter if its a division 3 or a grand prix, if its gate and go all the time it lacks appeal. But on the positive side its good to hear that the likes of Jason Edwards is continuing to make good progress (think he will be a shoe in as soon as rules allow him to ride in the NL) another rider who looked good last season was Anders Rowe, I wonder if Kent wont use him whether Lakeside could tempt him (if he is old enough to ride tier 3) its normally these very young riders who have developed from 125cc-250-500 who have the most potential to make it to a reasonable level.

Wasn't denying that Tony, but this level has always been referred to as the junior league regardless of the age of the participants. Some of those "juniors" will very soon be in full teams, so will they suddenly be no longer juniors just because they are in a team?

"There will be junior races prior to the meeting" I thought the idea was they are all juniors at this level.

Davey's problems are in the past, he has already said as much, there are no more excuses left, same old Poole fans claiming he should be given a chance just so long as it's not riding for their beloved Pirates

So was David Mason, although actually he wasn't

That's what will kill Lakesides chances this season, losing Zach or indeed Ben for whatever reason will be impossible to cover. Re the traffic on Friday nights, roadworks or not it won't make much difference, when the M25 goes down, it goes down.

Attendances are always up at the start of the season as people have started to get the bug back over the winter months, but as the novelty wears off and people remember why it was they couldn't wait for the previous season to end, the numbers will naturally drop back to an average, we have also been lucky with the weather so far as not much rain has fallen or been predicted to fall, at least in the southern counties, so the key will be how many will travel when its a damp chilly evening knowing that the obligatory slick track won't be able to take much of the wet stuff before it becomes dangerous. Then you have the TV factor when it starts, will the fact it's on BT sport mean less people will watch it at home and go to the track in person? I very much doubt it.