IainB

The RS system is a great idea... just not in the PL for me. I'd still like to see some kind of protected spot in a PL team for British riders but from a wider pool of riders than is currently on offer

For me, only Brennan and Mountain from the riders you have named are holding down a team spot. Gilkes is not going to progress out of the reserve spot this season, not even close. I'd say a "successful" rising star must at least be challenging for a spot in the main body of a team

No. Points Total 21/03/24 Leicester v King's Lynn (PRa) 1 3, 1, 1', 1' 6 +2 01/04/24 Leicester v Ipswich (PRKO) 1 3, 2, 0, 2 7 08/04/24 Belle Vue v Leicester (PRa) 1 0, 1', 2, 1' 4 +2 11/04/24 Leicester v Sheffield (PRa) 1 2, 3, 2, 2', 1 10 +1 15/04/24 Birmingham v Leicester (PRa) 1 1, 3, 0 4 18/04/24 Leicester v Belle Vue (PRa) 1 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 15 25/04/24 Leicester v Birmingham (PRa) 1 2, 3, 3, 2', 3 13 +1 02/05/24 Leicester v Ipswich (PRa) 1 3, 2', 1', 3, 3^, 3 15 +2 I am talking about Max over the course of a season home and away and it's only my opinion of course. He's more than capable of beating those riders mentioned as indeed he has done but at the moment, over the course of a season, I'd still fancy the others and like you say the backup isn't really there. I think Leicester will probably have enough for 4th or 5th place in the league but will come unstuck without another top heat leader come play off time. He also had a pretty poor start to the season for a world class number 1, though he'd certainly got his arse into gear now.

His fall was a strange one last night... almost seemed to lay it down in the hope of a rerun after riders in front of him getting into trouble

Will Dan hold that team position down though? The way Rew was riding last night he'll be back in the main body next month. You can add Gilkes to the list of RS riders who shouldn't be anywhere near the PL... Mountain and Brennan are the 2 stand out names that seem to be holding a team spot down. Brennan looks like he may be on the verge of having a breakthrough season.

Who of the rising stars are holding down a team place in the PL? Genuine question

He doesn't get the praise he probably deserves as to be fair he's expected to be good and get a decent points haul, he's a quality Speedway rider, he has let himself down on a few occasions in the past though. Compare this with Tom Brennan, he's had a fantastic week, winning the match for Brum (Twice) on Monday and getting 13+1 last night at Lynn or Wojdylo a paid 18 point maximum! No topics with people gushing all over them with well done marra! But having said all that... well done marra!

I don't think Sam Hagon is the answer. You've got to stick with JT and rally around the kid, maybe get somebody in to help him. For me I'd be looking to drop Kemp and A.N.Other and be looking at getting a CL 7 pointer in at reserve somebody like Jake Allen, Vuolas, Lambert (Simon or Robert) or Zischke or take a punt on a complete unknown like Worky have this season and Peterborough did with Woj last season... with Schlein or Sedgeman in the main body, anything else would probably require major surgery. Last year showed that you now need big hitters in your team at 1 and 5 to succeed as long as you get to the play offs, Belle Vue finished top but just didn't have the firepower to see off Emil and Doyley

You're right, bigger picture stuff, the RS system should not be being used in the PL but the CL, the jump from NL to PL is just too big and more so this season with the return of some of the "Stars". Personally I don't think Fricke has had a particularly strong start to the season but he was always too good a rider not to come good. With the make up of our team I always thought we'd come unstuck when riding against teams with a couple of "big hitters" as has been the case against Sheffield and Ippo as Max is just not at the level of Holder/Woffy/Doyley/Emil... and with the lack of any bite at reserve the matches against the other clubs are too close to call without a performance from Kemp

I wonder if Leicester dare make another 2 for 1 change like they did last year? It was a disaster last year with consequences also extending into this year with DT's non inclusion, doesn't mean to say it will this He said a bit more than that from what I was hearing and was strongly hinting at potential changes reading between the lines

Yes he did, no Joe and surprisingly no Lawson who should have been Lions rider of the night. The only option is to pass Dan off as Joe! When is Cairns eligible?

Absolutely nothing (apart from the shape)

It turns out "laughing" Ritchie Hawkins didn't need to do anything clever with R/R after all as Ippo had more than enough to hand Lions their arses on a plate just playing it straight! Lions reserves outscored 14-1 smh Well done Ippo

Kemp, quitting onto the centre green when Doyley was on a sick bike... hate to see that!

I've come to the conclusion that the whole lot needs digging up and starting again! Or try the one out on the in field?

Jason Doyle must have racked up hundreds of pounds in fines for all the practice starts he does not wearing his helmet... yet he still continues to do them Track grade after heat 3... that's not normal, probably because we've just seen the first passing of the night and we don't want that!

I agree about the rest of it was interesting and I remember listening to Mudguard talking about the atmosphere in the Millennium Stadium when he rode there but come on the cold conditions don't just effect Nicolai and he should have it sussed out now after 20 years in the game

I've just listened to Nicolai Klindt on the British Speedway podcast and I must say I've never heard such a load of crap he was spouting about being dropped from Oxford because it was too cold! He was basically saying that he couldn't get going this season because the temperatures have effected his machinery and that now that it's warming up watch him go! Now Nicolai is a rider with some 20 years of senior Speedway experience initially in "tropical" Denmark and to use this as an excuse is scraping the barrel, yes weather and temps do effect machine performance but to use this as an excuse says more about him than the weather... what does this say to anybody that is thinking of signing him for their team next year? Don't bother until May? He also said that Steve Worrall says he suffers from the same... erm, condition? If I was Worrall I'd be distancing myself from those comments

Bomber & Nicholls! Now they've learnt not to knock each other off is there another pair that consistently race against each other better?

He'll be due a testimonial soon!

Jesus Christ! Jack Smith has been on his arse 3 times in the first 2 heats!

That would be the usual, predictable, par for the course thing to do... So, I'd say yes.

It's all a bit safe though isn't it, it's always been done that way so that's the way we're going to do it. I think keeping the opposition guessing as regards their line-up is like Speedway's version of Bazball... Stewball if you like No disrespect to Ritchie as he does a fine job for Ippo, but it's hard to imagine him managing elsewhere for another team, I wouldn't have thought he'd be on anybody's "wanted" list unlike Stewart Dickson or Rob Lyon for example.

Number 1 to Number 6... in a month! That's quite a fall!

Assuming they're going to work with what they've got, I'd probably go: 1 Pawlicki 2 Lampart 3 Milik 4 Brennan 5 Worrall 6 Cook 7 Flint