Berwick v Oxford CL 02/08/25 7-00pm

[szkocjasid]

22 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Our reserves have been outscored at home by the opposition most of the season.Borke not being fit and dropped spoiled the set up of the Team .Hagon would have been the prominent reserve.

 

Pre season, on paper looked to always have one strong reserve.

Should Borke have been given longer to find form? Or was he clearly not fit?

While they have strengthened up on paper, isn't showing in the results.

If Morris shows improvement by the end of the season, may be on an attractive average for 2026.

[allthegearbutnaeidea]

1 hour ago, szkocjasid said:

Pre season, on paper looked to always have one strong reserve.

Should Borke have been given longer to find form? Or was he clearly not fit?

While they have strengthened up on paper, isn't showing in the results.

If Morris shows improvement by the end of the season, may be on an attractive average for 2026.

Borke’s still not fit now, it was madness signing him in first place.

[Fromafar]

5 minutes ago, allthegearbutnaeidea said:

Borke’s still not fit now, it was madness signing him in first place.

Would agree.

[Cosmos25]

2 hours ago, allthegearbutnaeidea said:

Borke’s still not fit now, it was madness signing him in first place.

He needed a year off to come back from that injury. As with Cook, a bit of honesty wouldn't have gone amiss.

[Hamster00]

9 hours ago, szkocjasid said:

This wasn't an anti Schroeck comment, as you say lots of managers automatically use r/r at 2.

If a second string was missing, I'd totally agree with r/r at 2, as the reserves taking r/r outings are "protected" riding with the number one.

As it was the second heat leader missing, I don't see the need for the remaining top 5 riders to be "protected" alongside Masters on their extra heat, as they don't need this protection in their programmed rides?

Personally I don't think I'd ever plan to use your top rider in heat 8, but I think it was worse in this situation as it meant the top rider in the league getting an extra outing against the weakest second string in the league (no offence to Sam Hagon), I'd have said the same against Redcar if Jody Scott was at 2.

Maybe if Oxford were racing a team with a strong number 2 (Edinburgh/Glasgow) I could understand it as Oxford may not expect their second strings to win heat 8.

But I certainly wouldn't move r/r to number 2 automatically regardless of who is missing / who the opponents are.

Again though it worked perfectly, 2 x 5-1, 1 x 4-2 and one more 4-2 would’ve happened if it wasn’t for Masters running out of fuel.

You could also argue that Oxford at full strength have 1 heat leader and 6 riders of a very similar level so putting the R/R with Masters is a good idea as proven on Saturday.