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Simon Lambert


chun

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2 minutes ago, chun said:

With all the rider shortages tonight it’s criminal that this stalwart of the sport is not guesting for someone?

is his average too high?

Was literally just thinking the exact same thing! 👏

Maybe with the chronic shortage of riders currently it's time to look at the rules regarding team make-up with regards to replacing riders with injuries?

Edited by IainB
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5 hours ago, chun said:

With all the rider shortages tonight it’s criminal that this stalwart of the sport is not guesting for someone?

is his average too high?

Worky have struggled persistently to get guests at No 6 who have scored what Vinnie Foord probably would have. We had to use Mickie Simpson again tonight against Glasgow for the second meeting running and predictably he failed to score. At the moment Mickie is not Championship level.

Simon Lambert's average (4.78) is more representative of Vinnie's (3.89) and the points he may well have scored but because it is higher we couldn't use him.

The zero points that we registered from No 6 tonight bearing in mind Vinnie scored 7 in the corresponding fixture last season contributed to us getting narrowly beaten for the second meeting in succession.

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6 hours ago, SteelShoe said:

Worky have struggled persistently to get guests at No 6 who have scored what Vinnie Foord probably would have. We had to use Mickie Simpson again tonight against Glasgow for the second meeting running and predictably he failed to score. At the moment Mickie is not Championship level.

Simon Lambert's average (4.78) is more representative of Vinnie's (3.89) and the points he may well have scored but because it is higher we couldn't use him.

The zero points that we registered from No 6 tonight bearing in mind Vinnie scored 7 in the corresponding fixture last season contributed to us getting narrowly beaten for the second meeting in succession.

I think they should loosen the rules around the average game, especially when coming to replacing injured or unavailable riders. Maybe a reserve can be replaced by ANY reserve, a second string by ANY second string, a heat leder by ANY heat leader, you may have to bring some form of control in around the heat leaders due to their scoring ability and the difference between 1's, 3's and 5's.

In a "sport" that is more relient than ever on the guesting system, much like a lot of other things within Speedway, it is not really fit for purpose.

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Agree the system isn't fit for purpose. When teams are inadvertently penalised simply because a rider is unfortunate enough to get injured really isn't in the best interests of the sport. There is scope to increase the the headroom on averages certainly for reserve replacements especially when the number of suitably competitive replacements is so limited in British Speedway at the moment.

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23 minutes ago, IainB said:

I think they should loosen the rules around the average game, especially when coming to replacing injured or unavailable riders. Maybe a reserve can be replaced by ANY reserve, a second string by ANY second string, a heat leder by ANY heat leader, you may have to bring some form of control in around the heat leaders due to their scoring ability and the difference between 1's, 3's and 5's.

In a "sport" that is more relient than ever on the guesting system, much like a lot of other things within Speedway, it is not really fit for purpose.

 

1 minute ago, SteelShoe said:

Agree the system isn't fit for purpose. When teams are inadvertently penalised simply because a rider is unfortunate enough to get injured really isn't in the best interests of the sport. There is scope to increase the the headroom on averages certainly for reserve replacements especially when the number of suitably competitive replacements is so limited in British Speedway at the moment.

I think that would make things far worse, could replace the weakest with the strongest, i.e replacing Kildemand with Lawson or Masters, replacing Mountain with Howarth or Craig Cook, replacing Spencer with Cairns or Battye (before injury).

I personally don't think having to use weaker guests is an issue, in every sport injuries can make a team weaker, I don't know why Speedway fans & promoters expect otherwise? Plus any rule that allows teams to be stronger through injuries by the use of guests discourages looking for replacements.

One change I would make is opening up the guest rule to include riders not currently racing in GB. For example Lambert, Bowtell & Morley can guest because they have NL teams, if they didn't they wouldn't be allowed, when surely it should be preferred that unattached riders get picked first?

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4 minutes ago, szkocjasid said:

 

I think that would make things far worse, could replace the weakest with the strongest, i.e replacing Kildemand with Lawson or Masters, replacing Mountain with Howarth or Craig Cook, replacing Spencer with Cairns or Battye (before injury).

I personally don't think having to use weaker guests is an issue, in every sport injuries can make a team weaker, I don't know why Speedway fans & promoters expect otherwise? Plus any rule that allows teams to be stronger through injuries by the use of guests discourages looking for replacements.

One change I would make is opening up the guest rule to include riders not currently racing in GB. For example Lambert, Bowtell & Morley can guest because they have NL teams, if they didn't they wouldn't be allowed, when surely it should be preferred that unattached riders get picked first?

That's why I suggested some form of control with heat leaders with such a disparity between 1, 3 and 5's (or 1, 2 and 3 in the averages). Maybe some average banding. As it's currently only 1 over 8 points an 8 pointer can't replace a sub 8 pointer, but I certainly think you could loosen it up lower down the order, maybe 0-5, 5.01-7.99, 8-12. This sport relies far too heavily on 0.01 of a point... often to its detriment.

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24 minutes ago, SteelShoe said:

Agree the system isn't fit for purpose. When teams are inadvertently penalised simply because a rider is unfortunate enough to get injured really isn't in the best interests of the sport. There is scope to increase the the headroom on averages certainly for reserve replacements especially when the number of suitably competitive replacements is so limited in British Speedway at the moment.

The main problem last night was the fact Redcar and Poole raced a rearranged meeting meaning only Plymouth weren't racing.

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19 minutes ago, Gambo95 said:

The main problem last night was the fact Redcar and Poole raced a rearranged meeting meaning only Plymouth weren't racing.

I also think that if the sport is going to rely so heavily on the guest system then it needs some enforced buy in from the riders and instead of them picking and choosing if/when to ride some coercion should be placed on them to "be available" to guest. Plymouth weren't riding so Nicholls, King, Barker, Thompson and Spencer are UK based and were "available" to ride, yet only Tom Spencer was used. If you're part of the problem, then you should be part of the solution.

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21 minutes ago, szkocjasid said:

 

I think that would make things far worse, could replace the weakest with the strongest, i.e replacing Kildemand with Lawson or Masters, replacing Mountain with Howarth or Craig Cook, replacing Spencer with Cairns or Battye (before injury).

I personally don't think having to use weaker guests is an issue, in every sport injuries can make a team weaker, I don't know why Speedway fans & promoters expect otherwise? Plus any rule that allows teams to be stronger through injuries by the use of guests discourages looking for replacements.

One change I would make is opening up the guest rule to include riders not currently racing in GB. For example Lambert, Bowtell & Morley can guest because they have NL teams, if they didn't they wouldn't be allowed, when surely it should be preferred that unattached riders get picked first?

Most if not all UK sports run a squad system so have replacements of similar ability. UK Speedway does not.

Having to use weaker guests because of the paucity of suitable replacements inadvertently penalises a team as a consequence of injury. 

Having a reserve rider Simon Lambert in this case sitting at home when he more equally matches the injured rider (Vinnie) in terms of ability simply because he has an higher average biased by his home performances doesn't sit right.

I'm not advocating making teams stronger through injury just prevention of making them notably weaker over longer periods.

Shrewd selection of in form guests and the ability and willingness of clubs to pay said rider demands often allows teams to be stronger because of injury now.

Finding suitably able replacements working within the current average limitations  at reserve appears to not be easy. Certain clubs have been able to fit riders in based on averages fitting. Grmek at Plymouth comes to mind following the injury to Tobias Thomsen.

 I think it highly unlikely you will get a non GB Rider to take a guest booking at reserve especially bearing in mind how much that could cost.

 

 

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