Simon Lambert

[szkocjasid]

13 hours ago, SteelShoe said:

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.

This conversation shows the issue of guests not being decided by averages, you think Foord & Lambert are similar, I think Lambert is clearly better. If it's not worked out by averages, who decides who can & can't guest?

Interesting comment about Lambert's home form, I wouldn't be against using away averages to decide who can guest away from home.

In an ideal world teams should sign replacements (even temporary) rather than use guests. Currently the rules don't really encourage that at all, that's one of the reasons why I don't mind teams being weaker with guests.