4thbender

Has Luke Harison been snapped up by any PL team as a "Rising Star"? Assuming Leon is still not fit for Thursday's match, Luke could be the man. He scored 8+1 for KL yesterday, outscoring Lawson, Harris, Iversen, Kvech and Cook in the process.

I'd go one further and say that the premiership title is bound for Leicester this year. It's the "Kyle Howarth effect": (wherever he goes he ends up on the winners' rostrum).

A couple of weeks? Do you have that in writing?

On Sunday Will Cairns will celebrate his 16th birthday. Does that mean he'll be eligible to become a "Rising Star"?... 'cos Sheffield need one!

Can anyone explain why Leicester have suddenly become Sheffield's "bogey team"? We've beaten all the lower order teams home and away this season and come very close at BV and Ippo, but the only team to give us a real good hiding is Leicester. With a weakened team I'm feeling very apprehensive about tonight's outcome and no other team has made me feel that way this season.

Update on Tai:

Really? That one slipped my attention.

I don't think so, but on 28 March 2007 you did have the pleasure of reducing Sheffield to the ignominy of a 75-15 (yes, that's right: 15 x 5-1's!) at KL in the Premier Trophy. If I'm not mistaken, that's the only time it's ever been done by any team in any competition. Andre Compton blamed the track; after going headlong into the fence in Heat 1 he said that he just couldn't get his bike to turn on the slippery surface!

Luke Becker and Josh Pickering are the latest PL riders to be sidelined through "crashes in Poland". Seems to me there is a great temptation for PL riders to make the weekly Sunday schlep to collect their share of the Polish Zloty on offer, but an unwelcome number are failing to return 'in one piece'. Poland seems to bear a disproportionate responsibility for the decimation of available PL talent.

Yeah, Sheffield really do badly at Foxhall... wait a minute....the last time we came there (Monday, August 19, 2024), Sheffield beat you by 38 - 52!

How many points do they get for a "moral" victory? As for the Tigers heat leaders' colours being lowered, they scored 29+2 whilst Ippo's scored 23+2.... or was there an additional six "moral" points scored that nobody noticed?

Lucky win for Sheffield. We appear to now have a third heat-leader issue. CH is now clearly in his dotage and is nothing more than a 6.0-point rider living on his reputation and memories of past glories. To have any hope of becoming champions we need much more from Kerr and Sedgmen, which we are just not getting. Having said all that, Ippo have a similar problem: Doyle and Sayfudtinov are not the feared pairing they once were, and problems will only increase as age takes its inevitable toll. They've been lucky with the form of Thompson, who had an off-night at Owlerton. These two teams - allegedly favourites for the PL title - are interesting from a management point of view. Much will depend on the actions taken to plug the gaps as their issues escalate later in the season.

Leon Flint must be one of the most improved riders in the PL. I think he's surprised everyone with his early season form.

I'm on record as having predicted great stardom for young Cairns after his appearance at Owlerton at the back end of 2024. If anyone is thinking of sloping off after the PL action I would strongly recommend you stick around for a while to take a look at this lad; he's still at school but he's dynamite.

Not as daft as it seems?...No, it's dafter. For a start, how would you define a "dialled in" home rider, and who would be responsible for nominating who gets handicapped and who doesn't?