Woz01

He was asked the question before the AGM. He will sign especially as he has a testimonial at Brandon.

Sexist! 😉

Don't think we can have more than 3 double uppers so if we sign Garrity, King wont be here next season.

As I said if we dont sign a 9pt man we wont sign Barker which is what fans (bizarrely) are preaching.

Sarjeant was the top tier 2 rider. Considering he had the top tier 1 rider as a team mate and issues with the start its a good achievement. Time for James to step out of Garritys shadow, sort his starts out and become a genuine tier 1 rider. How many points does he drop making mistakes at the start line? He's got it in him to improve.

Barker would be good as a 2nd string rider. Lets not forget he is more than capable of getting a 6.5 average and he would start at around 4.8. We could get close to the limit with this side, Doyle Barker Larsen Garrity Harris Sarjeant Bates I think that team looks ok, I know people dont like Barker (I'm not a fan of him as a person) but he can stick 1.5 on his average. Plus we get 3 heatleaders. Cant see us signing Barker unless we sign Doyle or someone a 9pt average as we'd be quite below the limit.

Garrity didnt want to be in the draft. Not sure why though as he'd have been in the 1-5 after 4 matches. With Garrity not wanting to be in the draft and it seems Barker wasn't either then we'd have struggled to have a top reserve anyway. Not sure how the draft worked this year but seems strange to protect Sarj and then pick a lower tier 2 rider. Did we get one of the last picks for tier 2?

Sarjeant was a tier 1 rider as the Bees twitter feed confirmed yesterday.

I don't think he was part of the draft looking at the pairings so far.

Exactly right! We will need one to make an improvement straight from the off. Sarj possibly if he get his starts sorted!

I do think Sarjeant and Bates will improve as the season goes on. Might be too late by then though.

Have they somehow converted his NL average?

But it says his average will be higher than Newman. Must be a mistake. Its says on the Poole website he will have a higher average than Newman at 4.89 but it cant be right. It does make a big point about it on the statement so who knows.

It says on the website his average will start higher than Newman though. Must be a mistake.

Not sure id want Ellis on a 4.89 average!

Wow Ellis on 4.89, how did they get to that?

Howarth is the only one to have an established EL average from last season. All the others would need some conversion so they decided to do it from PL averages. Whether thats right from wrong is another debate. If you have an EL average from last season it must surely be used.

Neil Watson pretty much said on the Bees thread. Riders in the draft will be a reserve for at least 4 matches. IF for example Bees had Garrity in the draft his average would be just over 5 and in a reserve position. IF then Bees signed Robson his average is say 4.8(?) he would be a 2nd string as he isn't part of the draft. Reserves can then move into top 5 after 4 meetings if averages allow. Edit. Must remind myself to read the rest of the thread before commenting 😃

Howarth will still be a reserve even if Wolves signed a rider on an average less than Howarth, well until 4 meetings anyway.

Yeah had to check Newman.

He is 21 but 22 when the season starts. He will be younger than Worrall, Auty, Starke, Blackbird, Mear, Wright, Kerr, Rose, Sarjeant and thats just of the top of my head. Edit to add Newman too.

Is the 4 meetings just for the riders who have had their PL average converted? As it seems Howarth will use his EL average will rolling averages apply to him?

Howarth rode for the under 21s last year! He is still young plenty of draft riders much older than him.

Howarth starts on his EL average.

Good that he will start on his EL average and also good that he's in the draft. The draft should be helping riders just like him. People forget he is still young.