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Vatcher didn't tell Scunthorpe they had to drop Joe T, he said they can only use 75% of Kennedy's average. Scunthorpe chose to drop Joe - obviously believing Clegg & Ablitt are stronger than Joe & say Jack Smith? In theory Scunny could've dropped one of their top 5 for Aarnio, Batchelor etc with Ablitt for Kennedy? The decision did allow a young Brit to get signed though (Ablitt).

The almost made an effort to do this with the rising star rule, however this FIVE year plan only lasted ONE year in the Championship. Credit to the Prem teams for sticking with it.

Hoping they'd get KOC or BSN fixtures fitted in to fill the gaps, but got knocked out. At least there's a NDL team at Berwick too. Although I do wonder why they had a double header when there's so many spare dates? Could understand it against Oxford or Edinburgh?

Plymouth could win in the night, but I'd expect Poole to win on aggregate.

Totally agree with these points, lost of people suggesting Buster should leave & let someone else run the clubs, but without him there'd likely be no Peterborough or Lynn, would that mean no Premiership too?

If Kemp turned down a team spot, he was very foolish imo. There's not enough clubs in the Premiership to pick & choose from, if he had the chance, should've taken it.

Maybe Kent's hopes were based on Alcock reproducing last year's heat leader form, I'm not sure if he's still struggling with injuries, but obviously not scoring like he was last year.

I think they've got the ruling right. I don't mind guests, but do feel it should be harder to strengthen up & any rule like this which encourages a replacement (temporary or otherwise) has to be commended

Why not spot an error in the rules pre-season & bring it up at the AGM? When a team points out a rule they don't agree with, only now when it doesn't suit them, just looks like sour grapes! It's the same as Neil Middleditch complaining in the Speedway Star about a heat 15 exclusion for Steve Worrall, I think he made comments about all fours being better for the fans etc. If that's true why not bring it up pre-season rather than when Poole have a rider excluded?

Comments from the SpeedwayGB site: KENT manager Jamie Willis has described the club’s start to the season as “totally unacceptable.” The Royals have suffered five successive defeats in National Development League and KO Cup fixtures, including back-to-back reverses in their weekend Northern tour at Edinburgh and Berwick. Willis said: “Something needs to change, whether that’s riders, riding order or our pre-meeting preparation. “It’s going to be a busy couple of days for Si (Kellow) and me as we look to find the right formula. “We can only apologise to all those supporting us trackside or at home, and we will do all we can to turn around our performances.” I feel the management need to take as much blame as the riders here, they picked a team 2.5 points under the limit, so is it any surprise.they are struggling? I didn't think they were a strong side, but have certainly performed worse than I expected.

I don't think you can judge Scunthorpe's changes based on one match, Clegg was always likely to score like this at Berwick. How he does in the rest of the matches will be more key. However Mountain's good score from reserve shows why they did it!

You called it, fans didn't get all 30 heats

I feel it's the complete opposite, there are so many gaps in the fixture list, some clubs only race ONCE in May, that clubs can afford to postpone matches, when there's even a hint of bad weather. We'll probably get more postponements now, as there's no rush to complete the fixtures before the cut off date for the play-offs.

Personally I don't see that happening, think Berwick are happy with their riders.

Not sure if you were trying to make a point re Nathan racing 6 matches, but he has a rolling ave from his time with Poole, so weather he rides 1 or 6 matches he'd get a new rolling ave along with the rest of the team (possibly below 2.00 rounded up to 2.00).

Imagine Joe signed for Birmingham the same time he was dropped by Scunthorpe. He could've ridden in both legs for different teams!

How was he offered a chance at Berwick? His average is too high to replace Stoneman & wouldn't be signed for any of their top 5?

The fact that despite Bowtell scoring 11 points last night, Birmingham still lost. Some fans will only support a winning team (not all) so that has to hurt attendance levels. Plus admission gets more expensive each year, but the racing doesn't get any better!

Don't try & bring logic into this, it is speedway after all

Birmingham could drop Wright, Proctor & Pearson and replace them with Kemp, Dan & Joe Thompson? Alfie Bowtell drops to reserve with Joe!

I'm sure a few years back there was a rule you had to include 2 Brits in both the Champ & Prem, but that lasted ONE year, quite sad really!

I really like the RS system in the Premiership, as long as teams picked the best options out there, all the rising stars would have been at least 4/5 Champ riders (except Flint) and the sort you want to race in the Prem at reserve. Because Belle Vue & Ipswich have chosen to pick weaker riders, some may feel that it's too big a jump for the rising stars? I would have preferred them to keep the RS system for the Champ too though.

But Scunny are dropping an Aussie & a Brit for 2 Brits, so in this instance giving a bigger reduction (which I'm all for) probably wouldn't have helped. Making a foreigners lowest ave 4.5 or 5.00 rather than the current 4.00 could help the Brits too?

If Joe Thompson is dropped by Scunthorpe, he'd be a good signing for Birmingham at reserve. But which reserve would you drop?

Where have you read that?