szkocjasid

I've never quite understood that sort of comment. Not every rider can be consistent, if Morris turned his poor scores into good ones, he'd be on a 7+ ave & need to be signed as a heat leader not a second string / reserve! Average wise Morris was consistent, between 4.5 & 5 all year I think?

That was never going to happen. Even when they were planning 32 league fixtures, the play-offs were always going to stay!

The grading doesn't matter at all, Prem clubs can use any RS, so there is actually no need to have riders graded from 1-4.

Zagar & Berge certainly

Danyon Hume & "the other" Knudsen

I believe Starke will be about half a point higher than that when the Newcastle fixtures are removed?

Now the bonus points are back, having a strong home rider (Bowtell) is useful.

You've both mentioned teams won't win leagues using riders who won't show any improvement. But look at Poole all 3 of their heat leaders dropped their average in 2022, plus Ablitt never moved above the minimum 2.00. So clearly having ONE rider not up his ave isn't going to hurt a team (especially as you can finish 6th & be Champions.

Flint's Champ ave may leave him ineligible to be a RS. Be good if they posted a new RS list.

Seems like they haven't learnt anything from the Plymouth / Birmingham / Newcastle injury issues, so I assume if a rider gets injured in the first match you can get a guest for the season?

How about? Plymouth Richie Worrall 8.29 Ben Barker 7.80 Hans Andersen 7.25 Dan Gilkes 4.55 Alfie Bowtell 4.38 Lee Complin 4.00 Adam Roynon 3.58 Total 39.85

Lambert's away ave (4.00) was higher than Kennedy's (3.76) despite Zaine racing in the easier number 7 spot for most of his matches. So I'd argue Lambert dropping to reserve would strengthen Scunny away!

Aggregate BP shouldn't make a massive difference, as to win the league teams had to win the play-offs over two legs anyway! So it was already advantageous to be able to pick up big home wins.

How about? Belle Vue Dan Bewley 8.91 Brady Kurtz 8.24 Matej Zagar 7.20 Norick Blodorn 5.45 Jye Etheridge 4.76 Tom Brennan 4.40 Connor Bailey RS Total 38.96

How about? Sheffield Jack Holder 8.61 Tobiasz Musielak 7.91 Chris Holder 7.16 David Bellego 5.80 Craig Cook 4.92 Lewis Kerr 4.59 Dan Gilkes RS Total 38.99

Flint may not be eligible as a RS now he has a 7+ Champ ave

The problem with 2nd vs 3rd, winner meets 1st. Is that whoever wins the semi gets two bumper crowds & table toppers only get one. Plus 1st place team will be more rusty than their opponents. No point having a situation where finishing top could be a hindrance.

At least it's better than 4 out of 6 qualifying!

Winning a super heat gets you 2 points, losing a super heat gets you 1 point. So it wouldn't be 4-0. They also announced if the both legs were tied the super heat in the second leg would would for the match points & the bonus point!

It's possible they never thought of that!

Not really, they sti have the option of signing a heat leader & reserve or two second strings. The only thing you don't want to do is fill up the bottom end, leave loads of points for heat leaders & then miss out on them!

Wouldn't go anywhere near Jacob Hook. No offence to the lad, but why would you use up 4 points for a rider who averaged 2.78. Far better to go with Jake Mulford (who wouldn't score any less) but gives you 2 extra points to play with.

Statistically it makes sense to go solid, 2 x 5.5 riders. Whoever is at number 6 can take 5 rides a match, with Ablitt only needing to take 3 rides. Also the top 2 get 5 rides a match, as a third heat leader would only get 4 rides. While Poole have been the best team with 3 strong heat leaders, that didn't include starting with 2 x 2.00 riders. Anyway the scores Ben Cook was putting in, could make him a decent 3rd heat leader in a weaker league.

Not a fan of the play-offs but if they had to keep them, should have just made it top 4 qualify! How can a team "celebrate" qualifying for the play-offs by finishing 6th out of 9?

True, I think the Northern teams completed their fixtures. But I'm also referring to the league in general, first couple of matches had scoreboards listed, then that stopped. I was never aware of fixture & results unless I went out of my way to find them.