szkocjasid

As Workington's top 5 are all good, I see no reason not to swap riders round & give different pairings a try.

Scunny have a good top 5, all riders get a ride, so I don't see r/r as a weak option. Look at Poole, used a guest who scored 0 when they could have used r/r. Maybe r/r saves money, doesn't mean that's why they've done it. But definitely should be stronger at reserve, former Monarch Jacob Hook being an obvious guest choice. EDIT A further thought, from Scunny's point of view, you could say "what's the point of having a NL side if you don't give riders a chance" but Simpson isn't a strong NL rider, especially compared to Jody Scott who's averaging 9+ so deserves his chances with Oxford?

In this match number 3 could be easier, gets an extra race against Lambert & a reserve in heat 12, rather than Mountain & a reserve in heat 8.

Agreed. Play-off chasing teams, but not play-off challenging teams.

Looking at the stats on the Speedway GB website, Atkins has a 1.14 home average & 0.00 away average. Roynon can hardly do any worse.

They've been below the limit for some time now, don't seem to have any plans to improve the team imo. Seems strange that they'd give up on Klindt so early, but not bother making changes when they have points available (for both teams).

Back in April Oxford would've had over 6 points to replace Atkins, but either weren't ruthless enough / or very loyal & kept Atkins. You can be sure a team like Poole would've made a change, probably one of the reasons they always finish near the top.

So a fair replacement for Atkins then (based on his 2024 scores). But will Roynon score more than the guests have done?

Think that's a fair ruling. SCB obviously cracking down on riders missing fixtures compared to recent seasons.

I read the comment he was missing tonights fixture before I realised he didn't complete his last match in Poland. However, what if a rider agreed with his Polish club to take his first 3 rides each match & pull out of his fourth, then not race in GB or SWE, saying he agrivated his injury? Not saying this is what Kurtz is doing, but there would have to be rules in place to stop that happening.

Gotcha, yes Oxford getting a "second chance" of the win, greatly helps their play-off hopes.

Kurtz not riding at Sheffield, has to get the same ban as Musielak. Writing on Facebook, Kurtz said: “I have a lot of damage to my right lateral ankle ligaments. An MRI scan showed a grade 3/3 tear to one, grade 2/3 tear in another and grade 1/3 to the last. “My absence right now is because I’m currently unable to walk on it, and if my ankle was to take any more damage in its current condition, surgery will be required to repair it. “The recovery from that surgery would most likely end my season. My focus now is recovery and getting myself in a position to return to racing, but also when I know it will be safe to do so.” No mention of how he was able to ride in Poland.

How would you rotate the superfinal if different clubs qualify each year?

A run-off? I wasn't disagreeing with your idea of only using if for aggregate wins, still prefer a run-off though. Don't know what's wrong with having a draw after 15 heats?

Don't see Poole winning at Scunthorpe or Workington tbh.

I would say Oxford won the meeting & Poole drew the meeting. Easy to understand - not!

I think it is a very pointless rule.

Not in this case Poole will be top of the league & miles away from 5th imo. My biggest issue with the scoring system is both teams end up happy, Poole gain a point but Oxford don't lose any. Every other club in the league will be unhappy.

It seems clear Poole would've been better with r/r, perhaps they should've showed more faith in their own riders? I guess it doesn't matter so much if r/r would score more than Tobias, the question is would r/r score more than Joe?

I think Oxford are favourites for the last play-off spot. But a loss here, gives the bottom half of the table hope. Imo Oxford are strengthened & Poole weakened by missing riders, so no excuses if Cheetahs lose.

Years ago I'd have agreed with you. Not so much nowadays. There seems to be far more rain-offs than before, current machinery not suited to racing unless a track is perfect. Plus there's 4 Friday tracks, so fitting in postponed meetings would be difficult. Some clubs seem reluctant to help others where there's no obvious reason they can't race on a particular date? There's been competitions not finished, finals raced on neutral tracks, finals raced in November. If they got rid of play-offs, so clubs had until the end of October to complete the fixtures it could work. But once they have to finish early to fit in the play-offs, problems will occur. One option could be to extend the BSN series (race an extra couple of clubs) or in Glasgow's case, enter the NDL.

I don't think anyone has commented that it won't be a good match etc, just that it should be correctly advertised. If the name doesn't matter, why not call it the Jubilee league final so Poole can say they held their leg

Poole still advertising the meeting as the riders championship, but the British Speedway website advertising as a development series fixture. Could this be a case of false advertising by Poole? Making out it's a bigger fixture than it actually is? Surely by now both Poole & the BSPL have noticed they are advertising different meetings, why hasn't one of them corrected the other? If it is the NDLRC Poole should be raging at the BSPL for not advertising it correctly. If it is a development series match, the BSPL should be telling Poole to be honest about their fixture. If the NDLRC is a development series match, then they should both be clearer about the fixture.

I think fans who feel Oxford have "robbed" them would stay away. They wouldn't be expecting money off this match, but feel let down by the promotion due to the refund for a future Premiership match.

Or they have faith in their riders to turn it around? Perhaps more realistically feel there's no one average wise, who would improve the team?