szkocjasid

100% past his best, but may still be the best rider available on a 4.00 average.

Now Rew has a 4.00 Prem ave, he'd have a 6.00 converted ave for the Champ.

For a few years, since the bad weather has caused play-offs to have been ridden in terrible weather in October / November, there's been some calls for teams to start with the league then run "extra" competitions after. I think the jubilee league has shown how that would not work! You can be sure teams would make far more effort to put on a play-off final than a jubilee league etc final. Worse comes to worse, can do what the NL may have done & declare top of the "qualifying" league as champions. At least the BSN trophy, has been shown more respect than the jubilee league was, clubs not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them!

MacDonald hasn't impressed me, didn't reach his 4.00 average at Scunny & had a horrendous time at Oxford, granted he had injury issues. However he'd be at reserve, so against 2.00 riders could be ok. Personally I'd pick Proctor ahead of him.

Lambert is a fantastic signing for Scunny after his form last year, he could be in a par with Cook & better than some 3rd heat leaders too.

Looked fine when I saw him this year (first appearance) plus riding there every week would help him. I'd be happy with his signing.

Unless Scunny sign a higher averaged rider I can only assume Allen will be their 2nd heat leader (I never said number 5) even so Riss has a lower average than Justin, plus if Schlein, Barker & B.Cook are all better riders, why do they have lower averages? They may be better in the Prem, but not in the Champ. I agree they may appear better riders, but Sedgy didn't get a 7.69 average by being poor, he even did that riding at number 5 in what was a tougher league last year (compared to this). I don't necessarily believe Sedgmen would be a great signing, but don't understand how people think he'll be a terrible signing?

Not bottom of the rankings for me, don't think Brummies second strings are any worse than Belle Vue or Ipswich's imo The other 4 teams do look stronger.

Aside from the discussion of Brennan & Thomsen vs Rowe & Newman. What about S.Worrall & Roynon, that would have come to 37.99. Roynon's surely no worse than Thomsen, but Worrall for Brennan is a decent upgrade imo.

Palm-Toft & Vissing would be great signings imo, but that leaves 4.23 for a reserve & look at the struggles Poole had to find someone on that average!

Why? Sedgmen has a higher average than Schlein, Barker, B.Cook & Allen who are second heat leaders.

Can't say signing Brennan is a "no brainer" while Brennan should improve, I don't think the improvement will be so massive it's worth signing him regardless of who they'd find as the 7th signing.

1) if he was more consistent he'd have a 7+ average & wouldn't fit in the team 2) who would you pick instead?

If that were true, why not give Katie Gordon the number 7 spot? Obviously they want to sign someone stronger, so winning does come into it. Clubs will still want to be competitive - not suggesting this would happen to Redcar, but if a team got thrashed every week & no fans turned up, leading to the club pulling out the following season, there would be even less spaces for developing riders.

Agreed, good signings all

While Max Perry gets dropped because he developed too much in a development league!

Joe T really should be aiming for the greatest ever NL ave, rivalling Kennett, Mason, Howe etc. I'm a bit confused by Leicester's thinking, with their Premiership hat on they think Joe can take scalps & is good enough for the Prem, but with their NL hat on, he feels Joe needs another season in a far weaker league - those two trains of thought don't make sense together? Also if they really are focussed on "development" doesn't Max Perry need another NL season more than Joe T?

I hadn't given Ablitt a reduction, thinking there's a rule that once you've gone above 3.00 you can't drop below it? This rule was ignored for Kyle Bickley who was allowed to drop below 3.00 bit bit for the likes of Roynon or William Lawson over the last 2/3 seasons. It's hard to know the rules when they aren't consistently adhered to! Maybe as it's exactly 3.00, he can drop below it - my understanding is fractions are rounded up so 2.93.

Thomsen can't drop below 4.00, which should suit Poole tbh. If he's awful, they can replace him with another 4.00 rider (& repeat till they find a good one). Even if he's riding to a 3.00 ave & Hagon goes up to 3.99, Hagon could replace him in every match as he'd still be at reserve!

Oxford have a better top 2, Redcar have a better middle 3, but Oxford's reserves have the most potential for improvement imo

I'm gonna have to agree with the suggestion made that Rowe & Newman combined would have scored more than Brennan & Thomsen. If Rowe gets a Champ spot, will be interesting to compare their final averages.

I believe he has retired, even so his average would have been to high for the last spot.

By my maths MPT & Mountain doesn't fit to complete the team. I'd go for MPT & Gilkes.

Cook as Poole's 4th "heat leader" has an average of 6.22. other teams 3rd heat leaders are Etheridge (5.91), Thompson (6.48), Flint (6.56), Jenkins (5.98), Newman (5.65), Jorgensen (6.39). So Cook is not far behind the best 3rd heat leaders in the league & stronger than the weakest. In a 38 point league, I'd say Poole certainly have "4 heat leaders"

He had dropped about a point off that average, but when Newcastle's fixtures were removed from the rolling averages (unnecessarily imo) the likes of him & Clegg were left with higher averages than their ability.