Islander15

I can't see Harris back there.

Brendan Johnson is the first signing!

Hmm I wonder if Rob has picked an NL rider with talent but a year too early again. Perks, Williamson & Bates all spring to mind in that category.

I think he's ridden plenty of laps round Rye!

Surely it should go to the National Speedway Stadium?

Teams finally know what they're building to: 40!

I'm surprised teams voted to bring back the play-offs. The Gold Cup seemed to work.

Oops autocorrect.

National League AGM 2016 • Isle of Wight Warriors and Belle Vue Colts are accepted into a 12 team league, alongside the 10 from last season. • The competing teams are Birmingham, Belle Vue, Buxton, Coventry, Cradley, East our elite, Kent, King's Lynn, Isle of Wight, Mildenhall, Rye House and Stoke. • The points limit is increased to 40.00. • The play-off return to decide the league championship and the top 4 teams will compete with the cut-off date being September 25th. • The National Trophy has expanded to 6 teams and will feature 2 groups of 3. The North group is Birmingham, Buxton and Stoke, whilst the South group is Isle of Wight, Kent and Mildenhall. The winner of each group will meet in the final for the title. • Tactical rides have been removed for all meetings. • The NL Fours remains at Coventry and is on Sunday 14th August. This will featuring the top 7 teams and Coventry as hosts. • The NL Pairs remains at King's Lynn and is likely to be in mid-summer with the date to be confirmed. • The NLRC will be moving from Rye House, however it's still TBC where and when. • League fixtures will be released in late January and the KOC draw before Christmas. • In the event of a clash with a PL fixture and a rider missing, teams will have he choice of R/R or a guest.

I thought that rule was changed a couple of years ago.

Your last point is probably the reason he's been signed! If a team is looking to the long-term then you'd prefer a young rider, which especially with Kent looking to move up the league you would have originally expected. But their team is looking good for next year so far. Maybe Kingston and Mason could work as a pairing at 3 & 4? Mason can go out and win the home heats and use his experience as a team player to calm down Jack and bring out the potential in Kingston that he clearly has.

I understand why you would drop the tactical ride for home teams and it's the only reason that Mildenhall beat Buxton at home this year. If the Isle of Wight and Belle Vue are accepted I wouldn't be surprised if there's not enough teams that want extra fixtures for the National Trophy to run.

That's a very valid point and Stoke did it with both reserves last year! Kent look like a good team so far. If Clifton can produce the scores that he did 12+ years ago then they'll have one of the better reserve pairings and a top 2 with improvement in them. Idk where this myth is from that Shanes doesn't beat top riders, because he did last year and from the back! Imo him and Ayres should be looking at retaining the Pairs title this year.

They built the team around him last year and he struggled at first, but then he ended with some good scores, has a real average now and is very entertaining to watch. Surely that ticks all Rob's boxes and now is when Scunny want him, rather than a gamble last winter? I'm tempted to agree that maybe Glasgow offered a lot of money, but he's not really been in the picture all winter as Rob knew his team very early. So I'm a bit confused by this one.

You use the higher of his old NL average or his current PL average doubled, if a rider has missed one or more NL seasons but ridden PL.

You're spot on Alex and its a bad idea in the NL especially as you'd be taking rides away from the weaker/younger riders who need as much track time as possible rather than putting a heat leader in a race that he can win easily.

I think this years experiment worked. Teams outside of the top 3 were still pushing to make the Gold Cup (Buxton brought in JPB, Coventry tried to fit in as many meetings by the cut-off as they could and look how Rye hit form late on) and it kept the league competitive despite Birmingham looking like league winners for a long time.

Is Jacobs definitely riding this year?

I just pressed report on my post. So I don't know who did it.

Hopwood might start at number 1.

I had to ask 3 times!

Does Bowen have the relationship with this management like he does with Len though.

Who do you suggest at number 1?

Lee Payne?

Who? I don't think it'll stay that low, but its not impossible.