tyler42

The way he has rode the last half of the season, He has gone massively down hill. It all coincided with him moving up into the team at Poole and signing for Leicester. These last three big meetings for poole he has shown no appetite whatsoever. I really thought against Oxford last week he would get a hatful against the likes of Coles, Smith and Bourghen. He got lucky in heat 1 when miles behind, getting a point with Boughen's E/F Didn’t score or looked like scoring a point after. Even Smith beat him!!! As others have said his name has helped him get the chances he's had. Saying all that, depending what team Oxford put out Wednesday. He could score a hatful if it's Coles and Smith at reserve!! 👍

Ellis has shown promise on and off, but Howarth is what they called in the old days a journeyman. As for Coles, It just shows how poor the standards are now. Whereas the Polish equivalent is light years ahead of us. World Champion and some Ex GP riders!!

Having watched this meeting. Was the lack of GP stars and other top riders due to being an end of season meeting or was there a criteria to use lesser riders?

Very good post👍👍

Very nice photos

Thank you

Is the scoring system 3210 or 4320?

You are quite correct. The riders you mentioned have not gone on to be GP standard, but I would suggest all three ride in the hardest league in the world. Bar Bewley and Lambert, no other British rider is competing at that level. Of course you could say, " put them on a uk track and they would be pants" but the facts are they all ride in the main body of the team and don't if they are struggling get to drop back down to reserve. If they don’t perform they are then shipped off to the lower leagues. Out of interest, the Polish U24 league has a list of the top 100 riders. Young Aussie Keynan Rew is top. You have to go down to 35 Rowe, 38 Flint and 55 Giilkes https://ekstraliga.pl/en/se/classification-list/u24e/2024 So the above British riders should surely be a lot higher up that list, due to riding in our top league?

It's Different times I suppose. Throughout the 70s,80s and 90's we had young talent coming through by bucketloads, but that was because we had a great feeder program called grass track. Now we have kids starting out in the youth series under Neil Vatcher. They just progress through the ranks and ride against each and because of the lack of riders compared to yesteryear, they all get a team place in the NDL. They then progress into the CL and as we have witnessed this season, even in a very low standard CL they are not good enough. How many of the riders who made their debut over the last two season in the CL would you say have a bright future? Young Luke Harrison, Killeen, Dan Thompson Look the best contenders to me. Some of the others look so far out of their depth and wlll never make it. That is not their fault. It's the system.

Andy Smith was thrown in at the deep end when 16. Mark Loram, Joe Screen same age. Sink or swim. They all went on to be great riders. We had Peter Schroeck saying the other day how Jody Scott is only 17 and he must protect him!! The three above riding when the top league was a lot harder than today.

Do you honestly think, match ups between the likes of Connor Coles, Jack Smith and Hagon against the riders Lawson Cook and Masters in the same races is value for money. Yes its money for old rope for the heat leaders, but not for the supporters!. You only have to look at Hagon. Hardly scored a point when promoted into the team and what points he does score, are when someone falls or has an E/F. So if these boys go into the main body of the team and we have riders moving up from the NDL of the calibre of Sam Mcgurk. £10 would be too much!!!!

World Champions and world class riders 22/23 of age: Michael Lee Champion 22, Peter Collins Champion 22, Kelly Moran 4th in 79 world final 19, Tommy Knudsen 3rd 81 world final 20, Kelvin Tatum 3rd 86 world final 22, I could carry on all night! Take Connor Coles and Jack Smith last night, they looked a pair of complete novices. I don't know how long he's been riding but Connor is 30 years of age. Jack is 24. Do you think these two will eventually develop? They have rode most of their careers in the NDL. Now because the CL is so weak they find themselves riding in the CL outclassed on a regular basis, only beating riders who themselves are of NDL standard. The CL, we are getting told will most likely be weaker again next season !!! I bet the entrance fee won’t reflect on that though!

No get it right, the team have won trophies. Hagon's contribution has been woful in all three finals. To be fair to the lad he did win the u21 championship, but his form has dipped terrible in the latter part of the season.

Can it get any weaker!!!

Difference between natural talent and a young guy with tons determination. I know who I would like in my team and his name isn’t Boughen

Doesn’t matter how much talent you’ve got. If you've got no bottle then speedway is not a sport for you. I've seen plenty of young talent over the years. Lee, Havelock , Screen and Loram to name but a few. Never saw them shut it off going into the 1st turn. How old was PC when he had the run off with Anders at Wembley? 17/18. Rider today think they are still learning at 19. They have been riding bikes since they could walk!! It's Embarrasing watching the likes of Coles and Smith attampting to ride a speedway bike. Got about 20 years experience between them!!! I think heat 8 was a prime example of Boughen and Coles

The only rider who I think would have been a better shout than Smith is Paul Stark Ave: 3.45

All depends on what side Oxford put out.

I agree 100%, Using a junior in the final when you had the option of using guest is a most bazaar decision on Oxford’s management team. Not Jody Scott's faults and he did get invaluable experience, which could hold him in good stead for next year. So many people said using him and a very fragile Boughen was going to be their downfall and so it proved. If you consider, even with the early loss of Killeen and the poor meeting for Scott Nicholls, Oxford were still in the hunt right up to heat 12. That though proved to be the turning point. There was a glimmer of hope that after beating Lawson, Boughen would get the better of Cooke or at least get a second, but he reverted to type and couldn’t beat the Poole reserve and the 5-1 that followed sealed their fate. So how do they go about the Cup final? Same team, same result. We shall see.

Heat 2 was a bit like when Vinny Jones clattered one of the Liverpool players in the 1st minute of the FA cup final. Only this time Poole's Vinny made sure Oxford's trump reserve was clattered, with the end result 0 points for Killeen!😉

Let's face it, even before losing Killeen Oxford were always going to be up against it. Barring one ride and a bloody good ride at that Boughen and Scott over the two meetings have scored 4 and 5 respectively with Scott not beating an opponent. Add in Nicholls poor performance tonight, beating only the two reserves in heat four and Hagon in heat six. The writing was on the wall. Poole were there for the taking, but Nicholls and Killeen needed to be on it. Unfortunately For Oxford that wasn’t the case. Too many passengers. They will have do something different if they want any chance of beating Poole in the cup. Otherwise it will be the treble for the Pirates.

I think that last tweet is a bit unfair on Vinny. Yes the other two have been very poor. Vinny won heat two, beating Kiieen in the process, then had a good 2nd. He has improved, just needs to settle down a bit. Could be a good signing for next season at Poole

If as people have been saying that Boughen is riding with an injury. What are the options for Oxford? Is it R/R or can they use a guest? Having watched him last week riding for Scunny against Poole and tonight. He has scored 1 point in seven rides. Don't think Oxford can carry him on Wednesday and win.

He's made a few shockers this season, but that has to take the award as the most incompetent decision this season!!

I'm surprised he didn't put Boughen in heat 15!!!