waiheke1

You are entitled to your opinio s but:1. While the gp has deprived the uk of rider s fir friday/saturday race nights, there are many factors which have contributed much more heavily to the decline of the el 2. By not wagching the gps you really are missing out on some excellent speedway, and i find it sad that genuine soeedway fans miss out on thr pinnacle of the sport they love out of some sense of "principle" 3. Egon would have been a top notch bl rider if he had committed to it, no question. In fact, it would have improved him as a rider and he could have been more of a threat in other finsls (remember 81 he finished ahead of the likes of lee morton nielsen without the home advantage he enjoyed in 83).

And 72.8% of quoted statistics are made up

Tbf to the wind up merchant, thj or mjj for josh g or milik probably would strengthen the pirates. And realistically those two spots are tge area where poole could really strengthen if ford is concerned about losing come play off time. Not a criticism of either of pooles second strings, just a reflection of the current format.

Hancock Kk Hampel Pedersen

To qualify: Andersen Bjerre Cook Pawlicki Sundstrom Harris Magic Doyle Josh g Kus

Perhaps matt ford can just tell john cook the meeting is off on the grounds of fairness to the paying public. There weren't any repercussions of doing that last year, so not sure why there would be this this year, cant see how it would be any less "legit"

Thing is, at the start ofctge seadon shovvy was predicting poole to lose matches, and was accused of underselling the poole team. Then when he predicted poole wins he was accused of being arrogant. Poor chap (profanity filter) can't win. Tbf, its blatantly obvious that ss loves winding people up. Whereas other posters on here seem unaware of the ridiculousness of their own posts.

Id suggest any brit under 21, or any brit with less than three years el experience should be elegible - so a msx 3 years in the Draft (unless u21). So someone like auty would become eligible. Strengtgen the Draft pool, dont weaken it by forcing out the likes of garritty snd Kerr prematurely, is my view.

I can understand your frustration as a seindon fan, cos u got screwed when you lost bates.But kerr should be a draft rider this year, and next year too in my view. Draft should be maybe any brit under 21, or any brit under 27 with less than say 3 years el experience. Aim should be to get the drsft pool stronger, not instantly promote riders just to even out the pool.

What did he average in the meetings he rode as secomd string? Averaging 7 from there I would say is equal to averaging 4 as a hest leader. Has his form really chsnged thst much?

Yes. Its because he is racing in a heat leader spot, where you would expect him to score 3-4 a meeting.

Only if they used harris as a tac at 11 down. And there was no way of knowing in heat 9 what the heat 10 result would be? Dropping a point in the hope that it will stop a second tac sub from being used a few heats down the line seems quite fraught to me. Had harris won 10 on a tac sub or fisher picked up a point it would have looked like a ridiculous move.

but if hopwood fall s u are still 11 up? So they could have used tac ride next time out or held on for next heat. You would have needed both to fall in heat nine to avoid them getting a rac sub ride. Snd then josh g do the same in heat 10? Whereupon the 5-1 to coventry in heat 11 would still be a momentum swinger

So with hansen a 5, does that mean larsen fits?

The only reason? Nothing to do with also having the strong est heat leader trio, or arguably the most improved second strings?

You could use a ts any heat after heat 4. A tr now gives u a max 3 point gain e.g. turns a 5-1 to a 8-1. A double ts could change a 1-5 to a 5-1 which is an eight point gain. This h a s been explained a million times. This meeting though was a rare occasion where the current system was more beneficial to tge trsiling ream.

Harris scored ss expected. Fisher youd only expect to score a couple at poole. Sergeant maybe three. So msybe 5 extra, but then they wouldnt have used the tr. And if ward hadnt fallen, or magic performed better, poole would have scored more.

I actually feel sorry for swindon management this season, as on paper they put to gether a decent team at the start of the season: A genuine top two, not as good as KL/Pool/wolves, but still decent A third heat leader in Morris who was always going to find it hard under the new format, but stronger than the likes of proctor/Hansen, and ith good potential. Two second strings who while not the strongest pair, should have contributed solid scores week in week out under this format. Two decent reserves in Worrall and bates So what happened. Firstly, lost bates, meaning one of the weakest number 7s in the league – costing 2-3 points a meeting. Secondly, had not one but both the biggest underperforming second strings in the league – both contributing 2-3 points per meeting less than could be reasonably expected. 3rd – Batch got called up to the GPs, meaning i imagine he will miss a few meetings, weakening the robins on those occasions. So, the team has been delivering around 8 po\ints a meeting less than you could have reasonably expected. North as a replacement is now showing what he can do, and Gustaffson must surely go – some people mock, but while i am no fan, i think Kennett would be an very solid replacement, 6.5 points per meeting would be the absolute minimum i’d expect him t score from that position even with no improvement on current form he should score 4 from 4 v second strings, 1.5/2 from 3 vs second strings, 0.5/1 from 5 against HL).

I think the format has had pretty much the anticipated outcomes: 3rd HL (and weaker first and second) have struggled, and dropped averages, as you’d expect. Also predictably, these riders have come in for heavy criticism from fans who obviously don’t understand that this was a statistical certainty. So the likes of Proctor, Kennett, Schlein, Hansen, Harris, Bridger, King, Cook (away) etc. have all been tagged as underperforming, when in reality that have performed much as a rational person would expect. And even more predictably, at least one team has dropped such a rdier, just as they dropped to second string. Ludicrous, not only given that the performances were pretty much as expected (you’d expect Kennet to score around 4 as a HL in this format, 7+ as a second string, so he was under performing by a touch over 1 a meeting), but that a) a rider deemed good enough at the start of the season not given chance to reclaim form as a second sting and b)the rider is now available to other teams on a reduced average.Surely they should at least give riders a few meetings as second string, if for no other reason than the almost certainty that they will increase average. Co-incidence that the likes of Bridger and Proctor have now started scoring well after dropping down to second string – no doubt some fans think they have just re-discovered form? Similarly the likes of Bech, Fisherhave significantly dropped their scoringafter promotion to HL slots. As expected second strings putting plenty of points on their average. Even the two biggest underperformers (Klindt and gustaffson) have basically maintained their average. But apart from those to riders, almost no second strings have come in for criticism, instead plenty of praise for the “improvement” second strings have shown. Note: Clearly I’m not saying that HL should be exempt from criticism , nor that second strings shouldn’t be praised – simply that the balance of criticism/praise should be more measured. Next season: Clearly, massive issues in terms of how averages will be used for team building. The “imbalance” isn’t really new. Clearly, a 5 point rider who spent the whole season at reserve was historically not as good as a rider who achieved a 5 in the main body of the team. Similarly, an 8 point rider who rode in most of his teams “heat 15s” was clearly a better performer than an 8 pointer who was rarely called on in such heats. All that has happened this year is that this difference has been exaggerated. One solution is that a “weighting” be used for scores achieved as a second string (say a 50% “multiplier.”) It would be reasonably easy come the end of the season to find a fair statistical basis for this. However – plenty of speedway fans say the “double point” rule is too difficult to understand, so god knows how they would cope with such a system, and no doubt Poole would be accused of fiddling the system no matter how transparent the calculation methodology. The other major issue is that if such a system applied only for team building at the start of the season, but not re-declarations during 2015, the excercise would have essentially been wasted, as within a month of the season starting, averages would again be skewed (assuming same format kept). And if you are going to “weight” for meetings as second strings, do you then need to do the same for riders racing in heat 15? what about riders racing in the tougher number 5 spot (meet HL 10 times and 2nd strings twice) compared to numbers 1 and 3 (8 v HL and 4 v 2nd strings). So clearly issues with “weighting.” But if you don’t what happens – the likes of Porsing and Palm toft will be unemployable next season on a 6, when you will be able to have the likes of Harris/Schlein on a similar average. How do you assess new riders to the league, when they would be a 9 pointer as a second sting or a 4 pointer as a HL)? The draft riders I think are fine, it will be easy enough to convert a “reserve average” to an average usable if they are to join the main body of the team (or it may just be assumed a “3”) – and also to rank draft list riders. In terms of outcome of format on success/otherwise of teams, again i think it has been as predicted: A strong top to is essential, always has been in the days of tactical subs, more so when the nominated heat came in and even more so under the new format At least one strong reserve is essential, ideally two. Second strings on low starting average with the potential to increase by to or three points is the ideal, particularly if you have a third heat leader strong enough to get solid scores and allow these “weaker:” 2nd strings to hoover up the easy points from second string. The other benefit of this approach is potential to replace these second strings with inflated averages with much stronger riders. Fans viwe. Those that were open and supportive of the concept seem tpo have noted more even racing, as heats match riders who are of a more equal standard. Those who were against the draft have bemoaned the dilution of quality, riders finishing well off the pace and made nonsencial claims about teams being of/below PL standard. Seems in a lot of cases people’s minds were made up well in advance of the season. Thoughts...?

Its cos your black innit.I'd get a human rights lawyer if I were you...

Tbf, in 80 he also had two rides off gate 3, which rrturned a total of 19 points all night (4 from jessup). on world final night, the smallest advantages/disadvantages could make the critical difference.

Exactly this. The weakness in the coventry side is the lack of a third hl. Hansen struggled there too, but is scoring big as a second string. Harris's official average is around a point higher than fishers- but he will outscore fisher by well over a point in a hl role, even from the more difficult number 5 slot.

Dont have the averages in front of me, but I think the only way to get holder in for magic would involve two three pointers at second string.If poole strengthen it will be by replacing milik and/or josh g when their averages get high enough imho. Think most had kl top in tge league, though more may have tipped poole to win the play offs

Well done you! I would say only 75% of people picker that at the start of the season

racecards only get big letters if they are truly innovative