DC2

I thought he had a 10 point average for a couple of seasons?

I was looking at a fair conversion rate to CL averages for those PL riders who don’t have one, solely for one league.

There are 49 current PL riders and another 12 who averaged above 4 and finished without clubs, so yes, practically all would be heat leaders, although one would expect some higher averaged imports to come in, making those with a current average below 4 (Shanes, Sarjeant etc) second strings.

Yes, but the point I was making is that there is not a “one figure suits all” conversion rate. That for the best riders is lower than that for the worst riders.

It’s not a different issue. Nevertheless, one conversion rate is unsatisfactory, as the top riders score more points more often, the middle riders score up and down, and the bottom riders generally have middling to poor scores. So top riders like Cook have a conversion rate of 1.31, but middling CL riders like Ellis Perks have 1.79. I suspect Anders Rowe (4.38 CL) would have been a 2 pointer in the PL, giving a conversion rate of 2.19.

That’s irrelevant and entirely a result of team selections through the season. All teams started out with a limit of 38 and after the first matches the combined average was a bit lower than 42 (due to some races finishing with two riders). Subjective team changes were then made during the season due to loss of form and injuries, generally with lower averaged replacements coming in, so the combined average went another bit lower than 42. And so we ended up with 41.3. That will happen practically every season but it doesn’t change the facts that 42 is the objective limit and an above figure can bring in more higher averaged riders (from the PL or abroad) and a below figure can move higher averaged riders around, exclude some of them and reduce costs.

No, it’s not a different issue. You said Doyle, Fricke and Lambert would all be assessed at 12, which would be unfair as “Doyle is head and shoulders above” the other two. So I’ve given you a fair conversion rate which will give them different averages.

Unbeatable? They would beat each other from time to time and none of them would average above 11. No different from the Crump, Adams and Pedersen days.

Out of interest, Craig Cook, the top CL rider has a 10.18 CL average and a 7.78 PL one. The same ratio (1.308) gives Doyle a 11.72 CL average from his 8.96 PL average.

Yes, that was what I thought. With 13 applications in for the CL and 7 for the PL we could have one big league with 20 teams, but we would have to accommodate the likes of Jason Doyle, because we’d need all the riders we could get, and not saddle him with a ridiculous average.

Chris Harris was Ipswich number one for a while and doubling up will always be necessary if there are two leagues with different standards due to the lack of quality British riders. One big league would get rid of doubling up but riders’ averages would have to be reassessed and the best one might hope for would be something like Doyle 11 Perks 6 Stefan Nielsen 4.5 Kasper Andersen 5 Musielak 9 Rowe 4.5 Gilkes 2 42

Are there sufficient good riders for a 10 or 12 team PL? I doubt it. Even the 7 current teams appear to be struggling to attract and pay for quality riders.

Yes, but injuries and loss of form (Hans Andersen 5.79) or motivation and stepping up (Rasmus Jensen 7.86), make a big difference. Who would have signed Rasmus over Hans at the start of the season? And don’t forget, with six matches to go of the regular season, Kings Lynn and Belle Vue were still competing for the play offs, and even Swindon weren’t assured of a place. Only Boro were tailed off.

The £750 per meeting would be in addition to the current pay of a number one. If the standard of the PL does not improve and be clearly a level above the CL we might as well have one league. It used to be the case that CL number ones were PL reserves, now some are PL number ones too (Wright, Harris). It’s stupid.

No, eight is right for the PL, but only if it is significantly better than the CL. Eight teams of superior strength with eight GP riders would be good. Hasn’t the Extraliga in Poland got only seven teams now?

But how can Swindon afford Doyle? Or indeed the rest of their top five? Terry Russell says we can. How could Leicester afford Vaculik and Przedpelski? And Zagar rode here for several years; how has he become impossible to afford? Surely, if the PL is to be distinct from the CL it should aspire to have proper number one riders? Not Chris Harris and Charles Wright. There has to be some ambition. If BV, Wolves or Sheffield signed Zagar or Vaculik or Chris Holder would their average crowd not increase by 100 people and would not that cover the additional cost?

“Unbeatable Swindon” is a joke. We won only three away matches before the Play Offs and our reserves were generally pants. If the other teams replaced their four point reserves with five or six pointers they’d all be near 46 points.

Have Summers instead of Etheridge? That’s about 46.2

Wolves: Zagar Morris Schlein Thorssel Masters Douglas Becker

Or Pieszczek.

If Poole become Sheffield: Vaculik Grajczonek Holder Klindt Kurtz Jonasson Wells

Kings Lynn, swap Porsing for Bellego: Lambert Jorgensen Palm Toft Riss Cook Kerr Bellego

Belle Vue are four points below Swindon’s team so how about swapping Berge for Brady Kurtz. Would not this team stand a chance with an injury free season: Fricke Worrall Bjerre Bewley Kurtz Etheridge Lidsey

Poole will replace Sheffield so I assumed for the purposes of the question that they would take Sheffield’s riders so we’d need 14 riders for the extra two teams (Kent & Plymouth). I accept what you say, that Wolbert, Aspgren, Jepessen, Huckenbeck and Bellego, together with Busk Jacobsen are possible heatleaders for those teams. Whether or not they are affordable for the CL and would ride in it rather than the more lucrative Polish lower divisions is another matter. It will probably be necessary to have a limit no higher than 40 to ensure that the 22 current riders over 7.5 are more evenly shared around among the 13 clubs. Somerset have four of them!

It looks like there will be two extra teams compared to this year, so, assuming all of the existing teams stay the same and Poole take on Sheffield’s team (only 39.61 incidentally), could you please state the riders in the two new teams to a limit of 44? Here’s this year’s averages to help. http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/files/downloads/c19_issue_34.pdf