beckettlion

Lions had Lebedevs signed up initially last season (before him and Wolbert made way for King and Bates). His average had been assessed to 7.00 then

I personally like the team for the fact we will always have a potential match winner at reserve (Newman or Bates) and second string (king or piesczcek). Plenty of strength in depth. Now just to hope we’re a bit luckier this season!

Scrap that! Bates has just announced he will be racing next season on his Twitter. Great news

If Bates isn’t riding I hope the promotion would try and re-sign Nicolai Klindt. Similar average to Bates and has previously shown he could be a heat leader at Beaumont Park.. would be a good addition heard the final rider will be announced at some point within a week!

Someone said they'd heard from his mechanic that Kim doesn't intend on riding in the UK in 2018. I was wondering if anyone knew what the plan was with Bates now? The statement says they'll support him, but doesn't mention if they're now building the team with him in it or a team assuming his services won't be available.

Would sooner see us invest in a young british rider than Simon Lambert.. Georgie Wood would presumably come in on a 2.00 average? Was impressive at reserve for Sheffield in the relegation play off

Is this a hint towards Scott Nicholls? Wouldn't mind that at all!

Delighted with these 2 signings.. both can improve on their averages. Would appreciate the club confirming Vaculik and Pieszcsek's averages though!

Think I saw on either facebook or twitter that someone had suggested that Kim Nilsson was not returning to British speedway this year.. Vaculik Bates Pieszscek Riss King Newman Would leave 3.77 for the final reserve, would allow a little more strength in reserve. Jan Graversen? Max Clegg? Jack Smith?

Laugh all you like, I for one am really excited to watch a grand prix rider line up for the Lions again. Think our whole fan base will be delighted to get behind Martin and I'm sure he'll be excellent! He may not live up to his 9.00 average, but Doyle didn't maintain his 13+ average from the start of last season and Swindon still won the title. Think our promotion would still have gone for Vaculik had they known he would be on an assessed 9.00 anyway

Suggestion of Leicester Speedway getting 'preferential treatment' seem's bizarre as we've been the basement club pretty much since we stepped up to the top tier! Now I don't disagree with the product having been watered down, it may be logical for the assessed averages to coincide with them. However, it's not really been the case in recent times (I can't recall anyone coming in with an assessed average about 7.00 in recent years? Correct me if I'm wrong), so I don't see it being considered preferential should it work this was for the Lions. Vaculik and Pieszczek are both really exciting signings and finally looking like we may have a team for the fans to get excited about. I'd have thought 7.5 (MV) and 6.00 (KP) would probably be logical and relatively fair assessments (as no one is sure how well either rider will commit and adapt) for British speedway. Lions fans, that leaves 29 points for 5 riders. Who would you like/ suggest may be making up the team? Bates seems a given for me (5.53) Newman is a steal on 4.68 - hopefully he'd sooner return to the club that gave him the opportunity, rather than Poole who sacked him! Kim Nilsson would be a popular return (7.05) Danny King is good value on 6.54 Leaves 5.02 for the final rider... Manzares said on twitter he's looking for accomodation in the midlands for next season. Would fit on a 4.18 Joe Jacobs could also be a good option on a 4.67 Josh Auty would be a popular rider and good at 4.76 Could possibly go left field again and get a young foreign rider on an assessed 5.00 These are the averages I found on the SpeedwayGB website, however some riders had different averages at different clubs (if they'd had multiple teams last season) so I don't know what their official average would be

I just wonder if its Sayfutdinov or Laguta, remember there were strong suggestions of a Russian to lead the team when we first made the step up to the top tier (although it never came to fruition). Would be a notable improvement on Bondarenko, the last Russian I remember in Lions colours- always gated, first into the first turn and fourth coming out of bend 2!

Nilsson and Przedpelski definites as heat leaders. Bates, Bjerre and Riss could either be great value for average or poor value, depending on how they finish the season. They've all dropped into reserve at some point- where they're obviously good value, but if they increased their averages to become heat leaders, they won't be good value

Thanks, as I say, from my view point, looked like Nilsson was on the outside and they could have at least brought all 4 back. But I'll take your word for it! Heard that Pawel has suspected ligament damage, but they're taking him to hospital for Xrays to check if there's any bone damage. Really hope it's not as bad as the accident looked, would love to see Pawel racing for Leicester again this season

Never come away from a meeting with such conflicting feelings... The racing tonight was possibly the best I've ever seen at Leicester. The effort the boys put in was incredible, Lasse and Erik were amazing at reserve, beating heat leaders, excellent passing. Erik in heat 14, to put everything behind him, when he was so visibly shaken and take the 3 points was just unbelievable! But to lose in such circumstances was gut wrenching. From where I was, to disqualify Nilsson seemed such a bizarre decision (but I could be wrong). But I just can't stop worrying about Pawel- has anyone heard any news? One of the worst crashes I've seen live. (Incidently, all the bad crashes at Leicester seem to be in televised meetings- Michelsen and Woffinden have both been over the fence in TV meetings before, from memory). Also, to lose Kyle so early on was a massive shame, can't wait to watch him get going in Lions colours. Thoughts are with Pawel and his injury, and Erik as it can't be easy having been out there at the time (seems harsh to suggest Erik intentionally fenced him)

Replacing a young Brit who is injured for the foreseeable future and wasn't performing*** You can't be certain Pawel will leave if he rediscovers form, Wozniak was committed to Leicester for 2 seasons until he'd had enough of the ownership (who no longer run the club). Whilst many Poles have left british speedway, you can't tar them all with the same brush. Seems unfair to 'hope he has a shocker' as he's coming over to better himself in his profession and hopefully help a club in desperate need of it! Looking forward to seeing Pawel and Kyle Newman. Hope Kyle goes as well round Beaumont Park as a Lion as he did when he was a Pirate! £9.99 is great value, great weather for it, hopefully the track is prepared well and the sun doesn't interfere too much. Come on you Lions!

Perks looked good the other week. Hope he performs as well for us as he did against us!

Garrity listed to ride for Redcar tonight so no reason he wouldn't be racing for the Lions tomorrow. No fixture clashes for any of our Double Uppers, provided Danny Ayres is back from injury, the Lions should have full 1-7.

Delighted to see Lasse make what could well be his best score since he was announced as a permanent team member! Glad to see King picking up some form though. Good result with a depleted septet and poor recent form.

It was said tongue in cheek, not an actual belief that that's the case.. but I don't intend on getting stuck in the perpetual cycle of argument with yourself

Ayres doesn't need replacing, the lads been doing pretty well in comparison to the other number 7s and only struggled monday after a fall for Cradley then being dumped into the fence in his first ride when Perks tried to pass when there was no space. I don't think it was intended to hurt him, but a daft attempt at a pass. Bjerre is the one that should be in immediate danger. Riding like he's been sent on a mission by the Bees to bring us down from the inside. Hope Agent Bjerre isn't the case and he starts to pull his finger out! Garrity is the other one that may be looking over his shoulder. Needs to sort his mechanical gremlins out, he's no use to us as a heat leader only completing 2 heats a meeting. Looks good once he gets going, hopefully just dusting off the cobwebs now he's back in the top tier.

Having looked at the fixtures on the SpeedwayGB site, I can only see Ayres who will be riding on the same day. But an 8pm start at Cradley, so should be able to race for us first. Looks like a full Lions septet to me

Leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth this move... Not denying it improves the strength of the team and Lasse hasn't let us down when guesting this year, BUT, feels like we're starting to lose the Lions identity we were promised we'd keep. Before the season it was 'no changes will be made to accommodate Coventry riders into the team'. Now, if you include the manager, we have 4 members of the Coventry team (Lynch, King, Bates, Lasse) and only 4 remaining Lions from the initial team. To further this, Auty is and was a fans favourite amongst the Leicester faithful and was the only continuation of the team from previous years.

Good to see Josh Auty scored 14 today for Scunthorpe. Hopefully this will kick start his season. Him, King and Gomolski have been underperforming so far. If those three race like they can then we really will be a force to be reckoned with this season

Don't think Schlein strengthens over Riss, the way Erik has started the season for us. Klindt is head and shoulders above any of the other reserves in the meeting and should make the difference. Fortunately for us, King seems to have sorted his mechanical gremlins out last night and Nilsson is flying at the moment