Aces High

Cook isn't riding in the Championship in 2018.

The rules and quality changes too much to recycle averages. If a rider rode in the league in the previous season they should retain their average. If they rode in the league below in the previous season they should have that average converted (1.3 currently seems ok). If they didn't ride in the UK in the previous season they should be re-assessed based on a clearly defined criteria to a round number (3.00,4.00,5.00,6.00,7.00,8.00 (Min for GP riders). It really shouldn't be that difficult.

How is this thread discussing Poole's poles yet again!!!! Anyway, pleased that the team has finally been announced. I hope Max can step into Bjerre's shoes, I think he will!

Couldn't care less about Poole, our team will go well around the NSS and will spring a few surprises away from home for sure.

Exactly. Holder was desperate to sign for another club but the asset system prevented that. Back on topic is there a way to find out which riders are assets of Belle Vue?

Etheridge can't do much worse than Jack Smith's 1.75 and we still made the playoffs and won the KOC in spite of that. If Drozdz does end up dropping into reserve we would still be ok there, that could actually be beneficial. DB is too talented to be at reserve for long so that is a transition he is going to have to make sooner or later. Poole's team looks good but I think it would be unfair to compare the lineups as this team has obviously been put together to a very different budget. Wolves and Swindon are a more similar comparison as they also had to choose between two over 8 riders and all three clubs have chosen to sacrifice their number one to keep the bulk of the team together. All three teams look fairly equal to me but it will be interesting to see how it pans out over the first few months of the season.

We will be good at home, might be hit and miss away.

Iversen holds the NSS track record though which would suggest they would be evenly matched there too!

The same. In terms of top riders we lost Lindgren and Bjerre and gained NKI and Vaculik. Belle Vue - Weaker Kings Lynn - Roughly the same Leicester - Stronger Poole - Stronger Rye House - The same Somerset - Stronger Swindon - Weaker Wolves - Weaker All three teams affected by the one over 8 rule are now weaker, two teams have strongly benefitted from it, two should have benefitted but dont look great on paper (not to write them off) and one is stronger by some shrewd numbers.

Hope you get Kenny B, he would be easily one of the best number 1's. He lost out on the one over 8 rule more than anyone.

Kyle had three heats per meeting with a rider who seemed to spend all of the home meetings trying to break his own track record too. No doubt affected his average somewhat as three's weren't really attainable.

Plus he was riding at 2 so he was programmed to share a lot of rides with the best rider in the National League last year. Looks so natural on the bike for such a young lad and riding at Workington will only help him. He'll be absolutely smashing it for the Colts this year.

I'm a big football fan, and Kings Lynn could be terrible this year, but I think I would still rather watch that Stars meeting than an England team led by Summer Harry Kane.

Waiting for the Polish league to lift the cap on signatures over three characters long.

That's good to hear, I don't really follow Polish speedway too closely so as hyderd said it is more because he is an unknown quantity. It will be interesting to see how he goes....if he hits the ground running at the NSS then overseas clubs might start to look at us as a softer landing place for their young talent which could be helpful.

Not exactly overwhelmed but looking forward to seeing what he can do.

Isn't Bjerre doing three leagues already so in the same boat as NKI? Shame he doesn't have a ride in the UK, Lynn could do a lot worse.

I think he is somewhere in the middle of the number ones announced so far but it would have been mad to bin him off given that he is coming off of his best season, is our captain and being unable to afford an expensive team. No way his commitment can be doubted either!

Massive year for Craig, I hope he can take his chance to reach the 'next level'. He might not be the strongest rider in the league but he is one of ours and nowadays it is uncommon for any rider to stick with one team for so long. Good luck to him! It will be interesting to see how well forcing riders into your team works for Poole and Lynn

So will it be Max, Dan, Craig, Polish dude or mystery reserve revealed tomorrow? My money is on Dan.

True, even football doesn't fill stadiums week in week out in this country anymore. The thing I don't get is that speedway races are 1 minute long which is ideal for creating digital content only nobody seems bothered to do do anything with it.

It's annoying, and seems silly, but it is the best way to do it because of how twitter and facebook newsfeeds work. Announcing the team in one go would get lost in the news feed on the day it is published. If it is split out into 7 stories (or 14 as they seem to be doing a post the day before about an announcement) that continue to generate likes and comments over a period of time far more people are likely to see at least one of the announcements that way. Other than the one reserve we all know the team anyway.

6.18. Delighted Rohan is back. Wasn't sure about the signing last year but seems to really be a good fit. He has been fantastic in Aus too, both in the GP and the Aussie Championship. Seemed keen to comeback too given that he has been wearing his aces racegear all winter!

Your maths might he a bit wrong there, i make it that leaves 4.19.

You would think so but Max's progress kind of levelled out a bit last year. Hopefully he can kick on and become the rider we all hope he can be. His aim should be hitting around the 8.00 this year.