bloom89

No one is suggesting wholesale changes, Matty, James, Max & Paul and maybe Complin with a few more meetings should be fairly competitive at home but the fact is the team is too weak to carry 2 riders who've scored about 10 points between them in 4/5 meetings.

It's alright saying if we'd got 12 from Harris we didn't we got maybe what BWD would've got and if Complin hadn't retired he would've got 8 he didn't either. That's like saying if Clegg had made the gate 5 times he would've got a 15 point max... facts are he didn't. The simple fact is the team is just not good enough.

It's been a bit of an embarrassment since he bought the club he might be a great businessman but some of his speedway decisions leave a lot to be desired, the managerial merry go round before last season and it also seems he's not the best at building speedway teams.

I seen Edwards at I think the u19 final at Redcar a few seasons ago and he looked a very good prospect then he's got a great style and always looks in control on the bike. I applaud Redcar for going with Jenkins and Edwards this season some of the reserves they'll face will be difficult but great for sticking with both of them.

Yeah I get that but look at Flint, Brennan they coped pretty well too, like I say if you're good enough you'll be fine ours aren't. But I think our league should've kept the rising stars but like everything the bspa do they just come up with a plan stick with it for a season and that's it.

To be fair it's been like this for years and years, for example look at last season Palin was thrown in at the very deep end and he coped pretty much fine on the whole even beating Bewley at BV who's brilliant around there. If the reserves are good enough they'll cope whereas ours aren't and that's the main problem. It's a simple fact for riders to progress and get better they need to be riding against higher standard riders.

But if you look at it the same way Masters has done it for seasons travelling from the midlands to Scotland and back, Stevie Worrall has done it the last couple of seasons going to Poole and back and last season for us Barker who has also ridden for Berwick and Glasgow so riders will do it.

Yeah I get that, but the riders I named don't ride in Poland and probably not abroad at all, throw in the likes of Richard Lawson, Cook, Wells, Howarth, Barker, Wright and Ostergaard who we've previously had and there are plenty of riders there.

Didn't we have Connor Coles a few seasons ago? He struggled to get around Brough I'm sure.

Is Poland really that big a problem though? In the past we've had Danny King, Robert Lambert, Richie & Stevie, Lewis Kerr but apart from Lambert now in Poland, the others haven't returned for various reasons and last season we tried for Batchelor and he wasn't riding Poland and Vissing didn't ride at all last year but Birmingham signed him so why couldn't we? Nicholls doesn't ride in Poland and he joined a team that's just been brought back no one knows how that will go so there's an element of risk attached to that. I can't imagine BWD and Congreve being cheap usually with Aussies or NZ they generally want air fair paid, plus a van, and somewhere to stay during the season. Now your'e not telling me if you tried to go for Nicholls for example if you dangled a few extra pounds in front of him or Harris yes he rides in France sometimes but I'm sure we could've worked around his schedule he has to pass Newcastle to get to Berwick!

To be fair he couldn't pick a team any worse than we currently have.

Also don't understand why Berwick tm didn't swap Etheridge for Bickley in heat 4 and then swap them around in 6 then by heat 8 Bickley would've had his 3 rides and Etheridge could've taken his other.

Considering Bickley only rode at armadale last week he looks so tentative getting around, and Proctor looks very poor.

At last some good news

I get what your saying and I agree to an extent but straight away you can take Masters, Andersen, Riss & Douglas away from us because of riding abroad I think, then you add Pickering and Ellis into that list. That's more than half the teams in the league. Then you could have the factor of riders not wanting to ride for certain clubs yes they might have no choice but what happens say if Newcastle got Batchelor for instance he wasn't happy riding brough every week and his average drops like last season the club part ways and he goes on to sign for someone else and starts banging in big scores again? In Newcastle's defence they have a budget which they rightly stick to and I think every team should only pay what they can afford but IMO this team is no better than last years and we all know how that played out.

Sincerely hope so but against our nearest and dearest it'll be a tough one! I can Redcar winning if I'm honest but hope I'm wrong.

Lindgren had a couple of away tracks he was ok at the others he was useless. IMO with the experience Clegg has he shouldn't be scoring zero anywhere.

Clegg is like Lindgren mark 2 great at brough but useless away. Less said about BWD the better.

Here's my team, thanks. 1) Jason Edwards 8.84 2) Henry Atkins 5.86 3) Nathan Ablitt 6.29 4) Joe Alcock 4.36 5) Joe Thompson 8.52 6) Archie Freeman 3.00 7) Luke Killeen 3.00 Total 39.87

Here's my team, 1) Jason Edwards 8.84 2) Henry Atkins 5.86 3) Nathan Ablitt 6.29 4) Joe Alcock 4.36 5) Joe Thompson 8.52 6) Archie Freeman 3.00 7) Luke Killeen 3.00 Total 39.87

Auty is like the modern day Adam Alott fantastic at Sheffield, Scunthorpe and not so good at most other places.

I think part of the problem nowadays is that riders get too hung up on having the best equipment and so much of said equipment, and they have 2/3 maybe even 4 bikes and they aren't sure which one is the best. I'm sure I recall when Christian Henry rode for Newcastle he only had one bike and basically had to make it work and score points.

BSPL the Fifa of speedway

To be fair to Auty though I've noticed he's had the same colour scheme for the past few years also but he's probably not on brilliant money so if his bike covers etc are in decent condition then surely you'd spend on more important things like the bikes? Although I've no idea if he's using the same engines as in season's gone by but you often read of riders digging old engines out the workshop and riding them again and scoring points so I wouldn't hold that against Auty entirely. I know in the speedway star he's had personal problems now I don't know if he's started the season and realized that his head isn't in speedway anymore I'm just guessing but it's not a sport where you want to be going in to it half hearted because you then become a danger to yourself and the other riders.

I actually think this will be closer than people think, Berwick have a couple of riders with question marks hanging over them, are we going to see the Proctor of last season or the one of the season before. Wells average has been dropping the last couple of seasons is it permanent decline or were there other issues? And for Birmingham Ellis is usually good out the starts which is key at Berwick and Vissing done pretty well the other day for not riding over here for a couple of seasons. Throw in Morris who can't be as poor as he was last season. Nielsen at reserve is decent IF he can stay fit..,. but the key for me is which Auty turns up if he's got his head right he could make the difference between a close meeting or a comfortable home win.