SteelShoe

Poole's name is on it

Boughen looks to be having a confidence issue

Howler by Michael Brecon

You gotta fancy Poole to turn this around at home, depends if there name is on it this season.

Reasonable question as its banned in most stadia

Watching on BSN lsst night and spotted a good few people smoking and vaping in the enclosure. Is this allowed at Oxford ?

If the Cheetahs lose by a point or 2 on aggregate everyone will point to that dreadful decision.

Can't believe Killeen isn't in for Boughen in 12

Well we know Rich Lawson already. Zach gotta be a shoe in too. Howarth wouldn't have thought so . Anders Rowe strong possibility with his Polish aspirations. Starke depends how much he is worth to the Pirates, Vinnie a strong possibility. William Cairns ? Personally I think there are better tracks for this young man to hone his skills on. Poole will be after him no doubt and have the financial clout to turn his head.

Worky crowd concerningly did drop away in the 3 end of season meetings against Poole x2 and Plymouth. Reasons probably include missing riders due to injury, substantial first leg defeats against Poole, low attendance of away fans due to distances involved , the BSN effect, big gaps between meetings and fixture clashes at the start of the football season. Even some locals watched the home play off semi final second leg on BSN instead of attending. One wonders what effect screening so many meetings has had on club attendances overall this season. Have other clubs suffered reduced attendances and if so what reasons do fans think are the contributing factors?

Successful 1st season for Antti in the UK, a Premiership winners medal ain't bad. During the regular season he was generally really strong round Northside. if he could reproduce his home form around more of the away tracks next season he would be good value on his average. Very level headed, professional with reliable equipment .

Well done the Pirates , the only question that remains is can the Cheetahs plunder any of the remaining treasure ?

Scunny were reminiscent of the Comets in the 2nd leg of the playoff semi final against the Pirates. We never really got going either but this is what the Poole top 4 have done to teams all season. The Poole reserves didn't do much but it didn't matter because the top 4 were so dominant and very rarely have Lawson, Brennan or the Cook brothers had a bad day at the office this season.

Strange one, Boughen at 1 is a big ask for the young man against the Pirates.

Sam has to show that he wants it bit like Luke Harrison, Vinnie Foord, Sam Hagon, Ben Trigger to name 4. He has had one of the best tracks in British Speedway to race on these last two years and I'll leave it up to you to tell me if you think he has shown any improvement. We all wanted him to do well.

Can't see it being below 38, personally I think there is an argument for an increase.

Sorry I don't share your faith in Sam, to be quite honest he has frustrated the hell out of me and lots of other people. He has been given a fair crack of the whip by the promotion and I just can't see him back.

If the 2 point riders are to be retained I'm not sure there are 6 or 7 riders in the NDL ready to step up.

Approx 75% of riders have increased their starting averages.

Might prove difficult to work around this with most team averages rising some substantially. Top 4 averages currently Poole 46.49, Oxford 43.30, Scunny 43.83 and Worky 42.25.

Scunny current team average is 43.83 so there will be team changes. Luke's current average is 4.43 .

Good bit of a business that, he aptly demonstrated his potential at Worky and has progressed really well and will do so again next season of that i've no doubt.

Not going to be easy putting a team together for next season, no Pickering and and if rumours are right no Brennan or Ben Cook definitely dilutes the No1/heat leader pool. Who is gonna step up and fill these guys steel shoe because all 3 are racers ?. Being a weekend track provides an extra complication and reduces the rider pool further for the Comets with Poland in the mix although Poole appeared to work around their weekend away fixtures well this season with Brennan and Cook riding in Poland. We don't know what the points limit is going to be although this may be influenced by teams who may already have their teams largely sorted ?. This is obviously going to be important with only Glasgow surprisingly below this seasons 38 point team building average. Tate is the only certainty for 2025 with Antti apparently having aspirations in Poland and uncertain of a return to British Speedway. It's fair to say Sam McGurk won't be back but there are options here. I could easily see Max James progress further next season. Riders I can see making further progress next season include Dan and Joe Thomson , Jordan Jenkins, Ashton Boughen, Luke Harrison, Vinnie Ford, and James Pearson they would all go well around Northside. Gonna be interesting to see whether the Comets spread the net in recruiting for 2025 it certainly paid off with Tate and Antti.

Countryfile weather for the week showed possible rain Friday in the south, but that's a long way off.

Watching Connor the season before he never looked anything other than confident . Obviously the pressure of his poor form this season must have affected him mentally until it became too much. I would love to see him return but only if he is happier doing so.