Noelinho

I think the issue is that an extra point is awarded that otherwise wouldn't be. My suggestion to fix this for next year would be to give 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 1 for a Super Heat, so in all scenarios, three points would be awarded. Effectively, the super heat last night eliminated Berwick, which doesn't seem totally fair.

Yes, their 1-5 were good last night.

He was coming from gate 4, which was never going to work for him. Why we insist on taking 1&3 rather than either 2&4, or better, heat 15 (as the visitors would almost always choose 1&3) is beyond me. It cost us in heat 13 where we needed it, and why Bomber went off the inside in 15 is a mystery. When Worrall went off 2 in the Super Heat, he won it. And don't get me started on the transponders. Fair enough, the ref has to accept what they say, but they're wrong too often. Everyone knew Bomber got third, Gerry even got the drone operator to rewind the footage. Thankfully, it doesn't matter for the BSN Series... We needed to win at Armadale either way, which seems unlikely. Starke has been shocking, this isn't a playoff team. Workington will spank us, I think. Fun meeting though!

I never really understood us signing Starke, but he's been worse than even I imagined. His rolling average has dropped to 3.35.

It's the easy option for the ref though.

Yes, this is a problem. However, our riders' averages aren't going up. Starke's rolling average is actually already below Lee's - 3.43. Didn't imagine Lee possibly getting out of reserve without putting the bike on the track. That said, Starke has two matches before the next averages come out, so maybe he'll find something.

Yeah, for me the biggest rip off is having a result from two thirds of a meeting, and the nonsense of showing any old parade on track to get to the fabled "10 heat result", which is all about saving money and nothing about giving fans a good product. Which is one reason I don't mind early call offs, when they're designed to not waste fans' time for rubbish like that.

They used to be more generous. I’m not sure why they stopped - made me wonder if the league told them to. It’s a bad rule, although it does make season tickets more appealing. I also think heat 10 is too early - I’d say heat 12 minimum. Should be a good meeting. A lot of eyes on Paul Starke, especially now he’s at 2. We aren’t in the habit of dropping riders, but I feel he might become an exception if he doesn’t improve.

I think it's next Wednesday (15th).

Let’s see how the track is through the season. It sounded like they plan to put more dirt on the track, maybe that will make the racing better. For all the bad words about the Edinburgh track, I saw a meeting there with 17 passes last season, so let’s not write the place off on the basis of one meeting after the changes.

A good win for Plymouth - showing we might actually have a more even league across the board this season!

He delayed it with agreement of both teams, which showed both good sportsmanship and consideration for everyone who had paid to see it.

I'd love to know why Jack was so impressive last Friday out of the blue, and then reduced to looking like he'd never raced another rider at times on Wednesday, to looking like a solid reserve tonight. Is it just really inconsistent equipment?

Tate looked fabulous tonight - a natural racer. Great to see James keeping him behind, and Leon did well in heat 15 too. Bomber and Pearson is a great combination and Leon is definitely showing some improvement - hopefully a good amount more to come from him yet.

I think we're jumping on Worrall a bit too quickly. Before tonight, he had 24+3 in three completed meetings - exactly what we're looking for from him. Starke is simply not good enough, and is in danger of being a reserve in June even if Lee isn't back on the bike.

Cook was hard done by in heat 1, as was Tate at the line. Big break for the Tigers there. Starke looked dreadfully slow.

Yeah, I'm not going to be very sad if we lose tomorrow, given Craig and Claus are visiting. Tate's looked fantastic from what I've seen too. I really want Workington to do well and prove the doubters wrong - they can definitely make a statement tomorrow night.

Not according to our promotion, who did stream in 2021. They say the streaming revenue was offset by smaller crowds.

Correct. We don't, and we won't start.

He has a hearing later this month.

It only applies to guesting twice in eight days, so Glasgow at Workington doesn’t matter in this case.

Not sure it would be better to throw the bike in, crash a lot, and get hurt. He's got speed, that's something that's hard to teach. He'll work the rest out in time.

People got too carried away with Jack Smith’s performance last week. I stand by what I said - one good performance doesn’t strike out a lot of underwhelming performances at Championship level. Whatever the reasons for it, his baseline performances have been more like last night’s than last Friday’s. Good performances at National League don’t necessarily carry to the Championship - Kyle Bickley a case in point. I hope he does well, but the more likely scenario on past performances is that he scores a very small handful of points. Up against Cook, a seemingly rejuvenated Batchelor, and Vissing, I think we’ll be in for a hard night. Certainly closer than against Oxford.

I think Stene Pijper will turn heads pretty soon. He’s only just on 500s but he’s looked very impressive around Ashfield.

We did better than expected at home, despite not being terribly convincing, so I think anything can happen tonight.