500cc

And there we go, the typical compromise that doesn't meet the rules. He comes in on a 5 despite the reason he's not a 3 is due to riding in the Danish Elite League. Mind you it's a great precedence for future acquistions. Pick a category that in isolation a rider is eligible for. Kurtz qualifies as Category 4 if you ignore all other categories. So Emil Sayfutdinov (who I don't believe gained a UK average) is now eligible on an 8 in the PL as a Category 1 rider. Just ignore the Grand Prix category.

Yep. Take two fairly equal youngsters who join a British club. One British and one foreign. Both make a solid start and get a reasonable average, but one that's too high to be a "filler" but equally to high for teams to invest when they can get another newbie who may do better but costs less in average terms. The foreigner goes back to his home country, continues his improvement. Meanwhile his British average remains unchanged. Meanwhile the Brit hasn't had opportunities abroad, too much home grown talent filling up the teams. His average is difficult because it isn't seen as value, he did a bit too well. Team places are hard to come by, the winter goes by and nothing on offer. Hard to plan. But he's keen, so jumps at the first opportunity that appears mid season. Does well. Pushes his average up a bit further. Similar happens the next year. He really needs needs more meetings and more job guarantee. The Brit invests heavily in the next off season to push on further and he's promised a spot. But then the bombshell. His club realise that the latest new foreigner actually comes in on a higher average than expected. But not to worry, there are options here. Suddenly the original foreigner becomes a bargain, not only has he improved beyond his frozen British average, but the level of the league has dropped, further enhancing his average. A bit better than the Brit as he's had job security back home and thus more racing. But his old now false average helps here. Solves all problems. The Brit loses his team spot just before the season starts. The Brit looks at his bank balance and realises this isn't a career for his young family and decides to move on. The foreigner doesn't complete the season, as the next wonder foreigner replaces him. He'll come back again the next time his talent outweighs his average. Yes you can pick holes galore in this, but the point is a system must be in place to support British riders. Enhance it with foreign riders by all means. This shouldn't be about British riders reducing the level of quality, but about providing them with the opportunity to mix at a higher level. Without homegrown grass roots a sport is going to struggle, especially one that is struggling to retain the elite world class competitors. If anything Tai's success last year should only highlight why the pyramid beneath him needs strengthening.

But weren't 80% of the riders a free choice anyway? So four riders had the advantage of riding where they wanted to. What about the other 16? Or was the draft not exactly as sold to the public?

Excellent analysis. I find it difficult to see how he can come in on a 5. He has been ruled ineligible for a NL (Cat 5) spot despite having/being eligible for a British Passport. That rules him out of Cat 4 (Commonwealth Rider new to British Racing), because if he were eligible for Cat 4 he'd equally be eligible for Cat 5. Cat 3 (riders in a non-professional league) would get him a 5, but if he were eligible for that, the surely that makes him Cat 4 and 5 eligible. So that takes us to Cat 2 (encompassing all riders in a Professional League outside of Sweden/Poland). And with that comes a 7 average. I have a feeling we will see a 5 average, with no actual justification as to him getting that. The Cradley NL decision suggests only a 7 is applicable.

Poole actually turned down James Sarjeant and Lewis Rose .... assuming we believe what the BSPA and Speedway Star have ( or did not) report.

Do we know for sure (since we aren't privvy to the regulations). If Newman had turned down riding at reserve like Robert Lambert he would have used his real average. Although previously declared in EL 1-7's I'm not sure he ever attained an actual average. In that case he would have had to use his 2013 converted PL average (5.32 = 3.19). I actually think Kerr, Garrity and Newman should use there real averages - I said so before the draft. They have been given the benefit of inclusion in the draft (rightly so), but a rider like Ashley Birks by committing to the EL last season misses out. I understand why, and actually I think they've go this spot on in terms of where the break point is. But (assuming I've identified them correctly), Newman's current EL average is 3.19 and Birks 3.06. There is a relevance still, because if Newman were poached from Poole over the winter to fill a second string spot somewhere it would be on his true EL average (3.19 assuming his EL history is an assessed 3). As I say we don't know, but the two times it could be put to the test are inconclusive.

Or is it 4.22? Does Kyle Newman's "top-up" average get deducted from the 1-5 32 point limit. We can't tell whether or not that will happen as both Kings Lynn and Coventry are well under the limit so on their current declarations it makes no difference.

I do think as a sport the price point for tickets is too high for what in truth aren't great facilities at the tracks. At some point the costs of the sport itself must be trimmed back. We need to get back to for men racing on equal (and not expensive) machinery. I'm not at all against all riders making a good living, but I'd rather the money stayed within the sport rather than the Formula One approach of investing fortunes in the machinery.

Many times, until the ref spots them in the wrong gates and instructs them to move !!!

The very fact the clubs ended up with business plans where extra meetings would result in extra losses doesn't give a lot of confidence in these plans. On the basis we have clubs from last year needing £6,000 sponsorship to replace Sky's, £5,000 to replace losses so approx £11,000 to save per meeting. We now have 4 more meetings with their £11,000 each to cover. So that's around £200,000. With a Sky equivalent of £90,000 the loss still increases from £70,000 to £110,000. At best I suspect we are treading water with the Brits enabling 18 home meetings, but the losses remaining fairly steady. And all this assumes those supporters who paid for 14 meetings will increase their ticket purchase for the extra 4 meetings. Now I agree that attempts to cut have been made and their needs to be a compromise, but unless clubs can break even at a per meeting level (less of course what the owners are prepared to invest against the losses), then things will only get worse. It is a step in the right direction, but I suspect too much money is still going to the higher end riders. Hopefully though this will reduce the money wasted on journeyman foreigners. This isn't any easy position, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

I like this in principle, and tactically it makes for more interest. The trouble is persuading the top riders to take a worse gate if they see a risk to their earning potential. Often on this forum people reference back to the higher averages riders attained in the 70's and 80's. One of the factors was that the top riders invariably took the best gates. I suspect when a top rider is up against a rider of a similar level he will resort to demanding the better gate position. I think it adds far more strategy, but I'm not convinced the better riders will fully buy in to it. They shouldn't have a choice, but they will.

Good point. I was more referring to the reason (geography) more than the outcome which I agree is prevalent in numerous sports (not only the obvious one of football).

As a sport I don't think the finances add up anyway. Too much is spent on rider wages. Certainly at the top end of the sport, too much of club's income is going to a few riders. But actually I think the real problem is that the riders themselves incur too great a cost. The amount of money that goes into engine tuning is ridiculous. The essence of the sport isn't about the best equipment, but about four riders pitching their skills against one and other. It doesn't appear to me that the costs are being addressed; we've simply identified some cheap labour in 2013. Now you'd like to think that the aim here was to build a future for British youngsters; but you suspect it was a cost cutting exercise that fell on the idea. Now I like the direction, too big a jump in one go, but I prefer it to nothing. What will happen as a result. Well I have no doubt that some riders will take a massive step forward in their careers, some who we suspect will, others who will surprise us. That will be the HUGE success of this initiative. I also believe others will drop out of the system, many cost related. 36 meetings is a lot if the numbers aren't adding up. The promoters have told us that losses increased per meeting last year; riders may well experience a similar issue. Now actually having riders succeeding and those dropping back is actually healthy, providing the system has enough riders to cope. I'm not sure at has though and I'm worried this nice set-up won't last the season; the worst scenario being that rules have to be changed mid season. Now as a whole the promoters are trying to cover two categories of loss. One is the basic fact that outgoings are exceeding incomings on a per meeting basis. The other is the loss of Sky income. Now without addressing the bigger picture of costs, I'd be very surprised if the reserves initiative will cover all of this. In the worst published scenarios, we are talking a 'loss' of 10K+ per meeting. Now you'd hope those riders replaced this year weren't earning around 5k a meeting. Assuming they weren't, then there are teams still operating on a loss unless they can further manage their costs. Now we don't yet know who the 2014 league sponsor is, nor how much they will pay (we probably won't be told anyway), but anything less than a million and costs that must be covered elsewhere. More important is what is the 2015 strategy. The strategy must consider what happens to the riders in this year's scheme. We can't get in a position where the most successful reserves this year are frozen out next year. We are seeing a touch of it this year where the likes of Roynon and Auty are set to miss out. Now the ideal for 2015 is that the scheme continues with some new riders (there won't be 20), and the best of 2014 move into the main team. That requires spots to be reserved exclusively for graduates of this years scheme. Promoters must work towards controlling costs this year, the further "cutting" using British reserves won't be an option next year. But they most also have a structure in place to ensure this year's initiative has a legacy.

So instead the PL uses those locals from the likes of Denmark and Australia. Only in speedway !!!

The software needs an intelligence boost me thinks !!! Supervising ? I guess we could include this forum on the list of dodgy sites, not great for future support mind. Writing back to front and using a mirror?

What about all the older generation though. Have you seen the recent demographics of speedway supporters !!!

But teams need to be declared before THE start of the season not Kings Lynn's start of the season.

Is Ford out sourcing that little challenge then !!!

Haven't seen a mention of Lambert's age issue. The team as named isn't legal. Was any explanation given tonight as to how King's Lynn will manage the start of the season?

I remain unconvinced the second strings will be as important as before. Low averaged second strings often offer the possibility of scoring high from reserve. Not next year. Most second strings will be better than the reserves. Not sure being a lot better actually helps much unless they are a match for opposition heat leaders. This is exactly how I'd build a 2014 team.

I just have the feeling this is the rider to take fast tracking to the extreme. In the UK you have to go back a long time to find a rider with this much immediate potential. If he maintains his current progression and potential I'd be surprised if he isn't in the GP series as soon as he's age eligible. I accept that it is a big prediction, but the truth is the marketability of a second elite British rider is immense. Say what you like, but the UK market for speedway is huge, and those at BSI are well aware of the importance of the British market.

First rider in the 1-5 in the official KL announcement. With today's social media very little is kept underwraps. By the way you've spoilt it for me (bit like watching Match of the Day knowing the result) as Bjerre was the one position where KL could really have shocked the league with the potential alternative !!! The team that will be announced isn't just good, it is built to exploit the romoured new Heat Format to the max.

Yeah, first rider and he isn't even eligible. Excellent news though. Also suspect he wanted to have more competition than the reserve berths are alleged to be getting.

Alphabetical?

Sundstrom and Bjerre to complete the line-up?