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Agreed. I wouldn't expect many 16 year olds to make informed decisions on anything involving managing their lives. A talented 16 year old speedway rider is just interested in racing and is highly unlikely to be responsible for balancing the finances like most adults have to. I don't know what he said, but can you imagine any 16 year old contemplating the cost of riding, what time he'll get home at night, or even where he's agreed to go next week. He just wants to race and probably doesn't have the slightest interest who is building the best team.

Depends if Coventry wanted him and if he wanted to ride at Coventry. If the answer to both were yes, then he could have entered the draft knowing where he would be selected and having already agreed his finances. Not saying either answer would be yes, but it is the scenario where the extras would be relevant. More relevant though, I doubt many riders will stay with their EL team if they are earning just £120 a match. Whilst we may argue that's a reasonable guarantee, and with no costs isn't a bad earner for a youngster, it's the associated expenses of a speedway rider that is the issue. How many matches would it take to replace a blown motor in a reserve's first heat of the season? Is there a job where the income per week, ability to work (e.g. injury), temporary unemployment (e.g. team reshuffles), weekly equipment costs and unexpected costs (e.g. new motors) are so varied? I'd suspect many riders would ride for far less (including for free - especially in the lower divisions) if there were no costs associated to their job, especially the unexpected costs.

At least Darcy recognised the situation and kept quiet. Perhaps Ford can learn something from him. Darcy saw the bigger picture. Ford saw his own reflection in a mirror.

Agreed. But x thousands sponsorship per meeting? Don't believe the BSPA have jurisdiction over that, which defeats the whole object. Regardless of Lambert, I see riders dropping out because of the money, where as others are reaping the extra's. The worry then is actually having two British reserves available for each team, each match. The number of possible riders is already quite low; I think it is bordering on dangerous to use really inexperienced NL riders on low NL averages.

I'd assume Emil will simply be entering both competitions, and I suspect Pedersen will as well. The ball is then in the authorities court once the ride in the SEC. If they ban them at the point from the SGP, apart from the embarrassment (SEC wins that one), then I'd suspect a big court battle in which I'd favour the riders. I'd only see one loser in this confrontation, and its not the SEC.

I didn't mean the draft list; I mean the list that will be used in 2014 for all EL reserves. In my opinion Robert Lambert slots in at Number 14, although everybody may slide down as other riders with a previous PL average (e.g. Charles Wright) slot in above him. Unless they introduce a special "he's too good rule" I don't see where else he fits. He could of course be ruled ineligible for a 2014 reserve berth based on Steve Evans comment that he was to young for the draft. I actually suspect Robert Lambert would prefer a 1-5 position if the reserve heat formats are as suggested. Riding at second string he still gets to meet the reserves, but more importantly challenges himself against the big boys. His career to date suggests he want's the challenge. It also enables him to negotiate a contract rather than the fixed agreement for all reserves.

In fairness Horton may have been out of the room when that was mentioned, a bit like Ford was when he was asked to keep is gob shut about the Sky deal.

In case anybody is unclear, Robert Lambert is Number 14 on the list. This means he will be eligible to replace all Number 6's, but more importantly three Number 7's, Jacobs, Simon Lambert and the man, one position ahead of him in the list (at 13), and whose new promoter has within 24 hours of acquiring him looked to replace him, Lee Smart. Ford knows this. Not saying Lambert is interested, but Ford is hence his pick and immediate press release to prevent his supporters getting too attached to Smart (he read this forum and saw what was happening). Smart is simply a pawn in all of this.

Agreed. Glad you recognise this wasn't right. I'm very interested in Skidder1's response. He thinks ford was right in what he did. Ford you could argue suffered from misjudgement and being let down. Skidder1 though. Seems incapable of recognising any mistakes at Poole. So will we see this time if he will accept that he was wrong?

Don't know if Ford has sourced it, but you do agree that he would be wrong to don't you? Whoever has done it has put the BSPA in an awkward position and forced them to publicly deny anything has happened. Sky aren't the organisation to play around with. Hopefully this is just a rumour, and nobody within the sport has released the info.

It won't be any of those riders. Ford has set his targets much higher (with due respect to these guys who are all good riders).

Jon Cook doesn't seem concerned that Adam Ellis hasn't got a PL spot yet. How many PL and EL teams will Poole clash with on a Wednesday? Poole fans were all (rightly) supporting Smart's arrival yesterday. Now Ford has basically announced that he is considering alternatives. Smart has signed up to the process with good intent. I'd hope the decision whether to ride at Poole is his alone and not Ford's.

Your correct. However the purpose is to cover injuries/unavailability not to look to dump a rider after less than 24 hours. Otherwise you get the situation where Poole hand Smart a rumoured Greg Hancock (5 grand) to announce he didn't realise that Poole was so near France and Wednesday is boys night out. The whole purpose of the draft was equality of reserves. The moment the whole thing is abused, the implications to a competitive match are horrendous. If a team manipulates the reserves such as they are on a level of other teams second strings then we don't get a match worth its name. And then these British kids will get the brunt of the blame for the drop in competitive team. No team should be allowed to manipulate this. Having brought the scheme in there needs to be control over any replacement. The promoters can not be trusted to do this, but then we keep going around the circle of why we need independent control.

Year after year this little man acts like a dictator. Everything is calculated with him. It was obvious yesterday what he was up to as I posted and he's instantly released his true feelings in the press. He had to be the first to abuse this. He really doesn't want to deal with what he sees as inferior British talent. The season hasn't even started and Ford is creating a scenario for (another) rider withholding their services. So he sees no problem arranging fixtures around Newman, but with Smart the risk is so great he may need to replace him !!! Good to see the fixture lists are due to be published shortly. He could have said I need to work with Smart to ensure his availability, but no within 24 hours he's mentioning other riders who are available. You never know, it may be a rider who withdrew from the list; maybe he was already being tapped up.

Yes the Sargeant one was interesting too. Isolated surprising, but with everything else a little too convenient. Then you have Swindon claiming to have picked the exact two riders they wanted. And a team that appeared to have lost out on the day, probably having pulled out a tactical masterstroke/loophole. I accept it's not like a random selection process as obviously on a draft board (order of preferred riders), teams would rank riders differently especially due to the tracks they will be riding, but looks like a lot of deals went on here.

Why do you refer to Smart, but not Newman? I did suggest yesterday that Smart was a tactical selection in terms of the benefits of him not riding.

Not according to Kings Lynn's website he wasn't protected. The BSPA tweet suggests otherwise and rather lets the cat out of the bag. BSPA probably now regretting their venture into social media. That's assuming they really had as full a choice as the published rules. Ten promoters sit in a room all day discussing speedway matters. By the time bricks have been bought, assets loaned, backs scratched, I doubt there were many decisions to be made. I don't believe this was the open draft we have been sold. Based on my comments above, whatever they were told was probably changed anyway, so you can't blame them. Will be interesting to see how many of them pull out pre-season citing mis-information from the BSPA and/or their drafting club; especially related to finances. Do the riders even know if their PL or EL commitments take priority? Have the BSPA even decided this yet? Richie Worrall made a good point not to believe what we read on message boards. In other words there was already a discrepancy between what was released publicly, and what the riders had been told.

The benefits of opting out of the draft !!!

This should be about reward for developing riders, not for buying them as an asset. The danger is clubs will go out and buy a rider as an asset without developing them, so that they get an advantage in any future rider allocation process. Whilst I agree with you re-2015 not being the same, it does suggest an asset will supersede any similar process introduced.

Why the last places for the reserves, who do you expect the reserve winning 2 heats to lose to in the other two?

Neat tactical move by Poole to select Smart. Can be covered by seven of the nine opposition number sevens, particularly useful if he becomes the third Poole rider in three years to withhold their services. Swindon actually had pick 11 virtue of picking Worrall. Surprised they didn't pick Jacobs or Lambert

Probably just me (and being unfairly negative), but would it not have been more fun to tweet out the picks one by one and slightly slower, so we could consider the next selection. No great delay, but just a pause. As a follower of the NFL draft it is great to think what the next team on the podium will do as a result of the previous pick. Not just me then !!!

He is correct I believe in that the only thing riders signed up to was they wanted to be part of the scheme. The bigger issue is what happens in March or later in the season if there aren't enough riders. The later season is a massive issue of riders pull out of the scheme. And they will once promoters start to sack riders because they've found somebody they perceive is better. As I said, this is the moment for promoters to think of the sport and not their club. Are they collectively capable? I doubt it.

Not convinced there wasn't wheeling and dealing going on here. Not sure we would have seen these picks following the rules as published (and I don't just mean the Rose one).

Wolves will be happy with their pairing.