SandyLaner

I don't really know who Gusts is... any insights?

Apparently a piece in the Speedway Star about us going on a global search for our 7th rider. I.E we’re finishing 7th. Perfect.

It’s quite clear they’ve made a cock up in team building and are now having to scramble for options.

Reckon we'll be seeing a Christmas Day signing?

Easy to say but I’d much rather one competitive side than two non-competitive sides, which is exactly what the Spires and Cheetahs look like this year with Scotty knackered. Chargers on Sundays it is!

“I want rider who will score fewer points” said nobody ever.

If he's on a 6 in the Prem then we're quite simply idioted.

And if you assess them too high, then it gatekeeps the rider from ever coming back? He's clearly not the rider he was as you say - over the course of the season his average will find its way. He's not exactly been riding against world class riders so is going to take time to find his feet. It's an investment for any team. Ultimately you can't make it one rule for one and one rule for another - it's not like he's been sat around for 3 years intentionally not riding or riding in lesser leagues because we've asked him to come in on a 4 average.

Anyone could have picked him up on a 4 but didn't... that's not an Oxford problem?

Will he return on his 6.57 average from his last stint at Poole? Either way, looks like Rohan and Magic are our 1 & 5 edit: reading it should be a 4.5 - so now we wait to see what we can do with the 9 or so points remaining

A move away from our 2 big hitters approach. Can’t say I’ve seen much if anything of Knudsen and McDiarmid so don’t quite know where this leaves us. The only thing I will say is that Heeps is currently our second top scoring rider which, no offence meant to him, does concern me.

Heeps also returns.

I’ll get a battering from the ‘full time positivity, be grateful we have racing back in Oxford’ gang, but can’t see us winning many this year looking at that.

Erik Riss confirmed.

After his actions in our first season, and at the Champ Pairs last season, I don’t want to see that bloke anywhere near our track.

Gilkes not staying at Sheffield so I’d imagine he will be announced soon.

Read my original post. Rising Star is the reason he didn't come here. If he was not a RS this year, I think it's almost certain he would have ended up at Oxford. But with him being RS, our highest hopes are with Luke Killeen, who definitely has the highest ceiling of AB/JJ/LK so we protected that asset, as he was wanted elsewhere.

I can't see a way JJ doesn't return - loves it here and said if it wasn't for the RS at Ipswich I certainly think he would have been in the Spires set up too. I think Gilkes will be here based on his guesting at the end of the season and the things that were said, but we can't say that for sure. Likewise I'm confident Jody Scott will be #7.... my one thought is whether we'll actually see Scotty return. Nothing concrete yet and I'm concerned that the injury at the end of the year has made him think about retirement - that's my own suspicion and is based on nothing concrete.

Genuinely not too fussed that AB isn’t returning. Didn’t like his attitude one bit, spent the second half of the season shutting off earlier and earlier, and if he didn’t gate he didn’t bother trying. Clearly a rider in there but happy for another team to find it.

Really, REALLY need an 8 point rider or I'm afraid we'll be non-challengers.

Charles Wright confirmed..

With well over 30 meetings this year at Oxford, my initial concerns about costs and so on were disproved. We had an incredibly solid core. We're talking 700-900 every Sunday for the Chargers, 1200-1500 for the Cheetahs, and 1800-2200 for the Spires. The only real changer in the crowds this year was, without a shadow of a doubt, the weather. You'd lose hundreds off the gate if the weather looked dodgy, which lets be honest, it was throughout the whole year. What does it show? People will find a way. There is of course a saturation point, but my genuine view is that sport tickets in general haven't tracked inflation costs over the years, and indeed probably *should* cost more - not that I want to pay more of course! I can't see a £2 increase making a lot of difference at Oxford, though the question of course always has to be asked - is the extra money being brought in going to inflate riders wages, or is it going to help stabilise the clubs?

All the noise is that we're chasing a bona fide top rider to really compete next year. The changes we made mid-season to me seemed like we threw in the towel to save a few pennies for the coming year, or to give promising riders more time around the track to gain experience. To end up with Killeen and Boughen in the team definitely seemed that way, though by all accounts that was to avoid another team picking up Luke. It felt very much like our first year back as the Cheetahs - there was certainly good racing all year round, but in this league you need to win your home games by large margins, and whilst we won a good number, we were winning by 2/4/6 points a meeting. Given we reportedly didn't have that much time to put a team together you can't begrudge that, and the hope for me is that we'll do exactly what we did in Y2 as the Cheetahs which is find a winning formula.

Injuries came at the wrong time (if there's ever a good time) for us. Poole, of course, a strong team... Thomsen has looked great both times recently down at Sandy Lane, though his actions in both legs of the final leave a sour taste in my mind. Ultimately I reckon a full strength Oxford side would have won one of the two finals. Ultimately I'm not going to moan too much, at the start of this year I genuinely thought (after our pumping down at Poole) we were destined to not even make the playoffs. To finish 2nd and to make the GF and Cup Final was a great performance.

By all accounts, Masters is leaving and heading up north. The strong rumours over the last few weeks have been Glasgow bound, certainly north. Likewise, it seems like Heeps may well be off given his lap of honour last night very much seemed like a farewell. JJ I'd imagine will stay, and Killeen is now a permanent fixture at Oxford which I'm delighted about. I genuinely feel he's got a higher ceiling than Boughen.