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I remember doing this last year Then Stoke dropped to the NL! Hope that doesn't happen to you!

Congratulations to Mildenhall. From a Stoke perspective, we never coped with losing Lambert and Isherwood. But, more than that, the track was awful. Slick as a board against a Mildenhall team who had come here 3 weeks ago and beaten us from the gate. Lunacy. End of the season. Had you, at the beginning of the season, offered me top of the league, win the pairs, KoC final...I'd have taken it. The last 3 weeks just leave me disappointed! Still, be back next season, hopefully to go one better!

It would take a brave man to go around Jason Garrity! My heart says Stoke by 14. My head says this could go all the way to the last couple of heats. I hate nerves. Bring back a time when Stoke could be relied on to be awful, season on season

So, the KoC comes to a head this weekend, with the second leg at Stoke sandwiched between the play-off final. What a massive weekend for Mildenhall fans (Though, no offence, I hope you go away empty handed from Stoke!) Stoke trail by 8 after the first leg, and given that Mildenhall won here a matter of weeks ago, they must be confident. However, Stoke got a good practice in last week against a strong Birmingham team, and that should stand them in good stead for this meeting. Teams are yet to be confirmed, with Stoke looking for guests for both Gareth Isherwood at reserve and Simon Lambert at number 1, and injury concerns for Mildenhall over Jack Hargreaves, who withdrew from the Bernie Klatt meeting on Sunday. So, any Mildenhall fans making the trip down? Hopefully there will be a big contingent and the atmosphere will be one that the final deserves. Not going for a prediction, I just hope that Stoke win by 20

I know this isn't really the forum, but there are only 11 riders with a team place with averages over 8 at the greensheets at the beginning of October. SS averages include bonus points.

Steve Worrall is. Rambo was injured at Plymouth tonight

I feel pretty sure that there are 3 pointers out there who would ride for £10 a point, they are not the issue. The riders who often demand more are usually those further up the team I would have thought!

Just to take the point about progression, it does seem to appear that there are teams who want to win, and teams who view their "victory" as seeing riders promoted into their, or others, PL teams. Stoke, for example, will probably only want to take a 3 point Brit if they feel he can improve for them that season, whereas Scunthorpe showed last season that they want riders who are able to progress (And they reaped the benefits this season) So where do you go? A look at Stoke's team shows that we are going to have to lose riders for next season. A young Brit or 2 who have improved well this season will be looking for a new team, and if they don't make the step up to PL, could find themselves scratching around for work.

Only have Brit's at reserve all season is an interesting one that can be done one of 2 ways. Either say that both reserves at the start of the season must be British (Or declared to ride for GB...again, Byron Bekker etc) and they stay at reserve all season, irrespective of average, or say that you're 2 reserves at the beginning of the season must be British, but if their averages change to above the top 5, they move up. As for 3 Brits per team, plausible, especially when coupled with the 2 Brits at reserve policy. The only problem facing the "2 British reserves" potential rule would again be numbers. Currently 12 of the 28 reserves in the PL are British, a couple of which with averages that would make it hard to get a ride at reserve. If you assume 10 can stay at reserve, you are left with looking for 18 new riders, all British, all reserves...

So, limiting PL teams to 3 non brits. There are currently 14 PL teams. Let's assume that they all stay. That's 56 places that have to be filled by British riders (4 per team) There are currently 39 (If I counted correctly) Brits in the PL. That doesn't include riders with duel nationality (Byron Bekker, Dakota North etc) Where would the extra 17 Brits come from? Or, put another way, which 17 NL riders could step up and be good enough for the PL right now. Looking at the averages from the 6th September from the NL averages thread, the top 10 break down as follows: 7 Current PL riders (Howarth, Kurtz, Irving, Lambert, Newman, Branford, Brundle) 3 Former PL riders (Simmons, Armstrong, Atkin) Of the top 10 NL only riders, we have to go down to number 20 in the list to find the 10th best non NL rider. Of those 10, 1 actually now has a PL club (Garrity) 8 are former PL riders 1 has never been declared in a PL team AFAIK (Ben Hopwood) Let's take it one step further. At the last declaration in the NL, there were 70 riders in teams 1-7's. Current PL riders: 11 Former PL riders: 24 So HALF the league is current or former PL riders. Most of the former ones will be riders not looking to step up (Felton, Atkin, Armstrong and the like) By all means, the leagues need to do more to encourage British talent, but simply going straight into "3 foreign riders only" would be a minefield, especially given freedom of trade laws within the EU. There is more chance of starting slowly with both reserves having to be British at the start of the season. EDIT TO ADD: Realistically, the NL finds itself at a crossroads. You have about half of the teams as stand alone teams (Stoke, IoW, Mildenhall, Buxton, Dudley (I class them as stand alone due to very little shared promotion between themselves and Wolves)) who are going to do everything they can to win. You then have the other half using the league as a training league to bring through new riders (Scunthorpe are the prime example this season. The youngsters that they blooded last season have shown the way this year). While there is that clash, it is very difficult for promoters to bring talent through, as this league gets more and more competitive each year.

Buxton have a solid team at home, because they have 6 riders who have done a lot of laps at that track. But to put them near the top? Potentially could have scraped the play-offs had their away form been better than it was, but realistically, I wouldn't say they were better/had the potential to be more consistent than any of Stoke, Mildenhall, BV or Scunfield

So, that was...interesting. As a meeting, it lost most of it's interest after heat 6. Stoke, with 4 riders, were never going to be able to contain Mildenhall on their own track. The fact that we only lost by 11 is a credit to the remaining 4. Make no mistake, Mildenhall dodged a bullet. Stoke will be hurting after these 2 meetings, and will want revenge in the KoC.

Apparently: Tim Webster cracked a bone in his hand Gareth Isherwood was taken to hospital for scans on his back. No idea how he is.

Is booing that bad? Really? Bit of pantomime! As for cheering when riders fall, never good. I cheered when Blackbird got back up in 14 but thats about it!

Settlement visa's require you to have been living within the UK for 2+ years before application though (And, for Ancestary, after 5 years)

Amazing what you can get away with in a challenge

No partiality unfortunately!

Ok, let's start with Stoke's team. We lost our heads. Simple as that. Lambert and Pickard were fantastic at 1 and 2, and Reade showed us why we should never have dropped him in the correct way. He was fantastic. Isherwood made one gate, and that was about it. The other 3 were poor, and I have no idea why. The normally reliable Atkin was alright for 2 rides, and poor for 2. Sarjeant looked like he wanted to be anywhere but Stoke, and Webster seemed to have a nightmare of it. We threw it away, and it will take a miracle to pull anything back. Secondly, and I apologise for the smell of grapes that aren't too sweet, but how can Cameron Heeps ride for Mildenhall? You can't claim British Citizenship under patriality rules until you are 17. That's a set in stone fact. Therefore, he must have an Australian passport, therefore he isn't eligable to ride in the NL for 2 more years! I just want a straight answer, but I fear I will never get one. Still, here's hoping for a miracle, and Stoke winning 46-44 tomorrow with Rambo winning a run off to put us through

Yes, there will. So long as I can my lobotomy reversed in time

Atkin, Sarj and Webster I can see being back (Hopefully) Rambo apparently doesn't want to double down again, and I can see Pickard moving to Dudley now that he is a Wolves asset. As for the reserves, we never really got a good look at Nobes, Isherwood is highly inconsistent and Reade, while improving, i'm still not sure about. As for a team I would like to see, assuming a 40 point limit again: Tim Webster 8.51/Jason Garrity 8.18 Luke Priest 5.53/ Paul Starke 5.93 Tony Atkin 8.07 James Sarjeant 6.80 Brendan Johnson 5.02 Ben Reade 3 Tim Nobes 3

Can't wait for this. If Stoke's top 5 turns up, I can't see Mildenhall living with them, but we all know that probably won't happen. Personally, I would like a 14-16 point lead, but that's being greedy! I think 8 is the minimum we need!

Can't quote atm,but 2ndbendpostie, I thought Rambo was involved in 2 reruns,one in heat 11 when he was going for the outside,and one in heat 13. On the heat 13 incident,I was stood on the second bend, and it looked like Hargreaves(I think) made the gate and was stuck in 2 minds between clamping Lambert down or running wide. He left a gap there then when Lambert was marginally in front,attempted to shut the gap,resulting in his front wheel hitting Lambets leg. No need for what happened after. Not going to comment on the mindless portion of fans who thought it appropriate to attempt to rip the pits fence down. Hopefully the whole incident has been recorded by the Ref and the SCB/BSPA take whatever action they deem necessary. What Mildenhall need now is a nice quiet weekend against a team who they have no issues with in a couple of meaningless meetings,,, Damn. See you Sunday =D

I'd rather the gap than what Stoke fans will have to do in travelling to Mildenhall on successive Sundays

Slightly, although I can't help but think Lambert is potentially the best number 1 in this league, and the other 2 have put close to 6 points on their average between them! Being really biased, I would have picked an NL 7 (That would have been legal at the start of the season) as 1) Lambert 2) Tim Webster 3) Ashley Birks 4) Tony Atkin 5) Jaimie Pickard 6) James Sarjeant 7) Richie Worrall Starting average = 39.66 Current Average = 55.77

Jaimie Pickard and James Sarjeant have to be in there for me. Both have put about 3 points on their average! And Simon Lambert...he has managed to improve from a starting figure of 9.1! That takes some doint!