MrMungo

Maybe they could make it an annual thing?

I see in the Star Gjedde is looking to make a comeback, would he have been a better option?

What is the alternative to someone like Ashley Morris? He has no EL spot (currently), no PL spot (unless he is signed by Workington (who look like going with Campton) Somerset (can't see it), Plymouth (!) or Redcar (possible) which I consider to be main possibilities. Whilst he made really strong progress at the end of last year, and I am sure he would prefer not to drop down again, but getting rides, keeping race sharp and putting yourself out there has to be far better than nothing at all. Then again, maybe he has a team spot already lined up, and I am barking up the wrong tree!

Jacobs, Morris, Nielsen (et al) could all be possibly looking at NL spots too if they don't get PL places, which looks likely for most of them, sadly.

My gut instinct is that was very much the case too. The teams this year with surprisingly strong reserves (Wolves, Leicester, etc) were the teams who may have struggled to attain the higher averaged 1-5 riders, so were 'given' stronger reserves. If King's Lynn had more of an inkling that Iversen wouldn't return, maybe they would have opted for a stronger reserve to partner Kerr? I think they were genuinely surprised Iversen didn't return, especially since he lives locally

Added. Done it based on 2015 averages, so missed him out by accident.

Or may want the same meetings, eg meetings at start of the season? This could get a bit complicated, so looking forward to seeing what they come up with next year!

Re: Issue 5, contracts can (and will be?) adjusted to reflect this, I am led to believe. Although quite what will happen if agreements can't be made, I am unsure!

Mattias Thornblom 7.00 Hynek Stichauer 4.22 Alex Edberg 3.70 Justin Sedgmen 7.84 Robert Branford 3.40 Nick Morris 7.91 Victor Palovaara 5.28 David Howe 6.72 Kozza Smith 5.87 Rohan Tungate 7.74 Gino Manzares 5.43 Stefan Nielsen 4.74 Ashley Morris 4.53 Ritchie Hawkins 3.35 Anton Rosen 5.14 Christian Henry 4.97 Simon Nielsen 4.38 Anders Thomsen 6.62 Simon Lambert 5.19 Rafal Konopka 3.00 Lewis Blackbird 6.16 Oliver Greenwood 3.00 Ryan Fisher 7.52 Jack Holder 7.10 Linus Eklof 5.50 James Wright 4.87 Roland Benko 3.00 Matej Kus 7.13 Dimitri Berge 4.14 Jan Graversen 3.83 Luke Bowen 4.26 Dan Greenwood 3.00 Danny Maassen 3.00 Steve Boxall 6.15 Robin Aspegren 4.82 Andreas Lyager 7.00 Ben Wilson 4.82 Andre Compton 6.61 David Bellego 5.98 Ty Proctor 6.68 Ashley Birks 5.57 Arthur Sissis 3.71 Brady Kurtz 8.73 Charles Wright 6.89 Josh Grajczonek 8.50 Paul Starke 6.00 Rasmus Jensen 5.92 Kyle Howarth 6.98 Rusty Harrison 5.48 Nicki Barrett 3.01 Adam Ellis 4.67 Bradley Wilson-Dean 5.00 Charlie Gjedde 9.22 Henning Bager 5.30 I know some of these will be sitting the year out, have 'retired', injured, or simply elect to concentrate on EL + international matches, but that is a LOT of riders to fit into approx 30 team spots

The Wolves thread suggests Howarth would go to a Thursday night club, could he be Owlerton bound?

Seriously? He's plenty good enough for the EL. Maybe not quite the rider he once was, and probably not an outright #1 anymore, but a solid heat leader in a slightly weakened EL on a 6.55 average. KL can still put a strong side, but much will depend on whether Lambert is considered a heat-leader. Same with Schlein and Bjerre. Milik may be an option too, but not sure whether they parted on good terms or not.

I think with Belle Vue now (well, will be) being a big track it does change things slightly. For the first time I can remember in quite a while, there will be more big tracks than small tracks, which should be useful for certain riders. Agree with you, Lisa, teams will be wanting to go to Belle Vue as early as possible whilst they literally have very little home track advantage. Wonder if Poole will have the ELA & ELB trips to Belle Vue done and dusted by mid April?!

Great news for Belle Vue. With the loss of Iversen, Janowski, etc, Zagar should be one of the league's top riders with a 9 point average. (especially if he's ill/has GPs when they go to Leicester!) Still early days, but wouldn't be surprised to see a repeat of this year's play-off final next year.

From what I saw of him @ Lublin, I wouldn't have expected him to get a sniff of an EL place. Coventry have certainly had an up and down team building so far. It looked dodgy to begin with, then it looked quite strong, now it looks like very average. Much will depend on Garrity perfoming well in the top 5.

Fasttrack riders are on a fixed pay (well, in theory!), whereas top 5 riders aren't, so as a top 5 rider it is possible a rider could ask for more money/van, etc, etc.

Why do you sympathise with them? Surely it is those promoters who wanted to introduce the Fasttrack scheme? Averages have always had the potential to be skewed even with the old format, it's just far more extreme now with many riders finishing around a 6pt average. It's nothing weighting couldn't for the large part solve, although there's always going to be a few 'odd' averages.

Why no Bjerre?!

Everything was done a bit differently this year, so think any previous notion of T1/T2 riders needs to be knocked on the head. Some teams will have 2 T1 riders, and I presume Lakeside are one of those teams. There was talk of swaps and all sorts this year, hence (one presumes!) why it wasn't announced on Twitter as it has been done previously.

The fixed rate has gone up for every year, and again for next year, so I guess if Garrity feels that he will be getting promoted after 4 matches, then he will want to be earning at his agreed rate, and not at the FTR rate?

I'm sorry E l Addio, but that is a ridiculous suggestion. Clearly their golfing capabilities would make much more sense.

Kerr had higher average than Newman, so Poole's turn would have been ahead of King's Lynn's.

2.5% discounts will take it under the limit

Italian must be Andrea Maida

Unless Sarjeant only rides in EL. King in the same boat aswell, and numerous others across the league. Grajczonek, Kennett, Summers, et al.

So basically just reserves? Some tough decisions to be made by a lot of riders in that case