MrMungo

It's been strongly rumoured that Lewis Blackbird is off to Dudley as the 2nd heat leader.

Screen?

If it does indeed happen, what are the chances of Tommy Allen making a comeback?

No room for Tom Stokes, Screamer? He impressed me last (this) year. He made lots of progress at the beginning of the season, although he did seem to hit a few rough patches at times. 1 Darren Mallett 2 Tom Stokes 3 Lewis Kerr 4 Adam Lowe/Jake Knight 5 Tom Young 6 Shane Hazelden 7 Lewis Rose Or something similar, perhaps?

Sorry to butt in into your argument! That paragraph just reminded me of something. Denmark actually don't charge spectators to come and watch their 2nd and 3rd division matches. At all. You can just turn up, no parking fee, no entrance fee, nothing. It's basically put on as training in a meeting format with teams, etc. But good luck in trying to get a programme!! Whilst their third division is a complete training league (akin to the Conference League when it first began), their 2nd league is somewhere between our PL and NL (and sometimes features EL riders), so is hardly a poor standard. Maybe the time has come for a 4th league. A pure development league with no wages and hopefully limited expenses. Because that is not what the National League is anymore. For right or for wrong, it has developed into the 3rd division, IMO.

Or maybe some riders prefer to ride for their local club (and get in more meetings!) instead of a regular 250 mile round trip? Just a thought?

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=stats&do=leaders

Hand a mod a brown paper bag. Koppe is a 5.00 Ellis is 3.00

I'll be careful what you say, Shadders. You may find yourself in the local press again if you're not careful!

Believe Nelson is on 5.33. I actually thought he had changed his name to just Nelson. One name only. Like Madonna. And Cher. As you do.

Have 2 words for you, Haza. Ricky. Wallace.

The side has been confirmed on the BSPA website, so one would assume so.

I'm with Ben here. Looks a strong side. Allen should score well wherever he goes. Mellgren looks like he's very capable of making that step up to a 8 point heat leader. They just need one of the Garrity/Nelson/Bunyan trio to step up to that 3rd heat leader role. Bunyan has done it before, so it's feasable it could be him, but not convinced he has it in him on a consistent basis. Garrity, on the other hand, he could really make a mockery over his starting average. He looked much improved once he got involved with Michael Lee, and I can easily see him putting a couple of points on his average.

You won the National Shield. Got to remain positive! Must admit I was surprised when I heard Dudley were staying NL. Now seemed to be the perfect opportunity for them to make that step up. Could keep 3 riders (in theory) which would maintain some sort of continuity & with the Swindon/Wolves links, there would always be some decent options there for the rest of the side. If Dudley can't make a go of it with their fanbase, there's little hope for the rest of the league!

A team average of 54.09 is truly staggering! Even if you lose Roynon and Morris, bring in a couple of rookies, it still wouldn't quite fit! Roynon is no longer eligible to ride in the NL, so that is one less decision that has to be made. I'd suspect the toughest decision will be: Perry or Morris. Keeping both will make them strong for heats 13 and 15, but could be very dubious in other positions. Bekker has been a number 1 in the league before, so he's more than capable of backing up either Perry or Morris. He looked to be coming good towards the end of the season before his injury. I'm fully expecting Greenwood to be at Coventry.

Nielsen/Young came in for Armstrong. Then they were booted out before they had even ridden a match!

With the way it was worded on the Facebook page, it made me think it was a new face to the KL side. Lewis Blackbird perhaps?

Far too early for the young lad. Would be probably worth a shot in a year's time if he recovers from his badly broken leg okay.

It was never confirmed though, and from what I was told, it could still go either way..

Looks like Nielsen, Bates & Stoneman will be back at Mildenhall in '13. Good start to team-building with all 3 having plenty of potential.

He was achieving more than a 4 pt average (from his guest performances in the PL) until the final month of the season when he was carrying a neck/shoulder injury, and his scores nosedived.

Koppe has ridden in Britain before though, so based on the article, it would rule him out...

5 minutes? I think that is a slight exaggeration! He's been around for a few years now (he's 23 now I think) and just has not made the sort of progress he looked capable of when he first transferred over to Speedway. He's a guy who struggled with a lack of meetings. Riding in the NL alone is not enough for most guys, and the Young Stars had a ridiculous amount of meetings at the end of the season but very few during the spring and summer. He's just one of a whole host of British riders who need to be riding PL regularly to progress to that next level.

What's Paul Hurry up to nowadays?

Don't know about the former, but definitely heard the rumour about the swap deal. I'd take anything you hear at this stage of the season with numerous pinches of salt though! There was also a whisper about Heeps not coming to the UK at all next year aswell.