T.N.T.

At first I thought they would be battling Leicester and Swindon for the wooden spoon while the other five race off into the distance However I can now see a chink of light in the tunnel but it is going to be one massive TEAM performance to get anywhere near the play off final. Belle Vue and Poole look to have the best set ups to me. Poole still have 2 to sign I know but if it's Darcy/3+ or Magic/4+ they have a powerful top four and the best two reserves while Belle Vue have the most potential from their second strings.

The lawyers are from Torun which is where MONSTER Joe is based after moving there a few years ago and obviously backs Darcy and Chris.

The best way of making the Elite League stronger is to ride on one fixed night and no other nights. This would have to be Mondays to fall in with Sky who the sport needs more than ever in this country Riders then do the GP, ride in Poland, fly into England then fly out to Sweden and have Wednesday - Saturday off or for other meetings which they choose to enter.

I think Peterborough get priority but it does make you wonder if its just a mistake that Lewis Blackbird has not been mentioned in missing the trip to Coventry but Jason Garrity has even though they are both due to be riding in the Premier League meeting. Maybe it's just a typo and Lewis is at Peterborough that night which means we can use(as long as Coventry don't get him first) ..... Adam Roynon !!

If there is a starting offence then the riders are not allowed to go back to the pits ..... obviously except the rider that has been excluded !! ..... So where is deemed back to the pits ? At Wolverhampton there is no pit gate as there is a gap off the second turn that riders use to enter and leave the track. This is then leads to a concreted area (road) that runs behind the pits and is out of view of the referee. If a rider leaves the track, he is only guilty by returning to the pits so when does he become excluded. 1 - On leaving the track ? ..... Hard to tell what is and isn't the track really for a small space leading upto the dog track 2 - On entering the concrete road ? ....... where often riders wait during heats next to the ambulance 3 - On reaching the end of the concrete road ? ...... How will the referee know if he can't be seen It is a bit of silly questioning but if the rule is returning TO THE PITS then in either case the rider has not broken the rule and can't therefore be excluded ...... Can he ? If they are not allowed to leave the track say ..... what happens in these scenario's then. A rider touches the tapes and is excluded and returns to the pits where he gets off his bike and say BLAST !! only to be told he will be back in off 15 meters. .... When he returns to the track is he then excluded for leaving the track or put back another 15 meters for delaying the start ? Also what happens if a rider is waiting on the track and his bike breaks down. Is he allowed to run back for his spare bike ? ..... Obviously not then and time will then be wasted awaiting his replacement as he trundles back to the pits shouting BOTHER !! Mad moment over ......

Sign Magic or Shamek and a decent second string and get on with it. Great to watch but a year out will do him good in the long run and hopefully we would then see him for the next 10-20 years as a model professional rather than an Artist !!!

Personally I think the only thing that was possibly wrong when Tai Woffinden did his shovelling during the British Final was that the referee's allowed it to happen in a meeting where there were more officials than normal including one on the center green. After a crash, one rider was back in the pits to do work on his bike so Tai used that time to run from the pits and prepare his gate. If the officials on duty didn't deem it wrong then he did not break any rules and as it wasn't during a race time but a break for mechanical repairs then that shouldn't be an issue really. I can see there being a few arguments at certain times on this, maybe only a few but excluding a rider who dismounts his bike when the two minute time allowance isn't even on or the other riders at the tapes will cause managers to phone the ref to complain, then time spent getting a replacement ready and then a fresh two minutes. Hardly stopping the time wasting is it ? There is one thing that I do feel could be done at all tracks is the track preparation at the starting gates. Apart from when the tractor goies over it, the gates are hardly touched but along the kickboard on the home straight there will be a massive amount of loose shale piled up to it. With at least three people on the starting gates, sometimes more, why can't this be raked back into the ruts after every heat or every other heat ? At the end of the meeting the starting grids are terribly rutted and it only means in the later heats riders have to dig to try and get a decent position by either filling in a rut or trying to find a decent patch to start from. Raking on the start grid every now and then would help stop this and riders can come to the gate each time to an evenly prepared starting position.

Had been told they were likely to include him but we were about five years too late on this one. He rode at Zielona Gora a number of years back and came over with Freddie to see what is was like over here. Sadly we never signed him and the following season Swindon grabbed him. Mads will do nicely if he is available as he rode at #3 for Leicester last season and his scores in the first half of the season were very good but his relationship with the club was obviously strained and his average dropped to below six. If we get Mads he should move up to heat leader and stay there. Simon Gustafsson (is he looking at riding here ?) could be a very good signing. Always felt he was much better than he had reached and was stuck in a rut at Eastbourne and needed to get out. He made the move to Swindon and after a slow start he got going and only slowed down when he moved to a heat leader position. As a second string fine but that is the same as most of the team apart from Freddie isn't it.

Agree he had a very good season and did progress and show signs of what he could be, but nothing against him its just with a potential #1 on 7.58 then you need four 6+ riders behind him like Morris, Zengota, Kylmakorpi and even Smolinski/Bjarne etc http://www.speedwaygb.co/issues11/el11_issue_24.pdf Exactly, Kyle is fine but if you don't take a pea shooter to a gun battle do you

Great signing and a rider I wish Wolves had signed when they had the chance many years ago when he rode with Fredrik Lindgren at Zielona Gora. He has progressed a lot since then and a 6.15 average is quite modest really and if he was to stay a second string, he could easily average over 8, but chances are he will eventually have to move up. With 8.69 left for the final signing .... (would have fit Doyle perfectly) ..... then unless they manage to persuade Nicki Pedersen 8.64 to start the season I can't see much past a rider like Martin Smolinski , Kenni Larsen, Linus Sundtrom etc and that would make the decision to sign Kyle Howarth 5.27 on first was a mistake when they could have had Mads Korneliussen 5.95 or Joonas Kylmakorpi 6.33 instead. No disrespect to Howarth who had a great season but can't see him doing as well as Mads or JK.

Magic Janowski 7.50 to return leaving 4.47 for the last place and one rider that wants to ride in the Elite League is Pontus Aspgren who did a great job at Somerset and I believe his average is around 4.3 and has gone well at Wimborne Road in the past.

Depending on who the last rider is, Wolves will have their two second strings on a combined average over 12 points a match. That is more than any other team I have seen and if Musielak is anything like his Polish form then 6.50 is a reasonable average. The teams success however depends on the second strings scoring if Tobiasz and Jacob struggle early on and in PK and Mads/Zengota/? they have riders that can move up and still score Not too sure if its play off material but wont be the weakest by far Well Zengota 6.16 will do nicely and fit in with Tobiasz Museliak well.

Well Wolves are waiting to see if a certain rider is going to be used by his parent track and if not they want to talk to him and Mads K (or Zengota) seem the most likely, if not then its Ricky Wells. I know Mads had a bad time at Leicester but has he said he wants to take a year out of riding here ?

Batchelor 7.58, Smolinski 7.54, Pedersen 7.12 ........ Anyone see the problem here ? Bjarne doesn't like McDonald's Does Usain Bolt do ANY turns

YES He bought two in Old Kent Rd and Whitechapel Rd but failed to buy a hotel in Mayfair after landing in Jail

Why wait when I posted a better format back in October and ensures more level heats and only protecting the #7 (lowest reserve)

Who would Leicester rather end up with Bjarne Pedersen, Adrian Meidzinski or Martin Smolinski ? Rumours seem to suggest Bjarne is heading to Wolverhampton with Lasse Bjerre so I would have thought Meidzinski joining his Torun team mate in Doyle being the best option if at all possible. Can't see any of the big names like Hancock, Sayfutdinov, Hampel, Pedersen etc riding here and even KK was suggested when Leicester started but he is now World #2 in a year he decided to ditch Britain so why would he want to change something that isn't broken.

First of all let's not forget that until any signings are announced it is not official and it may not be Pedersen and Bjerre and could be Karlsson and Wells FACT; Wolves need a back up heat leader for Fredrik Lindgren FACT; Tai and Piotr would have been first in the queue but don't want it. FACT; Signing Peter Karlsson as a second would only see him be a heat leader shortly after and would also mean Tobiasz and Jacob starting as heat leaders FACT; Bjarne Pedersen averages around 8 points a match every season and even under the hard format used in 2014 he still averaged over seven as a #1 and hit double figures in more meetings than Tai, Piotr or PK. Bjarne is not one of my favourite riders but he is a constant scorer and signing him means we can bring back Lasse who actually averaged seven points a match for Wolves last season and see no reason why he can't add a point to his average even if the races will be against better reserves. What really are the other options ...... Martin Smolinski

Must admit Howarth did much better than I expected quite a few times and can't criticise his efforts in the meetings I saw him in. However he is only a good signing if he is there to do the job required. If Swindon don't sign a decent heat leader, they will be looking at the others doing better than their averages suggest. If Troy Batchelor 7.58 is going to be the #1 then the team had to have four six point riders to back him up and at the moment Robins have one in Nick Morris and other teams have stepped in to sign Woodward, King, Bech, Musielak, Stead leaving Kylmakorpi or PK available (depends if Wolves sign one) Swindon, Wolves and Leicester all seem to be getting ready for the 2015 season with teams that are likely to be weak in strength. Meidzinski, Kildemand, Sayfutdinov, Janowski, North, Zengota, Musielak ......

Would hazard a guess at Adrian Meidzinski or Martin Smolinski being the most likely to join Leicester. Find it amazing how the points limit was set at such a figure and we now have Wolves, Leicester, Poole and Swindon trying to find a heat leader to go with the second strings on inflated averages. Maybe reducing the averages of the second strings in 2014 may have been a better option but you cant do that every year as no doubt it will be the same in 12 months time.

Davey Watt has averaged 7.71, 8.06 and 7.46 leading upto the 2014 season which used a much more difficult format for heat leaders and he averaged 6.71.However Ford has also signed Dakota North on 6.57 after a year as a second string !! .... Considering others that went down like Kildemand, Woffinden, Zagar etc then I wouldn't say Watt is on a modest average but about right. However Davey Watt does have great team skills and vast experience and on his day can be a big scorer so it was no surprise he has gone back to Poole after two years away. Peter Karlsson has had better times but he struggled with his set ups and the format and while 6.12 may look generous, it may just be a more realistic figure for a rider that could be facing heat leaders every race once his average starts to go up or others fall. There is nothing wrong with PK and all reasoning behind him coming back are valid but when you look at the team in general and how others are lining up, you have to question if Freddie will get enough backing, will too much pressure be on Tobiasz and Jacob starting as heat leaders and if Freddie has an off night how much of a battering are we in for ? Yes it helps when you have riders on false averages but most of all the balance has to be right and having Freddie as a lone heat leader doesn't bode well and in not getting Tai or Piotr to return, then Wolves seriously need a more prolific point scorer to back him up. Would even consider Shamek Pawlicki 6.75 who despite injuries still scored well and as a heat leader. That would then leave enough for Richie Worrall 5.53 to sign up and it is very rare Wolves don't have one English rider in the main body of the team.

Yes as it would be one hell of an opening partnership with Andersen and Woodward and Daniel King can be at #5 no problem. Don't rely on heat 13 too much as throwing Andersen and Harris together puts too much pressure on them and at #3 Harris has better chances to be used as a tactical if required

Eduard Krcmar 4.00 is a guess but as he is only 18 and mainly ridden in Polish Div 2 for one season, Czech Republic and Germany since starting it is hard to see him being anything more than a 4.00 as the odd one good showing doesn't alter the fact he hasn't really been tested yet in Sweden, Poland or here Kylmakorpi is up and down for me and he wouldn't be my ideal signing but with what is left, he seems as likely as anyone if its not PK and Wells which look the most likely leaving Tobiasz and Jacob as heat leaders to start the season. BELLE VUE; Must admit they look as good as anyone so far with Zagar and Cook able to increase their averages while Fricke looks a bargain and at least a point on his average too. They do somehow though always seem to drift away even when they get a strong looking team on paper they let themselves down on the track.

We are forward thinking to 2016 with Pawlicki 7.32, Woffinden 7.03, Pedersen 6.98 (after a spell at Leicester) AND Lindgren 6.98 Hopefully it would be r/r for Nicki most of the season though

Adrian Meidzinski 8.24 ? Teaming up with Doyle to both ride and go straight out to Torun would work and he has asked to be considered for a place ....... but asked Matt Ford instead of Swindon !! It would help if we knew the race format being used and the fixtures as a big name signing would have seen them before signing so why cant we ? Marmite on the menu in Leicester ?