T.N.T.

No they wouldn't affect the EWR as it was pointed out in my post. Forein riders still come in on assessed averages. This is never put under question and therefore accepted. There would be no conflict to say that rider keeps that average until he reaches that figure. More riders progressing from NL to PL and more scope to improve in the PL should mean more British riders progressing into the Elite League and then into the National team.

If we can't get Peter Ljung 5.61 or Mikkel Michelsen 5.00 to sign up for the remainder of the season, then it looks like R/R may be our best option but it would be nice to have a solid 1-7 again and even someone like Daniel Nermark 5.27 could be a match winner if he rides to his true potential. Shame that Mikkel Bech signed up in the Premier League as he would have been a rider that could have come in and scored like Ty had been doing.

A view is also an opinion on what could be a solution and the cause of the problem. My main problem has always been averages of foreign riders. There is nothing wrong in the averages they get when they first appear in Britain, but this is only for a short time. Most never reach that figure season after season, so we are left with foreign riders taking up team places in the Premier League on new much lower averages that they really achieve. So a team will sign a foreign rider, only ever heard of in the village / town he has come from on an assesed average which is accepted by all parties. After a certain number of matches, the same rider gets a new average which could be half of the starting average he had. This new average he keeps (possibly around 3-5 points) and takes up the place that could be taken up by one of the many British riders that is struggling to make ends meet in the National League. So to stop this, a new foreign rider keeps his assessed average until he reaches that figure. He will never get an average below that assessed average he started on. Should that rider be injured at any time however, his REAL average will be used and not his assessed average. EXAMPLE; Stefan Nilsson joins Berwick on an assessed 7.00 average. After 12 matches, he is given a new average of 4.22 as an official GSA. However he will still use his 7.00 average as he hasn't gained the required level. He then misses a meeting so Berwick can only use a guest fo a 4.22 rider. Should Berwick wish to replace him, they will still have to fit under the points limit or if it's like for like, they can only sign a new rider upto 4.22. This would mean that virtually ALL Premier League riders in the reserves berths would be BRITISH. Add to this, British riders that are not averaging more than six points in the National League can sign up to a Premier League team on a 2.00 average. ..... The conversion rate from PL to NL (and vica versa) is x 3. So a British rider averaging 6.60 in the National League can sign up in the PL on a 2.20 average. To start in the PL on a 3.00 average, they will have to average 9.00 in the NL. No foreign riders are allowed in the National League unless they have an assessed 10.00 average and keep it. Should they sign up to a PL team after, they take up their PL assessed average that they would have started on, not a third of their NL average.

ITALIAN GP - August 3rd Ales Dryml is now in the Series for the rest of the season to replace current World Champion Chris Holder. Next reserve is Leon Madsen so he may be replacing Andreas Jonsson with Troy Batchelor then Hans Andersen next in line incase any others are ruled out. Birmingham's Nicolas Covatti is the wild card and the Track Record holder is Antonio Lindback who won last year (cant see him defending it) ahead of Emil, Greg and Vac. ..... Nicki Pedersen, Jason Crump, Chris Holder and AJ went out at the semi final stage. TERENZANO PREDICTIONS 13 Emil Sayfutdinov 11 Darcy Ward 11 Tai Woffinden 11 Nicki Pedersen 11 Jarek Hampel 9 Greg Hancock 8 Niels K Iversen 7 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7 Tomasz Gollob 7 Matej Zagar 6 Fredrik Lindgren 6 Martin Vaculik 4 Andrea Jonsson / Leon Madsen 4 Antonio Lindback 3 Nicolas Covatti 2 Ales Dryml

Well the rebuilding of Nicolai Klindt rding in the Premier League took a real back step today. Pride of the Midlands was held at Leicester where 16 riders were in a traditionial 20 heat format. The meeting was on by Richard Lawson after beating Patrick Hougaard in a runoff after both scored 13 points. Henning Bager was third on 12 and Jan Gravesen and Sergei Darkin both got 11. Lasse Bjerre, Jonas Raun, Ricky Ashworth, Kevin Doolan, Adam Roynon and even Michael Palm Toft (who Nic replaced) all took part ..... Nicolai scored 0 0 E 1 0 = 1 ..... The one point was when Jake Anderson fell !! Looks like any return to Monmore has more chance of being in a Heathans race jacket !!

2014 = Freddie, Tai, Ty and Jacob and I' sure there will be a new face coming in, so the last two places would most likely be from a list of Adam, Ricky, Ludvig, Nicolai and Pontus so we wouldn't fit all of the four pointers in but at least we are spoilt for choice on riders that could be key figures at reserve while still having a powerful top two. First of all lets hope we can get a 1-7 to finish off this season where we have been the pace setters all season. .... Hopefully Tai has a good meeting for Wroclaw today with Batchelor and Peter Ljung before tomorrow's meeting v Swindon. Maybe all three could be makig the trip to Monmore ? unlikely but would have been nice

Scored 9 guesting for Rye House at Plymouth which included three heat wins I agree it is a risk, but it's only July and a few months riding in the Premier League may be just what he needs to get back his potential .... or at least some of it !!

Firstly I would slightly change the race format but it still runs over 16 heats and 4 nominated races. Secondly, change the JOKER to be used when EIGHT behind the leaders and tac subs when six behind. HOST NATION; Seeded to the RACE OFF

Think you will find Nicolai using the rest of the season to get some confidence back and score points in the Premier League. His debut for Scunny didn't start well with two 0's but he finished the night with two heat wins to finish on six. If he starts to show signs of getting back to the rider we know he can be, I think he is pretty much nailed on as a doubling up rider next year and starting at reserve in the EL on an average currently at just 4.14 which could be a bargain.

Man for man we are stronger, but USA finished above us only because Greg Hancock score 20 points while Fisher and Wells (and Gino) scored just 11 between them from 14 starts !! ...... Latvia however had 3 of their 4 riders gain heat wins while Lebedevs was better than 5 points and Prague suits those riders more than ours. 5th is being kind. Poland and Denmark are clearly the top two while fully fit Australia, Sweden and Russia are much stronger than Team GB and there are other countries that have one star rider and young improving riders and countries like Latvia that may not have a GP rider, but have riders that will take points off riders in big events. On paper it would point to Woodward and Doyle being stronger than Barker and Bridger as both have higher averages here. One thing that does concern me is most of the riders that struggle are the riders that double up. Cook, Barker, Wells etc are not getting the experience on foreign tracks as much and this shows up in big events like this.

TIME FOR MIDDLO TO GO !! ......... WHY ? Let's face it, he was on a hiding to nothing as only Tai Woffinden is world class and Chris Harris capable of mixing it in this class of field. Perhaps if we had Scott Nicholls on a bike instead of on a mike or Daniel King in Czecho instead of at home we may have scored a few more ...... who knows ! but to be fair Lewis Bridger tried hard and gained two good second places before his crash while Ben Barker on his own bikes was not on the pace and was a mistake to be bought in. We put out the best we have (or Middlo thought we had) while Australia, Sweden, Russia and Poland went into the qualifiers with big names missing and we still couldn't match them let alone beat them. Could Phil Morris, Alun Rossiter, Pete Adams or Gary Havelock have selected a stronger team ..... unlikely. I will however question the tactics. Why take out Chris Harris who after a mechanical problem had scored 5 points from his next two races while Ben Barker was given all five programmed rides. Bomber should have been kept in and to put Tai in as a tactical in a race containing the awesome Greg Hancock was a mistake. Maybe use Bomber as the Joker ? ..... probably not as that would have stopped Tai coming in to replace Barker soon after and possibly then used the Joker. Overall Australia deserved the win as they had four riders in the mix with obviously Darcy way out ahead. Latvia deserved credit for a great performance from a young team who will get better while USA again relied to heavily on Greg Hancock but at least had Ryan Fisher bacing him up this time. Wonder what they would have scored had Billy Hamill and Sam Ermolenko had been riding ? So overall. Could anyone have done much more for Team GB last night than Middlo did. Answer is No.

Yes. They are the team you think will beat Team GB or you wont post till August.

USA will be fourth in the race off as only Greg Hancock will be really scoring and he wont be able to save them single handed in this one. At the same time, Tai can't fight a battle on his own and Bomber, Barker and Bridger need to get at least 21 between them and hope Tai gets well into double figures again. Australia 43 England 37 Latvia 28 USA 16

Well after the showing at Kings Lynn I really hope Peter Ljung is the only one they have talked to !! Daniel Nermark was rusty while Daniel Andersson looks worse than Jonas Davidsson who was off the pace in every heat that we would do better signing up our mascot ! If we cant get Ljung or Michelsen, then R/R may be our best option for the rest of the season ..... especially if Adam can slip below 5.78

Personally I would think Daniel King and Richie Worrall to come in for Eddie and Craig so havent cast a vote as you are only given one option.

This must be a record. Nearly TEN years from one post to the next on the subject ..... Harry J & The Allstars - The Liquidator (used at Wolves FC for years also) Martha Reeves & The Vandelas - Jimmy Mac (always played for Jim McMillan at Wolves)

Going to predict that Denmark to go untroubled and finish on roughly 46 points with Team GB on roughly 32 (34) leaving Sweden and USA to battle it out for the other 42 points. Sweden 23 (24) and USA 19 (22). All four Danes to hit double figures and the only other riders to get into double figures will be Tai Woffinden with about 14 points and Greg Hancock on about 12 inc Tactical rides. Peter Ljung to top score for Sweden with about 8

How many Czech's will be at the final compared to Poles or Danes etc. If it was all about ticket sales, then surely they could just as easily seed the host nation into the race off as this meeting won't have the home team in, but will still be heavily watched. Have the two qualifiers and seed the defending champions and host nation into the play offs ..... or ...... increase it to three qualifiers (12 countries) and have the three winners of each round go to the final. The race off would then be the three second placed teams and the host nation with the winners only going to the final. Poland, Denmark, Sweden, GB, Latvia, Russia, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, USA and Ukraine ?

No suprise to see Poland sail through and quite frankly Patryk Dudek coming in to replace Gollob actually made them stronger in my opinion and they are the team to beat without doubt. Would have loved to have seen a full Russian team taking them on as Emil, Grigory and Artem are top class and at present Artem is on fire and with Kudrayshov they would have had four riders al capble of scoring. Expected Borodulin to be their top man in this but wasn't to be. Latvia picked up some good points thanks to Russia's missing stars and Australia's injuries and Bogdanovs was always going to be their star man but Lebedevs is a talent and Puodzuks has improved a lot since riding over here but cant see them doing anything than fourth in the play off. Czech Republic and Poland now through and Denmark likely to join them making the play off a real tough meeting and hopefully Team GB can beat the Aussies in that one.

At the start of the season I was concerned we had sen the best of Adam and thought Ricky would be the rider that steps up to be third heat leader. At present Adam is back to his old self and scoring good points while Ricky just seem to lack top end power and is often getting caught during a race. All this years team have done well and wouldn't change a thing but now Ty is out for the season we either have to find a replacement that wil score more than Adam, Ricky and the reserves would score using R/R. Heart says Michelsen ...... Head says Ljung (or Nermark)

Haven't seen it posted elsewhere in the PL section, so sorry if it is but Nicolai Klindt tweeted the other day that he has signed for Scunthorpe.He repaces Mchael Palm Toft in the Scorpions team. This season Nic has been well below what he is really capable of and in the EL for Kings Lynn and then Peterborough he has been averaging just over three points a meeting and seen his average of 6.58 in 2011 slip to 5.68 in 2012 and now down to 4.14. Now with a young child, Nic bases himself in Wolverhampton and admits its more a problem in his head than anything and if he can get among the points in the Premier League, his confidence will return and you could see the talent that made him one of Denmarks top young riders just a few years ago and featured in the World Team Cup. Good Luck to Nic and hope Scunthorpe get to see the real rider we Wolves fans know he can be whenhe is on form.

Monday nght sees Sweden go into the World Team Cup with a make shift team of Daniel Nermark, Peter Ljung, Jonas Davidsson and Dennis Andersson. Of these only Davidsson has a higher average than Ty Proctor and wouldn't be suprised if either Ljung, Nermark or Andersson are targets for the #2 race jacket at Wolves. With Michelson also fitting the critera, it looks likely that any signing has a good chance of being a Scandanavian.

Daniel would be a good replacement but with current form, I would seriously look at putting Ricky at #2 when we have a complete 1-7.

If Nicolai can get some confidence back and do a few more meetings in the Premier League (replacing Ty at Plymouth may be), then I can see Nic returning next season at reserve as his rolling will be around 4.00 and at reserve next season, he would be a gamble that could pay off. As it's unsur how long he would be out for, then I would presume it could be fo the rest of the season. If there is to be a new signing after the WTC then I hope it's Michrlsen. ..... If it's Bob then he should do ok at #2

As we take a break for the WTC, we can take a look at who is set to gain or lose big points with the Spred Betting. In order they posted, CJ69 is pleased now he sold Chris Holder for $2 so loks like getting 146 points (-73) at the end of the season ....... but he sadly bought Antonio for $8 to reach 125 points !! which means the Rio Rocket needs to score 97 points in the remaining 5 GP's !!! .... GAVAN also bought Antonio with $4 Thankfully I look to have a big bonus at the end with my faith in Tai Woffinden and bought him at $7, so he is already 14 points ahead of his target (98 points) with only WHEELSINLINE also buying Tai at $6 ....... MARK246 $4 and FULL THROTLE $1 decided to SELL Tai while DUMPTHECLUTCH bought Tai for $3 but has just left the competition after not posting for the third time. Tai is the only rider to already reach his target and it looks like anyone that bought Chris HOLDER will lose 73 times their stake and should AJ not return, he is 46 short of his target. ...... Darcy could still reach his target of 145 if he gets 101 points in the remaining 5 rounds, one of which is of course TORUN !!