Ben91

To be fair he didn't cock it up at Rye, Hughes was comfortably leading the race by the time BWD fell.

Any reason Jack Smith hasn't raced for the Kings again since the away meeting against Cradley? He has a good pedigree and with a few meetings would probably be outscoring Verge. Having seen the Eagles at Rye on Saturday I wasn't overly impressed. The Raiders' reserves are obviously stronger than the Kings' but Kent top four is more than capable of outscoring their Eastbourne counterparts at Central Park. I guess that just highlights why the Eagles are near the top of the table though, they are scoring points all the way down the team.

Merely looking for reaction Ian, only one bite though haha! Was a good meeting, both sides threw points away with falls, mechanical issues etc. Wilson-Dean looks good. Was expecting more from the Eagles reserves to be honest, Wood picked up a fair few points through riders not finishing/falling although he looks comfortable on the bike which will always result in points at this level. Think he'll develop into a good rider. Kyle Hughes was very good last night, starting to look something like the rider he was when he was a Rocket again, if he carries on this form for the next month or so I'd be tempted to have a look at him in the Rockets team again. He'd score points at home in the PL.

Rye by 32.

Joke. There's plenty of English riders who are just as good if not better than Konopka. Perry, Carr, Crang, Williamson, Shanes, Halsey, Hughes and Payne to name some. It's really time to start putting assessed overseas riders back onto their assessed averages for team building until they can surpass them.

Because Morley is better round Rye.

Konopka has had his chance in Britain and been found wanting. Glad to see a young Brit has kept his team spot over a poor import.

Sorry but that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Both riders are in good form and Morley has done more laps round Rye than most so he is an ideal guest. Think the Eagles will win this, but it'll be close.

Think Nicholls instead of Bomber or King could have made a difference tonight. Granted he's not the rider he was but he's still out second best rider in my opinion, not right that he's sat on a sofa presenting the meeting.

I thought the conversion rate had changed along with the EL to PL one a few years back.

British speedway isn't very good I don't know if you've noticed? It's not devaluing the sport it's a fact. British only reserves is a good starting point for one.

There isn't a shortage of speedway riders. A squad system would work fine.

Lets not kid ourselves though, he wasn't a proper heat leader, he was just less bad than his team mates. I could be completely wrong here but I believe Luke Bowen's four point PL figure converts to 6.67 meaning he could replace Baseby. That doesn't help the Kings' lower order but he's a much better rider than Baseby. The problem for Kent now is that they can't do much to strengthen at the bottom end as any meaningful changes will mean releasing one of the key riders (Morley, Shanes, Ayres). The hope has to be that they can unearth a three pointer or two who can perform better than the existing bottom three.

At reserve you'd like to think he'll score some decent points though. Totally agree though, one bike is completely unacceptable at this level.

Kennett has been on form recently too. Glad to hear we made a good fist of it last night, hopefully Robin can fire from reserve, if he does we could see Boxall down there come next month and that's not a terrible thing either!

Make hay while the sun shines.

He didn't have a fanny 120 seconds before sprouting a willy though did he?

Can't say I recall Barker or Kennett having had Polish team spots, though I could be wrong. Even if they have tried and failed they could always try again and are just as likely to succeed as Cook.

All Brits should be aspiring to ride in Poland, it is the pinnacle of league Speedway racing by a mile. Cook has a lot of expectation put on him unfairly however IMO. He's not a youngster, he was a latecomer to the sport and to get to where he is now is an achievement in itself. He's done more than a lot of other riders his age and he could of course continue to improve still. These threads are never started about Kennett, King, Barker etc, all a similar age to Cook and all have been around the Speedway scene a lot longer.

If only we'd not capitulated at home against Peterborough, that said if we hadn't we we would have won the group anyway.

There are plenty of riders about, there are so many misconceptions that there's a shortage of riders. A squad system, only Brits at reserve and a slightly lower points limit for your 1-7 in each meeting is a very simple solution.

The way the rules are. The clubs aren't at fault, this does happen too much though. Perhaps we should be looking at squad systems.

You've not actually given an answer though have you? What makes monday any worse than Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday? Friday and Saturday night there are lots of other things that compete with Speedway, other sports as you've mentioned for one, other forms of entertainment for two and a big one for people in the age bracket that Speedway should be appealing to go out drinking at the weekends. If you promote Speedway well people will come whatever day of the week it is run.

If the stadium is only being raced two nights a month rather than four then why shouldn't they? Or how about this novel idea, one that will keep weekly speedway at each stadium, each EL side enters an NL side that races their home meetings during the weeks that the senior side is away. Also helps teams develop their own riders, everyone is a winner. Of course not, they fly over for Monday nights when sky is in town and two of our EL sides race on a Monday every week anyway. Why is Monday the worst night?

If I had a £1 for every time I've said this: Elite League meetings should all be raced on Monday nights. PL and NL meetings are not allowed to be raced on that day to stop clashes and allow British riders to double up. Two home meetings a month will help keep costs down for supporters, one race night may attract better riders back to the EL as well which makes promotion easier. If clubs can't commit to Monday night racing then they need to join the PL or NL, I doubt any would though as they can all run on a monday when Sky come calling.