Ben91

And breathe.

Fair play to the Eagles they are doing very well so far this year. Would be tempted to go to this, however I'll be watching Stevenage v Southend in the League Two Play Off semi-final on Sunday! Eastbourne will probably win this at reserve around their home patch but look out for Hume and Bowtell, there's a lot of raw potential in them. Good to see no bad blood between the promotions with regard to the Bank Holiday issues, I look forward to being able to see the Eagles around Rye when the meeting is re-staged.

What happened when the track was originally laid? When we first returned to Rye it was laid over the existing tarmac and taken up every week. If it was simply laid over the tarmac and more shale added to it over the years since Len purchased the stadium perhaps the base surface is now breaking up and causing a problem? Expensive business completely relaying a track I'd imagine but perhaps this is the best way forward.

I wasn't criticising him, no need to be overly defensive, just commenting on what I saw from his TWO rides. Regardless of what he said about the track beforehand it is there to be ridden. I don't think his withdrawal made that much of a difference, the Raiders threw a few points away here and there too. The draw was a fair result.

Entertaining meeting and a fair result too. Bowtell and Hume both look as if they are going to develop into good riders. Bowtell had a couple of falls at the back in his last two heats when he seemed to be trying to get the job done in the first lap. Something which will be ironed out with the more competitive track time he gets I'm sure. Look forward to seeing these two progress through the year. Chessell could be a heatleader in this league if he stayed on his bike a bit more. Shanes didn't impress as much as I thought he would. Didn't look comfortable on the track and took a nasty spill, hope he's back on track very soon. Ayres looks good, seems very passionate from his post race reactions, think he can progress to the PL in future if he carries on in the same vein. Couzins also looks like he'll become a tidy rider in future.

Think this will be close. Branford should just about have the beating of Morley IMO. The 2-5 spots look pretty even and the Raiders reserves seem to have made a better account of themselves than their Kings counterparts so far this season. Looking forward to seeing Ayres (hopefully) and Shanes around Rye.

Need to be beating teams like Redcar while they are struggling. Kasper should be beating his reserve opponents in every encounter while Greenwood is on par with Morley and Konopka so should have a good chance of picking up some points on his debut. Not sure how Palm-Toft goes round Redcar, hope he is guesting for Boxall and R/R is in place for Robin. If it's the other way round we may have shot ourselves in the foot.

Wish Greenwood all the best but this is going to leave us very long in the tail. Frees up points higher up the order, will we be ruthless enough to make another change? Probably not.

Booking Edberg showed more intent than we usually see from Rye when booking guest reserves. We're early in the season, far too early to be putting NL riders in to gain experience. I don't buy Mellgren still coming back from injury, he had half a season racing last year and a whole winter to prepare. His form hasn't been that bad at all though. He always has a duff ride here and there, that's why his average isn't higher.

Don't see why not. Stumbling block over Shanes would be that he is a Plymouth asset I believe. Wilson-Dean doubling up would be no different than Perks at Scunthorpe and Cradley although he did start the season an an assessed 5 point NL average. If someone did move for him and it was blocked it could have big consequences in the NL.

In terms of entertainment the NL can be one of the best however I think the Premier League is the best product. In the EL and NL it is rarer to see reserves challenging and beating heatleaders because of the differing levels of quality between them. The PL offers a lot more close races. The ideal scenario IMO is to have a PL team and a NL side to help develop your own riders.

When all else fails sarcasm always beats logic.

An extension of the argument you instigated. And as I stated and you have agreed here, no fans = no sport, no sponsors = a lower level of competition but not to the extent of the sport dying out. Sponsorship is a method of advertisement in most cases, these sponsors are not doing riders a favour, unless they want no acknowledgment of their financial help, they are advertising their businesses.

That's irrelevant, the sport of speedway wouldn't completely die without sponsors, it may end up a shadow of what it is today but there would still be fans and riders willing to fund themselves. If all the fans gave up on speedway then it would die a death. Supporters are more important than sponsors.

To say sponsors are the lifeblood is false though. Fans are. Without fans there'd be no sport at all. Sponsorship is basically advertising, if nobody is seeing that advertising then it is just an unnecessary overhead for the company.

Priest's injuries sound pretty bad. Hope we've been on the phone to Brendan Johnson as it looks like Priest may be out a while.

Have to disagree on this one Derek, purely because pairs meetings should be about the best, or most consistent pair being victorious in my opinion. It puts an emphasis on team riding too and that's never a bad thing I say!

Not the best line up, the fact that a 3-2-1-0 scoring system has been used is laughable too. Morley and Sheppard were the best pair because Morley went unbeaten and Sheppard only finished ahead of an opponent twice. That's not how pairs meetings should work.

Bridger has been eligible to double up between EL and PL in the past and not done it, that wouldn't have changed this season.

It's spelt Craig Cook.

If he can learn to trap he'll go a long, long way in this sport IMO.

I'm voting for the Green helmet cover Party.

Wonder how many bites this comment will get? Fear for Plymouth this season, got absolutely ruined tonight.

Chapman and Shanes will be in the mix to win too.

Not expecting anything so won't be disappointed if we get hammered. Will need the top 5 to all be on song if we're to put up a fight.