Ben91

Finding out which PL club Jason Garrity will sign for. Josh Bates not retaining his Under-21 title. Rye House's interest in the season finishing in around August. Oh the joys.

In all seriousness though, Cradley, Stoke and Kent are my top three picks.

Eastbourne are going to win the league and all their riders will average more than 9.

Hughes' best season in the sport came in a Rockets race jacket. At the end of that season he had a horrible head injury and it all went downhill from there. Let's hope that back at Rye he can rediscover the potential he showed in attaining a near five point Premier League average in 2010. Incidentally he averaged higher than Nick Morris, Dakota North, Adam Roynon, Alex Davies and our own Anders Mellgren to name just a few that season. There's a decent rider in there somewhere and at 25 he's not too old to show that again.

I think I'm right in saying the floodlights are being moved onto the greyhound track in some areas to light the track better due to the air fence. If so that rules dogs out. Other than bangers I can't think of much else that could be done with the stadium without major work being carried out.

As I said, there are some riders who come from grasstrack who do well, some who don't. Your first list is one of riders who have done well at speedway after beginning on the grass but for that list, which stretches a long way back, there are countless more grasstrackers who have made the step across and been rubbish on the shale. The second list is riders in the NL who have ridden grasstrack too, of those maybe 2/3 will end up riding to Elite League standard. The rest won't which in fact supports my point and not yours.

Never judge a rider on a few videos. If another club had wanted him sooner and offered him a contract he would have taken it I'm sure. Both may turn out to be fantastic signings but it's better to have realistic expectations and be pleasantly surprised than to have high hopes and be disappointed.

Lot of expectation being placed on Wood and Wilson-Dean here. For all the riders who have made the cross over from grasstrack to speedway easily there have been more that have fallen by the wayside. It'd be naive for people to think Wood is going to take to speedway like a duck to water. If Wilson-Dean was as good as is being made out then a PL side would have snapped him up as a 3 point reserve. Don't ramp up the expectation levels Eagles fans, there's only one way things can end then. I'd be very surprised if anyone other then Owen ended the year in the number one race jacket.

A fair few teams have got riders with averages between three-four in their main bodies this season. There's no problem with putting more than two three pointers in, it's not about knocking their confidence because there's only two reserve spots, it's about giving them a full season of competitive speedway. That's better than no team slot at all and another year of a NL which wasn't helping to blood British youth. Once the first set of averages come out the better riders will move out of reserve berths and the worse ones will drop down as always.

While I was hoping the Raiders would line up with a team of raw talent, the signings of Priest and Chessell is a good start. It looks as if we are going with a team that will be competitive rather than just blooding youngsters so it looks like we will need to bring in a number one who is either unattached or racing as a Premier League reserve. Robert Branford, previously mentioned here, would leave room to sign Brendan Johnson and complete the side with three three-point riders. A top four of Branford, Priest, Johnson and Chessell would certainly be competitive in the 2015 National League. Rob Watts, Danyon Hume and Macauley Leek look like possibilities to fill the remaining three spots in the 1-7.

No, no. International football is not the same as a speedway rider racing for two different teams in one country. Agree with the rest of your post though

The EL should always get priority unless the rider is owned by his PL team. What other sport would give their second tier priority? Then again what other sport lets participants play for more than one team in professional competiton? The asset system is ridiculous and needs scrapping, priority should be sorted via level of competition. That said, if the EL had a set race night that no clubs in lower tiers were allowed to race on then there would be no clashes whatsoever.

Think he may be a victim of believing his own hype to an extent. As you've stated SCB he had a very similar season to Kyle Newman. As a fan solely interested in watching racing and none of the off track politics etc you'd take Garrity over Newman any day because when he can be bothered he is spectacular and a racer. As a fan who wants a model professional and a team man you'd take Newman however. If I'd been asked 12 months ago which rider will go further out of the two I'd say Garrity without a doubt, now I'd swing my opinion in the other direction, purely because Newman seems a lot more professional and less likely to throw a wobbly.

The FTD reserves are of a better standard this year, they don't need protecting from heatleaders, no reason not to go back to the format that is still used in the PL and NL.

Discussions as to who the greatest rider ever is should go no further than Mauger or Rickardsson. They have both won six World titles, that puts them ahead of everyone else. For me Rickardsson edges it, regardless of what anyone says it has to be harder to win a GP series then to win a one-off meeting where luck has a much bigger bearing no matter how good you are. TRick did both, Mauger naturally only ever raced in one off finals so only won those. Of course that is a debate for elsewhere. Hancock is a three time World Champion, in my book that places him level joint fifth in the list of all-time greats. The fact he is still going strong speaks volumes for his talent, to say that it is easier now is to do him a disservice. Last season he was consistently the best rider in the World, the fact that he wasn't in the era of Crump, Rickardsson and Pedersen's dominance shouldn't come into the discussion of whether he is an all time great or not.

Vitaly Belousov sounds like an STD.

As long as Woffinden is around Garrity will not be British number one. The only rider who really had the potential to match Tai at the moment is Rob Lambert. Garrity has the potential to be a good rider but the attitude clearly isn't there.

Will soon struggle when he's only racing EL and his opponents are riding far more regularly. Got the talent to be a very good rider but not the attitude. Only other thought that has crossed my mind, as mentioned here is that he has a move elsewhere in the PL lined up to replaces an Aussie without a visa. Sheffield perhaps? Lucky we've got Anders ready to step in, should have been in the side in the first place anyway.

Be very surprised to see the Eagles trouble the Kings at Central Park. Reserves will be key. Wouldn't be surprised to see the Kings win at Arlington either.

The way I read Gustix's post it looked as if he was saying the points limit is helping the decline of the sport now. Of course the teams who offer more money can afford the pick of the riders, the points limit means they can't have the monopoly which is in no way a bad thing.

No it isn't, teams need to be balanced otherwise chequebook speedway will take over.

He's either a Brit and as so eligible for a 3 point average or he's a New Zealander and therefore not eligible to race in the NL full stop.

No curfew at Rye. Pit area at Rye is plenty big enough for riders to park and change into race gear etc. Bikes are usually warmed up towards the end of the first meeting, then of course there is usually an interval after the first meeting for track work.

On the subject of the Potters team, assuming Chris Widman is the last signing it looks very handy in my opinion. Armstrong and Payne will win as many battles as they lose as a top two, while the engine room looks stronger than a fair few others as it is made up of three riders with NL experience in Phillips, Terry-Daley and (probably) Widman. Tedham has experienced a season at reserve in a stronger NL, that should hold him in good stead, the same goes for MacDonald. If they get a clear run with no injuries the Potters could have a good crack at the title.

The joke wasn't funny. What was even less funny was trawling through the posts of nothing but petty squabbling on this thread which I was trying to read with regard to the visa situation.