Ben91

True that! Remember Matej Zagar seemingly always going missing when Reading were in town too, maybe he didn't like the track either. Funny he should be riding for Belle Vue these days!

There's definitely a good rider in Kasper, really only added his name to my post to stop anyone from making a "but you're happy to track one yourself" jibe. If he was on a 7 for next year though no-one would be going near him, same for a fair few overseas imports for that matter.

You never had the pleasure of Chris Johnson's spell as a Raider in 2005 then!

Not that there is a standout tier of British Speedway for Glasgow to operate in.

Ouch. Better 3 point options out there than Dilger out there and closer to home too. Don't agree with these foreign riders being rubbish and getting a 3 point average for their troubles. Their figure should never go below what they were initially assessed on. If that was the case there'd be 4/5 PL teams having to track young Brits at reserve in 2015 off the top of my head. Instead we'll be seeing Dilger, Konopka, Palovaara, Lykke and Covatti etc at reserve picking up experience that our own riders should be getting.

Why make an announcement to announce another announcement? Why not just announce what you are announcing you are going to announce instead of the first announcement?

Danno Verge announced on the BSPA twitter.

Until Charles Wright becomes a PL number one and wins a PLRC I'd say they were wrong. Agree that Charles did look set to go further then his brother though and has been a slow burner but finally looks like he's getting towards where people thought he may go. Finish the 5 named so far with Nielsen and Henry and it is a solid if unspectacular line up. Similar feel to Hull's side from 2004, no out and out top man but strong throughout the order. Kerr has improved season on season, there's nothing to suggest he won't continue to do so. If Rose can kick on and the top 5 pull their weight you could be looking at a title challenge again.

Matt Wethers, guaranteed to hit/improve on his average back at Armadale. The Monarchs could have an awfully long tail this season. Can see one of the 3 pointers getting binned once Riss gets a new average.

Why should he have been on a lower average than a rider from Poland, Sweden or Denmark in the first place? And how long is a piece of string?

I doubt he'd have been allowed to! Can't beat evenings like that. Fwiw I reckon Johnson is a decent signing for Eastbourne. They appear to have taken a more strength in depth approach to things and with Warwick and Owen alongside him he'll have good support. He's still young and could well be a slow burner. I'd rather see Johnson than an old stager take a NL spot. Will be interesting to see how Eastbourne complete their 7.

Just playing devils advocate here but how does an average speedway fan relate to Brendan Johnson any more than they do with any other rider?

I believe he is a Rye House asset, the Raiders could do a lot worse than look at Chessell for 2015.

I believe his grandad was a rider. Long before my time though. Les rings a bell.

Cradley look stronger because they have the tricky bottom end sorted and with good riders to boot. To say they are going to walk the league is going a bit far imo though. Neale has experience at the bottom end for Cradley, while Perks is the best 3 pointer anyone could have signed. Luke Harris has bags of potential and won't be over awed starting as a second string. Greaves will develop into a real NL heatleader too. Looking at the Brummies so far there is no doubt that Perry and Ellis will be one of the best heatleader duos out there. They will have a long tail though and it may be hard for them to fill the bottom end to the same standard that Cradley have. It seems to me at this stage though that there may well be a tussle between the two Perry Barr clubs for the league title in 2015.

If Lakeside get the last signing right they will be contenders without a doubt. AJ is a top number one and Bech will be a good heatleader. Kennett and Lawson are very good second strings. At reserve Birks is on par with the rest of the number one reserves while Ellis is probably the best in the second list.

That's a Matt Wethers size gap. Would probably push his average up by half a point back at Armadale. An assessed 5 pointer puts more pressure on the two reserves to perform and also on Wolbert and Sedgmen who will have to both improve too.

Considering they have used almost three quarters of their team building total on the top four they are definitely top heavy. No-one may have called it top heavy before the AGM but no-one knew the points limit before the AGM so perhaps it was a little premature for the Kings to sign over half their side. Morley should be a top dog in the league this year. Adam Ellis is the only rider signed by any team so far who could be classed as head and shoulders above him on track. Shanes and Ayres are highly likely to improve too. You'd also imagine Aaron Baseby can at least maintain his starting figure considering there will be more three point riders around, which is a good thing for the division.

Mason is likely to be back at Rye House. There is, and rightly should be, limited space for more experienced riders in the NL. They benefit their team mates yes but one per team is plenty. Mogridge, Verge, Kirby etc aren't being forced out of contention in the Kings side because of the points limit, they are being forced out because 1) the Kings have gone top heavy and 2) they announced the bulk of their side before they knew what the points limit would be. That being said they have made a good start to team building and with the right three riders in the last three slots they can challenge for honours without a doubt.

Lubos Tomicek > Nico Covatti. Lubos was half a wheel away from becoming a GP rider remember.

Second sides in the Trophy gain nothing and are just hen picked riders from the sides that aren't in the competition. Look at Leicester last season. If Lakeside enter the trophy I hope they're told to field a 7 man team of riders who are not attached to NL clubs already.

Hear 15 does count towards averages, however an average is worked out over what a rider should be scoring over 4 rides. It is points scored divided by rides taken times four. So if a rider scores 10 from four rides his average is 10. If he then races in heat 15 and finishes last that average drops to eight.

Every sports person is human, their profile is irrelevant. They earn a living paid for by supporters going through the turnstiles and the least supporters should be allowed to do is voice their opinion. If the riders don't like it, don't read the forum. Higher profile sportspeople receive criticism in a far wider range of ways and the measure of them is how they deal with it. Nothing is different with a speedway rider. The reality is that six of the riders in this season's line up have been Rockets before and all bar one (Kennett) have fallen short in their last spells with the club respectively. They are on the averages they are on for a reason.

They're sportsmen, criticism is part of the job. The criticism is more levelled at the promotion however for yet again giving us a mediocre looking line up.

He could always go back to Redcar and under perform. Won't be worth that 21k if he's back on a five point average next year.