Grachan

In which case Jason Doyle is on 9.58.

I was. Does anyone actually have the race format for next year to hand? How often do heatleaders meet each other?

His average is over 10.

Yeah, I looked at ELA. 10 from 5. Quite amusing, though, that Gater1 highlighted a meeting where he scored 1 point.

Didn't look. Just checked the first one on Gater1's list.

Coventry v Poole. (ELB) Friday July 15 2016. Coventry 47 Poole 43 Hans Andersen scored 1 point.

9 from 5 is a 7.2 average.

Are you going to tell Nathan or shall I?

Gutted for Poole fans. You can tell how upset they are by the way they have all camped out on the Swindon thread because that's where the World class riders now ride. No genuine world stars now at this once great club. A sad day for the sport. Hopefully Holder will still ride in the UK. To quote a former Poole and Swindon number one: "No holder at Poole no me at Poole. What even is speedway in U.K. Anymore such a shame" Regarding Ellis, I would have thought he could have had an exemption of the 1.4 increase on the basis that he rode in the National League last year. They could easily make this a general rule rather than a rule specific to one rider.

It's already been announced that Swindon will start the year in the old Abbey Stadium.

Swindon may or may not win the league but at least we'll get the chance to see possibly the best rider in the World in the team. Not to be sniffed at. For me I want Swindon to have a good team, but I also want to have riders that mean something to me as a supporter of the side rather than just a mathamatical equation. For me I am so glad that Jason is in the side. I may still go from time to time now. If he'd been dropped I probably wouldn't have bothered. Seems to be an influx of Poole supporters here commenting on Jason being in the Swindon team. I think it is some kind of "denial" because they are grieving the loss of their quality number one. Swindon will do just fine.

If Belle Vue is confirmed as running, why would they have the World Cup at King's Lynn?

Plus, of course, there's the possibility of tactical rides, particularly away from home, which could be worth a further 3 points on his score that don't count towards his average. Great to see he's still included in the side after the AGM revelations.

It's all relative. The points limit is 50, so it's not a realistic figure anyway. If you take a team average to be around 42 - 42/50 = 0.84. So, to use a well used TV phrase, Doyles average in "real terms" is 11.26.

Not a problem. Crowds will probably be halved anyway.

I expect Klindt to pretty much everyone will be a rumour at some point.

Like this? Doyle 13.41 Harris 9.21 Morris 8.97 Wright 6.59 Klindt 5.42 Ayers 3.7 2 pointer 2.00 49.3 Would give us a good top 3 as long as Nick regained his form. Darryl Richins would have been good as a final reserve to give us a couple of "Sprockets", but it looks like he is a 3 pointer so too high. Todd Kurtz (him again!)in for Wright would enable us to fit Richins in at 49.47. Would the 2 pointer be able to be replaced once Doyle's average drops? A possibility. Bring Richins in then.

Any team suggestions with Jason? I just had a bit of a go. I came up with this, which doesn't look too weak from 2-7 bearing in mind what other sides will look like too. Doyle 13.41 Harris 9.21 Wright 6.59 (hmmm, Charles as third heatleader looks a bit dodgy) T. Kurtz 5.76 (random last rider who fitted in) Klindt 5.42 Nielsen 5.53 Ayers 3.70 That comes to 49.62. Doyle and Harris would be a damn good spearhead.

Maybe, but if Doyle rides at least he'll presumably get a new average and will be useful in the future. Holder will still be stuck on 13. Plus having Doyle will hopefully push crowd numbers into 4 figures.

How could he sign a 3 year deal with Leicester when he wasn't even your asset. Surely an asset's parent club has first dibs.

Why are you banging on about Ellis? Every team had 2 young Brits last year. They're not all going to be back at the same club this year. Teams have to looks at the points limit, look at the average and then try to put together the best possible team within those constraints. And that's it. I'm not so sure. I would say being winners is what gets the crowd in. If a team is losing people go home disruntled and don't always come back until the team starts winning again.

If he doesn't get a team then he has been forced out because of his stupid average. This is forcing decent riders out of the league. It's depressing how British speedway has downgraded itself in the last 10 years, and crowd numbers have gone with that. If the weaker teams attracted crowds and a good atmosphere then it would be fine, but they won't.

Me too. If Doyle is not in the team I reckon we'll be down to crowds of about 500 next year. (Sorry. Just noticed this is a Poole topic!)

Very sad to see Holder effectively pushed out the league. I wonder if Swindon will be forced to do the same with Doyle when they sit down and try to put a team together. I think there will be a lot of fans who give up on the sport when they see the teams being put together.

The points limit is very low. Painfully so. It's pretty much Premier league across the board and it will cost the clubs in terms of crowd numbers. I'm not sure how many times I'll make the effort to go to Swindon to watch a Jason Doyle solo display (providing he still decides it's worth riding here now). It's catch 22 though, unfortunately. With Lakeside dropping out more teams were needed in the top flight and this was probably the only way to tempt them. For me the one team who will really flourish as a result of this is Somerset, who can look attractive next year to their supporters. Another thing one can't help but wonder is if Sky will continue to cover speedway. Presumably their contract was to show Elite League, and there no longer is an Elite League.