MattK

It is anyone's guess how these averages have been calculated.

Zengota has seemingly reverted back to his 2016 Elite League average

That's a very random figure.

Good to see Zengota and Kasprazak appear to have had their averages calculated differently.

Hopefully the points limit will be reasonable and we can revert to rolling averages.

Given that the BSPA will need to determine a new conversion rate for Elite League to Premiership and Championship to Premiership, it should be possible to issue comparable averages for all riders even if they are yet to complete 4H and 4A. Therefore Zengota and Kasprazak would have their Elite League averages converted using the new rate while Jorgensen and Gappmaier would have their Championship averages converted. This would mean all teams have riders on a "new" average, either acheived by riding at least 4H and 4A or converted using the new rates.

No. The limit is for teambuilding going forwards.

I'm sorry, but I agree with Danny. I haven't heard a single person say they are no longer going to Swindon because Nick Morris is now also riding for Berwick. Fan get frustrated when riders are missing due to fixture clashes, which should be easily avoided.

For me, the pressing issues with the Premiership are: Disparity in quality of riders – This year’s Premiership has GP-calibre riders racing against National League-calibre riders. This does not lend itself to close and competitive racing. This has been caused by the introduction of the Draft and exacerbated by continually lowering of the points limit, especially this season. The solution is that the league needs to make a choice. If we want a truly “Premiership” league, then the points limit needs to be raised and the top riders tempted back. If on the other hand the overarching aim is to manage costs, the top echelon of riders need to be removed and a single larger league formed. I think at this point in British speedway’s lifecycle, trying to tempt back the top riders is unrealistic, so this leaves the option of a single combined league as the best approach. Missing riders – This seems to have been getting progressively worse over the last few seasons, but is particularly pronounced this year. The main reason is the amount of doubling-up, but there is also blame to be laid at the door of poor fixture arrangement. The most obvious solution (short of restricting doubling-up, which I am not in favour of as I think it rewards loyalty to the British leagues) is to have fixed race nights for Premiership and Championship. My suggestion would be Wednesday and Thursday for Premiership and Friday and Saturday for Championship. I know the usually protest is that clubs are restricted by their landlords, but I believe that if there was genuine willing, then by having the flexibility of two race nights a week, there should be enough scope for clubs to comply. Fixture Planning – How can you get something so simply, so wrong on such a consistent basis? Two major issues caused by poor fixture planning are missing riders, which could easily be avoided by better planning, and the irregularity of fixtures which leave fans with large gaps between meetings followed by a flurry of fixtures in a short period. I appreciate that this season there were some late entrants to the Premiership, but this should act as an incentive to ensure all clubs are present and correct at the AGM, leaving plenty of time for fixtures to be arranged optimally. I like the idea of a dedicated TV channel and this is something I have thought about for a while. The main challenge is getting enough broadcast quality overage of meetings, although as someone else has pointed out, Swedish speedway seem to achieve this with significantly less resources than Sky. Given that BT appear to have been offered the rights for free and the lack of a league sponsor, now seems like as good a time as any to branch out. Personally, I would go all in and aim for SGP and Polish/Swedish rights in order to offer a comprehensive speedway channel, but this would all depend on funding.

Berwick's fixture was re-arranged, so we'd have got priority.

28th July

Last night was a "tactical" unavailability.

Why wouldn't it be Zak getting replaced? Gappmaier has far more potential for huge scores once he gets dialled in IMO.

Heat 15 has been included in the averages for as long as I can remember. The extra column in red on the scorecard is the score from a rider's four programmed rides, as these are the scores which count towards heat 15 eligibility. The max average is 12 because it is all points (including R/R, reserve switches and heat 15) dividend by the number of rides then multiplied by four. This gives the average of all the riders points over an equivalent of fours rides.

These are my averages after last night: Jason Doyle (9.75) Nick Morris (8.98) David Bellego (7.35) Adam Ellis (3.80) Zach Wajtknecht (3.43) Bradley Wilson-Dean (3.38) Dany Gappmaier (2.80) 39.49 The only question is whether Dany will get a new average having ridden only two meetings or whether he will stay on 4 or get a new converted average. Makes no difference either way if he is the one to be replaced.

Madsen is second in the Polish averages. Whether he's coming of age or simply having a great season remains to be seen.

The are certainly not the force they used to be, although I'm not sure that they have gone backwards as much as Poland make vast strides. It will be interesting to see who gets picked for the Danish World Cup team. Presumably NKI, Madsen, Kildemand and MJJ?

I guess we only have a few days to wait until we find out!

They'll have to do something, otherwise you'll have some riders on new averages and some on old averages. Same applies to Gappy.

Surely he can't be reassessed on the basis of two meetings? His "new" average is 4.89, which is ridiculous!

Just looking at the averages and Zengota has come in on 10.91. Presumably, as he has only ridden two meetings for Poole, he won't get a new average when they are issued next week. Does this mean that Poole have stitched us up and one of our assets will effectively unusable?

A good source of European league averages: https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/statystyki

I think that rule is now obsolete, as many teams have competed more than 4H and 4W without gaining new averages. I think this rule will take precedence: 16.2.6.1 Updated MA’s will be calculated on all eligible meetings, up to and including Monday’s meetings each fortnight for issue on Thursday to become effective from the next Monday.

It would be interesting to know what average Kildemand would come in on, once the new averages have been issued.

http://www.speedwaygb.co/premiershipstatistics17 I agree with you, I think it will be all eligible meetings, rather than just the first 4H and 4A