MattK

If they want to "protect" the juniors, then top heavy teams will have a much greater advantage in the new heat formats.

Very true. When you compare him to other third heat leaders (Proctor, Hansen, Bridger, Morris), he look exceptional value.

Exactly. I think any second string under about 4.5 is great value.

I wonder if Swindon will be forced to choose a rider from the pool, or will we be allowed to sign any NL rider?

Exactly. Poole the only team who could afford a squad. Saying that, I'm not sure what competitive advantage they would gain from it. If it means a rider like Hancock makes a dozen appearances in the Elite League per season, then I don't see why not.

Personally, I think Oxford speedway's best bet is to cut a deal with the property developers to support housing in exchange for a down payment of a couple of million to build their own speedway track elsewhere.

Building on floodplains doesn't stop them!

Unfortunately, being refused planning permission by the local council is just the first step in the merry game to getting permission granted. If you want an example of the futility of it all, take a look at this. All the right noises from the council and MPs, 50,000 signature petition and no where near existing houses. Permission granted.

Club before country? Let's hope the riders don't adopt that attitude too, eh?

They are not world class, but they should be able to beat the likes of Ricky Wells and Gino Manzares. Yes, we are light years behind Poland, Denmark and even Australia but no one expects us to be competing at the top level. However, we should be easily seeing off the likes of USA and Latvia. The SWC should be your best four riders, not for blooding youngsters. If young riders want to gain experience they should leave the relative comfort of the Premier League and go and fight for a ride in Poland and Sweden.

We have plenty more than the likes of USA and Latvia, that's for sure.

There's no way on this planet that GB should be losing to the likes of Latvia and USA. That result was inexcusable with the riders we had at our disposal.

It's impossible to tell without know the new heat format and associated rules. However, I think the top heavy teams will come out best. Matej Zagar (8.64) Hans Andersen (8.34) Rory Schlein (6.84) Mikkel Bech (5.05) Lambert (3.00) 31.87

Same s**t, different season. Anyone know the rule for replacing reserves? Can you pick any available rider from the pool or does it have to be a pool rider who isn't allocated to another EL club?

Well, in that case I can't see what all the fuss is about and a lot of Swindon "supporters" owe Nick an apology.

If the rumours are true, Morris effectively has. If he leaves, it proves that Swindon knew his contract wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

I'd also love to know how often they graded the track during those 100+ heats. I'd like to see some evidence that grading every four heats produces better racing, than say every eight heats?

I can't watch that, the riders are not wearing sequential numbers. Saying that, 93 looks handy. However, I have absolutely no idea who he is.

Whatever you do, don't watch MotoGP, otherwise you'll have a brain haemorrhage.

I think it's a great idea. Hopefully the Elite League will also carry the numbers across and allow riders to use them in league meetings.

I don't think you can have reserves racing against heatleaders and certainly not a reserve pair against an opposition 1-5 pair. That would be a cast iron 5-1 in every heat.

I think they're banking on so few fans paying to see this new watered down league, that they won't have to worry about a 2015 season.

It could make for some very interesting pre-playoff changes. As for 2015, the whole system will have to be changed. Again.

Wouldn't rolling averages smooth this out for most riders? For example, a rider who averaged 4 per meeting last season, but scores 8 per meeting in 2014 would see their rolling average go up by one point every seven meetings (assuming rolling averages are calculated over 28 meetings).

Could we see a number one rider score 0000?