IainB

Steve Johnston... When he first arrived at Long Eaton from second halving at Sheffield I used to have to watch his races through my fingers, seemed to be out of control for most of his races!

The late Lee Richardson stands out for me, from memory he found points very difficult to come by when he first started out, then seemed to overcome that and establish himself only to be hindered by health issues. As we all know then went on to become world class, especially riding for GB in the world cup

We'll change all that once we get a hold of him!

Surprised me that not many even wanted to try the big line on 3 and 4 using the banking in favour of sticking to the line

On paper i thought they looked quite a weak side to me and have surprised me tonight, if you can get your number 1 back fit you should be looking good, especially at home

Looks like Plymouth have built a mini Leicester with their track... once the track has bedded in (in around 15 years) there'll be some great racing

There's been so much movement at the starts tonight right from heat 1

Listening to DT on BSN just now and it sounds like maybe the rest of the Leicester riders weren't perhaps offering as much help to JT as the riders do with DT at Ippo.

Look on the bright side, you could have been there and paid to get in!

Did the clock stand at Plymouth come with the clock?

Right now, the tide in Plymouth (Devonport) is FALLING Next LOW tide 3hr 24min (21:58 BST) Next HIGH tide 9hr 29min (Sun 5th 04:03 BST)

Pretty poor for a sport that, domestically, relies on riders doubling up and foreign imports

Looking at the list of the 67 (67!!) riders eligible for the RS scheme in 2021 https://britishspeedway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/rising_stars_21.05.21-1.pdf How many are still riding? And at what level? And how many have gone on to become "stars", how do you define "star" (does Paul Bowen's appearance on The Apprentice count? ), let's be generous and say a regular position in the main body of a team. I think things have improved this season with the weakening of the CL to accommodate some of the riders at this level, which is a good thing... only the PL has become stronger while the criteria for being a RS has remained the same.

It depends what the Rising Start system is designed to do... Is it to find the next Robert Lambert, who it could be argued will always find a way to the top or is it to find the next Simon Lambert, the type of rider the sport would not survive without? There has been a chronic rider shortage over the last number of years, exacerbated by the doubling up system and importing of ready made foreign talent and for me the way the rising star system is run does nothing to produce either type of Lambert. Don't laugh but you could almost have a revolving rising star system where each club only has their "star" for 1 month before being moved onto another club, the sport in general doesn't seem to mind who rides for who, so why not make it official to benefit the riders and clubs? So Leicester would get Joe Thompson for March then he moves on to Birmingham and is replaced by Dan Thompson for April and then he moves on to another club for May etc. etc. Sounds stupid but is it as stupid as demoralising your up and coming "star" (the name itself adds pressure) to such a state that they think about quitting the sport because they've been dropped into a league and are hopelessly out of their depth... these kids are CL reserves being asked to be PL reserves alongside the likes of Craig Cook, Vaclav Milik and Patrick Wojdylo, all potential match winners. When the RS system was first introduced the strength of the PL was considerably weaker and as the quality of the league has increased the quality needed to be a RS hasn't

Another lamb to the slaughter... We can perhaps try Mulford after we've destroyed another riders confidence

Another rider chewed up and spat out by the rising star system

Thanks for the BTS info, sheds a bit more light on the situation. I think the talent pool is too shallow to successfully run a rising star programme in the PL

Poor decision. I don't know if JT has asked to be stood down but surely the club could have maybe done more to help him turn his form around? Binning him off is very much the easy option and for what? Replacing him for a rider of similar calibre who won't get around BP as well as JT does. I thought the idea of the rising star system was that they were protected, this change makes no sense, drop a club asset, the captain of the cubs and bring in an outsider, doesn't send out a great message and it's not made Lions into title contenders all of a sudden.

We kind of do agree, I think it's definitely a worthwhile system, I just think that most of the riders being used in the PL are a little too inexperienced for that league and I would prefer to see them in a protected CL spot with more experienced British riders being protected in the PL berths It'd be boring if everybody agreed all of the time at least we can disagree in a civil manner without calling each other names

The RS system is a great idea... just not in the PL for me. I'd still like to see some kind of protected spot in a PL team for British riders but from a wider pool of riders than is currently on offer

For me, only Brennan and Mountain from the riders you have named are holding down a team spot. Gilkes is not going to progress out of the reserve spot this season, not even close. I'd say a "successful" rising star must at least be challenging for a spot in the main body of a team

No. Points Total 21/03/24 Leicester v King's Lynn (PRa) 1 3, 1, 1', 1' 6 +2 01/04/24 Leicester v Ipswich (PRKO) 1 3, 2, 0, 2 7 08/04/24 Belle Vue v Leicester (PRa) 1 0, 1', 2, 1' 4 +2 11/04/24 Leicester v Sheffield (PRa) 1 2, 3, 2, 2', 1 10 +1 15/04/24 Birmingham v Leicester (PRa) 1 1, 3, 0 4 18/04/24 Leicester v Belle Vue (PRa) 1 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 15 25/04/24 Leicester v Birmingham (PRa) 1 2, 3, 3, 2', 3 13 +1 02/05/24 Leicester v Ipswich (PRa) 1 3, 2', 1', 3, 3^, 3 15 +2 I am talking about Max over the course of a season home and away and it's only my opinion of course. He's more than capable of beating those riders mentioned as indeed he has done but at the moment, over the course of a season, I'd still fancy the others and like you say the backup isn't really there. I think Leicester will probably have enough for 4th or 5th place in the league but will come unstuck without another top heat leader come play off time. He also had a pretty poor start to the season for a world class number 1, though he'd certainly got his arse into gear now.

His fall was a strange one last night... almost seemed to lay it down in the hope of a rerun after riders in front of him getting into trouble

Will Dan hold that team position down though? The way Rew was riding last night he'll be back in the main body next month. You can add Gilkes to the list of RS riders who shouldn't be anywhere near the PL... Mountain and Brennan are the 2 stand out names that seem to be holding a team spot down. Brennan looks like he may be on the verge of having a breakthrough season.

Who of the rising stars are holding down a team place in the PL? Genuine question