IainB

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

He doesn't get the praise he probably deserves as to be fair he's expected to be good and get a decent points haul, he's a quality Speedway rider, he has let himself down on a few occasions in the past though. Compare this with Tom Brennan, he's had a fantastic week, winning the match for Brum (Twice) on Monday and getting 13+1 last night at Lynn or Wojdylo a paid 18 point maximum! No topics with people gushing all over them with well done marra! But having said all that... well done marra!

I don't think Sam Hagon is the answer. You've got to stick with JT and rally around the kid, maybe get somebody in to help him. For me I'd be looking to drop Kemp and A.N.Other and be looking at getting a CL 7 pointer in at reserve somebody like Jake Allen, Vuolas, Lambert (Simon or Robert) or Zischke or take a punt on a complete unknown like Worky have this season and Peterborough did with Woj last season... with Schlein or Sedgeman in the main body, anything else would probably require major surgery. Last year showed that you now need big hitters in your team at 1 and 5 to succeed as long as you get to the play offs, Belle Vue finished top but just didn't have the firepower to see off Emil and Doyley

You're right, bigger picture stuff, the RS system should not be being used in the PL but the CL, the jump from NL to PL is just too big and more so this season with the return of some of the "Stars". Personally I don't think Fricke has had a particularly strong start to the season but he was always too good a rider not to come good. With the make up of our team I always thought we'd come unstuck when riding against teams with a couple of "big hitters" as has been the case against Sheffield and Ippo as Max is just not at the level of Holder/Woffy/Doyley/Emil... and with the lack of any bite at reserve the matches against the other clubs are too close to call without a performance from Kemp

I wonder if Leicester dare make another 2 for 1 change like they did last year? It was a disaster last year with consequences also extending into this year with DT's non inclusion, doesn't mean to say it will this He said a bit more than that from what I was hearing and was strongly hinting at potential changes reading between the lines

Yes he did, no Joe and surprisingly no Lawson who should have been Lions rider of the night. The only option is to pass Dan off as Joe! When is Cairns eligible?

Absolutely nothing (apart from the shape)

It turns out "laughing" Ritchie Hawkins didn't need to do anything clever with R/R after all as Ippo had more than enough to hand Lions their arses on a plate just playing it straight! Lions reserves outscored 14-1 smh Well done Ippo

Kemp, quitting onto the centre green when Doyley was on a sick bike... hate to see that!

I've come to the conclusion that the whole lot needs digging up and starting again! Or try the one out on the in field?

Jason Doyle must have racked up hundreds of pounds in fines for all the practice starts he does not wearing his helmet... yet he still continues to do them Track grade after heat 3... that's not normal, probably because we've just seen the first passing of the night and we don't want that!

I agree about the rest of it was interesting and I remember listening to Mudguard talking about the atmosphere in the Millennium Stadium when he rode there but come on the cold conditions don't just effect Nicolai and he should have it sussed out now after 20 years in the game

I've just listened to Nicolai Klindt on the British Speedway podcast and I must say I've never heard such a load of crap he was spouting about being dropped from Oxford because it was too cold! He was basically saying that he couldn't get going this season because the temperatures have effected his machinery and that now that it's warming up watch him go! Now Nicolai is a rider with some 20 years of senior Speedway experience initially in "tropical" Denmark and to use this as an excuse is scraping the barrel, yes weather and temps do effect machine performance but to use this as an excuse says more about him than the weather... what does this say to anybody that is thinking of signing him for their team next year? Don't bother until May? He also said that Steve Worrall says he suffers from the same... erm, condition? If I was Worrall I'd be distancing myself from those comments