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PL Fours, Peterborough, 15/07


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Top 8 teams using combined averages of the top 4 riders in each team as at a certain cut off date.

 

Which, with rolling averages not changing too much, makes it fairly easy to calculate even now if your team will be in or out.

 

But don't let that get in the way of your having a a few wild swipes at anyone and everyone, please.

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If you work on the current system of having 2 "heatleaders" in a team, an average gate has to cover the expense of 4 heatleaders, 6 second strings & 4 reserves.

A 4TT qualifier will have to cover 8 heatleaders, & 8 second strings plus some guarantee for 4 non-riding "reserves" - who may well be the remaining second string in the clubs' normal 1 - 7.

 

Legend has it that popularity waned, especially at southern tracks, which is what killed them off in the first place.

With the increasing northern bias in the location of PL teams there may or may not be more sway towards their return, but that doesn't addess the fact that they're considerably more expensive to stage if they're arranged properly

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If you work on the current system of having 2 "heatleaders" in a team, an average gate has to cover the expense of 4 heatleaders, 6 second strings & 4 reserves.

A 4TT qualifier will have to cover 8 heatleaders, & 8 second strings plus some guarantee for 4 non-riding "reserves" - who may well be the remaining second string in the clubs' normal 1 - 7.

 

Legend has it that popularity waned, especially at southern tracks, which is what killed them off in the first place.

With the increasing northern bias in the location of PL teams there may or may not be more sway towards their return, but that doesn't addess the fact that they're considerably more expensive to stage if they're arranged properly

 

Quite correct backless. All riders are on the same payrate so you are really having to pay for 16 heatleaders and for 4 reserves, who would also get the same rate. The heatleader rate is not as high as some top lads get who sometimes insist on their contract rate, further increasing the final wagebill for their owning club. The hosting club would pay each visiting team the event payrate.

With this averaged rate, plus the number of riders and 20 heats to pay for, it is expensive to run which in the North is usually helped by bigger gates from visiting teams travelling fans. Not so true in the Southern teams such as IOW, Exeter, Reading and Newport who always used to vote against the qualifiers when it was on the AGM agenda to bring them back. Most regard it now as a lost cause.

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Even now, picking the groups from the north wouldn't be easy -- Glasgow, Edinburgh, Berwick and Worky?

 

Then Newcastle, Redcar, Sheffield and Scunny?

 

Leaving the close-knit group of Plymouth, Rye, Somerset, Leicester and Ippy to make up a "lucrative" final quintet

 

Back in the day, when there were 16 or twenty teams in the (old) National League, everybody had near-neighbours and derbies, and the increased travelling and rider-payment costs (three away meetings to be met out of one home gate) were matched by increased attendances.

 

Nowadays, not so much. As one who remembers some of the northern group weekends being a fantastic time for fans, it is so sad that it can't be expected to happen (even if some of us are a little older and wiser in our behaviour today) but that shouldn't stop us having a fine old time at Peterborough next month.

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Even now, picking the groups from the north wouldn't be easy -- Glasgow, Edinburgh, Berwick and Worky?

 

Then Newcastle, Redcar, Sheffield and Scunny?

 

Leaving the close-knit group of Plymouth, Rye, Somerset, Leicester and Ippy to make up a "lucrative" final quintet

 

 

So not that hard after all then. ;)

 

If there was a will from the BSPA to bring back the qualifiers then it would happen,but for some strange reason it hasnt quite happened yet.A level playing field is my arguement in bring back the qualifiers,as everyone starts off with the same chance,instead we have this qualification by average system which truely works well doesnt it. :blink:

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hmmm, seems like a good system when some of the best supported clubs in the PL are denied entry.

So will the qualify criteria change to the amount of people each club gets through the turnstiles then?? Every club has been dissapointed at not qualifing at some stage or another and this will continue to be the case unless the BSPA change the criteria (highly unlikely).

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The eight qualifying clubs are now known. Plymouth, Somerset, Workington, Newcastle, Berwick, Leicester, Glasgow and Scunthorpe will all do battle over two semi-finals.

 

They have used May’s averages in June as the cut-off for qualification.

 

Sadly, the current champions will not be in a position to defend their title which is a disappointment.

 

There is an argument of course that qualification should be based on the combined averages of the top five, as of course each team will be tracking FIVE, not four riders each. Had that been the case, then it would be Ipswich and not Berwick that would have qualified.

 

It isn't of course, so we will just have to live with it!!!

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Not so true in the Southern teams such as IOW, Exeter, Reading and Newport who always used to vote against the qualifiers when it was on the AGM agenda to bring them back.
So 4 clubs that are no longer in the PL are the reason they dont have qualifiers. Pull the other one! Someone else must be against them or they'd be back now.

 

I'm shocked Newport were against them, I remember a huge crowd at Newport in '99. And Phillipe Berge was flipping awesome for IOW. The next day at Exeter Mark Simmonds hit Frank Smarts bake wheels and flew over the fence and out of the stadium and had to climb back into the stadium up a ladder with a broken thigh! I'm sure Emil Lindqvist was unbeaten at Arena Essex too. Why can I remember pointless stuff like this from 1999 but when I just rung up the garage about my car I was unable to recall the regestration number!

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