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Whats The Thoughts On The New Format After The First Month


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just watched Poole v Coventry still dont know how Kyle Newman got on the National League draft when he did not ride in that league for the last two years also Jason Garrity he was not a National League rider last year answers please.

It's not a NL draft. Its the "fast track draft". Do agree though. But then whoever was in it, someone would have been the top rider and people would have complained I guess. Poole certainly got lucky - as did Coventry.

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But we don't know if it will save money ...I thought teams were getting less sky money this year ..so based on that I don't understand why teams can now ride each other twice

 

 

That's just the point. we don't know and we won't know until well into the season. People can have a view on whether they personally like it or not but its ridiculous for people to pre-judge whether it will be an economic success or not. What we do know is that last year some clubs were making eye-watering losses and it couldn't carry on like that.

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just watched Poole v Coventry still dont know how Kyle Newman got on the National League draft when he did not ride in that league for the last two years also Jason Garrity he was not a National League rider last year answers please.

Newman had bad accident for Plymouth tonight at Peterborough according to another thread. If kyle is out long term where would that leave Poole ? Using guests for a long period of time.

 

Personally like the new format but watched Ben Morley for Lakeside at kings Lynn last week and all Ben got was his 2 reserve races against the fellow reserves and his 3rd ride was in Heat 13 against the big guns( he replaced a sadly out of touch Lewis Bridger). His 3rd ride was sacrificed to give the other much stronger resrve adam Ellis an extra ride. Seemed harsh but perfectally legal.

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I do know that a number of fans have stopped going so unless they have managed to attract new supporters in support of the draft then that is less supporters!

 

 

Maybe that's the case at Swindon but as I said before a lot depends on who the reserves are. In three meetings at Lakeside I would say there have been two good crowds and one average crowd (against Brum). My guess is that it is Adam Ellis ((together with Mikkel Bech ) that is bringing them in. Ellis beating Klindt and Ben Morely beating Adam Skornicki were much more exciting for the crowd than last years standard of reserve racing. From what people have posted on here it seems Swindon fans have been drifting away for some time, not just this year. Looking at the posts on this thread a it seems the majority of fans seem to like the draft riders so you can't judge the whole scheme by whats going on at Swindon.

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To be fair, Swindon have got the crap end of the stick with their reserves. If they'd had Bates and Waorrall every meeting they'd probably look at it more favourably. Bates has shown tonight he's a decent little rider in the U21s

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It's not a NL draft. Its the "fast track draft". Do agree though. But then whoever was in it, someone would have been the top rider and people would have complained I guess. Poole certainly got lucky - as did Coventry.

I Would doubt luck had anything to do with how Poole ended up with Newman .

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How has it levelled things out as I can't agree with that & no way will promotion/relegation ever return?.

Poole, Coventry, Kings Lynn and Lakeside are happy with the "levelling" and the fact that all should reach the playoffs as a result. Some teams are more "level" than others. :rolleyes:

 

The draft is the biggest crock in many a year - especially the way it was administered!

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The whole "fast track" thing is a nonsense. Lee Smart, Benji Compton, Paul Starke, Simon Lambert, Kyle Newman, Daniel Halsey, What's the point? Just need Jon Armstrong to complete the set of seniors in juniors clothing.

 

If fast track is to work then the two reserves should also be the two youngest riders in the team. No more experienced "ringers" like Newman. No more old-timers who are looking to justify their long career in speedway by being able to say to their grandchildren "I was an EL rider in 2014". No more make-weights who can't even cut the mustard at PL level. The concept needs a re-think.

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the concept is ok...its the riders included that some may have a problem with..and thats fixable in future years i'd have thought

It will fixed in years to come for sure

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Ellis beating Klindt and Ben Morely beating Adam Skornicki were much more exciting for the crowd than last years standard of reserve racing.

Completely agree - and by the end of the season I think Morley could be a perfect example of a rider from further down the draft list really improving. It will be interesting to see him riding at Kent this year as well to see just how much of a difference his EL experience is making.

 

Other than the issues with the away #3 & #4 that have already been mentioned, I think the reserve racing that I've seen has been better than many expected and I'm also really pleased that the number of meetings has increased and that all teams will meet each other an even number of times. There's no doubt that there are some riders who should and shouldn't have been included, but I think that was unavoidable really and would probably be the case regardless.

 

It's great to be seeing more young Brits and although a few might not stay afloat, I think the vast majority will benefit from the draft and get a lot out of it. It'll be interesting to see what happens next season!

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Based on what I saw last night I liked it.

 

Reserves races were just as competitive as they have always been, if not more so. Instead of the foreign wonder kid who has been given mega£££s on a 3 point average who is miles ahead or the useless wobbly foreigner miles behind everyone else we have four Brits going for it without the ridiculous costs involved with the wobbly foreigners.

 

None of the reserves last night were useless and wobbly, in fact it was another foreigner who achieved that accolade. Why Auty isn't riding in the EL instead of Ljung is beyond me.

 

Obviously not every draft rider will do himself justice but I'm much more comfortable watching a Brit learn speedway at my expense than a foreigner.

 

Fewer gimme points for the top riders is good as well.

 

The only issue for me is the away number 4 not riding until heat 5 and that should have been thought through.

 

Overall it's a thumbs up from me.

 

It makes a nice change to have something positive to say about the people running the sport in this country.

My first match last night and agree with the above points, hopefully the system will stay and with a little tweaking should make for some enjoyable matches.
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Observations from an outsider

 

1. It was brought in to cut costs

2. Extra races will benefit British riders in the long run

3. Effectively at an EL match you now get 9 EL heats, 4 PL heats and 2 NL heats

4. The new format will make the racing closer

5. You effectively have 3 teams in your 1-7 now - 3 EL riders who just race EL and PL riders, 2 PL riders who race EL, PL and NL and 2 NL riders who race PL and NL riders.

6. Your star riders will find points harder to come by - will they now want a points money pay rise to compensate?

7. The race will be on for EL clubs to buy talented young Brits - again sending up costs.

8. The score charts look odd these days - NL rider 10, PL rider 9, GP rider 5. How do you explain this to a casual fan, "Man that Ashley Morris is better than the world champ, right?"

9. The double up triple up situation is making guests on busy dates farcical. Fans want to watch THEIR team, not have him riding for someone else!

 

I think that British riders will benefit but a better system would be to bring them from NL through PL into EL. The continuous compulsion to make cut backs is the mantra of the EL. I wonder what will be next?

Edited by SteveEvans
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With less fans attending because of the use of draft riders!

Personally i think it's a nice interesting touch to be able to see new (ideally genuinely new and hopefully young) riders to the league. It would more likely attract me to a meeting than turn me away.

 

I've not looked at the new format properly, but one thing that struck me watching on Monday was that in some races you had a really strong Poole pair against a weaker Coventry pair. then, in the following race there was a weaker Poole pair against a stronger Coventry pair. so you had a Poole 5-1 banker followed by a Coventry 1-5 banker. That seemed a little out of balance.

I quite like that this part of the heat schedule is there. It's the way they do it in other leagues. As with any sport the race or match isn't won on paper and is the reason you actually race the race.

 

Yes on paper you should get a 5-1 followed by a 1-5 but as has happened in reality that does NOT always happen. I do find that the latter of those two heats have the pressure heaped on the riders who are expected to follow up with a 5-1 once their opponents have achieved that in the previous race. It's a nice indicator of progress when a lower order rider messes up the expected 5-1 and claims a place above his station :)

 

The greatest concern of mine is that published flat/non-weighted averages are going to be a farce. Top riders are meeting each other more often, surely way more than before i returned to speedway when they used the 13 heat formula, and the number four and five and reserves are racing against each other all the time. It's going to be an incessant merry-go-round with genuine heat leaders dropping down and middle order riders going up then both reverting.

 

I haven't got a solution, nearest i can come is that a team issues their line-up at the start of the season and every rider remains where they start. Subsequently, congrats to the promoters and trophy winning teams who build a team on the same points limits as all other teams and find a 'star' at number 4 or 5 and/or a reserve who has the ability surpassing riders above him.

 

You'd then have to consider setting averages for the start of the subsequent season with some weighting to take into account the level of riders it was compiled against, ouch not a headache i'd want. Mind you Denmark grade their riders so i guess it's possible to try and work out.

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Has anyone got a run down of what average each of the 3 point drafts are running with in the opening few weeks. There will be problems going forward with these Reserves as they will be on such false averages for next season.

No as they do not earn an official green sheet average.

More of an issue will be second strings such as porsing or palm toft who are likely to spend thr whole season at second string, get an inflated average and potentially make themselves unemployable for next season.

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