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A Way Forward For National League Racing?


Electric6

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Now what is the national league about? Should it be about teams winning titles and becoming the mini Poole of this league dominating or should it be about developing young British riders to progress up the ranks?

 

I think the National League needs in essence a Major Revamp - I think it HAS to focus on the individual rider rather than the team and thus I would propose the following

 

National League divided into North/South with more clubs asked to compete

 

 

National League North -

Birmingham

Buxton

Coventry

Cradley

Glasgow

Belle Vue

Edinburgh

Sheffield

 

National League South -

Eastbourne

Kent

Kings Lynn

Mildenhall

Rye House

Stoke

Peterborough/Ipswich

Poole

 

The season should run from May 1st - August 31st

 

Teams should consist of 4 rider teams with 1 reserve and the format should be 16 heats and 4 teams per meeting i.e. Eastbourne at home vs Kent vs Kings Lynn vs Mildenhall

 

This would focus on individual riding, not team riding with the emphasis on individual rider developement whilst working towards a team goal.

 

Each club get 14 home meetings and 14 away meetings.

 

Top 2 from each division meeting in the "Grand Final" at a neutral venue

 

Points awarded 4 for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and 0 for last place.

 

 

This would offer any young rider plenty of meetings and experience and again with the emphasis of riding individually against 3 other riders who are not team-mates with the sole focus of winning, not looking out for your team-mate, not tactically riding etc. just pure racing, we could develop a set of riders with a winning mentality under this format.

 

 

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I think this sounds like MDL meets with 4 riders on each team all of them youngsters not the 4 teams a meeting though. The MDL is for doing that bit don't you think and NL is like the first level of proper league racing that gives them what Elite and premier is like

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There are not enough riders in the UK for a 3 tier system.

 

The Top 20 riders in the current national league need to be in the Premier League full-time

 

The Elite League needs to become the British League with the top 10/15 premier league guys racing in it (who are not currently in it)

 

The Premier needs to become the National League with the top 20 national league riders

 

The National League needs to become the Conference League under the format I have stated above

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I'm glad that plan will never get implemented! The NL has problems but making it 4 man teams and uncompetitive isnt the way forward. You need good quality and close meetings for fans to turn up. The league has needed to up its professionalism and Eastbourne led that superbly last year! Oh and you missed out the Isle of Wight's return.

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The National League does NOT need to take a step backward into a 'Conference'. It has been very successful this year, and is set to expand next year. You could say that it is the future of British speedway! Ask any Eastbourne or Birmingham fans about it :D

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Sorry, but your idea is quite barmy.

 


Each club get 14 home meetings and 14 away meetings.

 

No they wouldn't. You're proposing a 4TT so every club gets 3 times as many away meetings as home ones.

 

Financially 4TTs are a disaster as you have to pay your riders for 3 away meetings out of just 1 home gate.

You're proposing 16 heats instead of 15 so more costs.

you're proposing 20 riders instead of 14 per meeting, so more costs.

 

4TTs don't provide team racing.

You would ride oponents an unequal amount of times, and it would be riding the same opponents around 10 times per season.

 

quite mad!

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If you take those who score above 7.5+ out of the Premier League and place them into the Elite League

 

and then Take those who score over 7.5 out of the National League and place them into the Premier

 

You are not creating a massive divide between Premier League and National League - in fact you are making the Elite Stronger, the Premier League weaker by removing the top scoring riders, and creating more opportunity for National League riders to step up.

 

Reducing the National league to 4/5 rider teams will allow in my opinion more clubs to field a youth/development side

 

 

Maybe a different format where there are only 2 teams per meeting but 5 vs 5 would work better, as it would give more riders more heats!

 

The gulf between the top riders in the National League and the bottom is massive - the names mentioned here could potentially be really good riders but perhaps over-hyped due to the level they are at - the above suggestions would allow more progress from bottom to the top.

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I only pop in now and again to see if there has been an improvement in the way speedway is help and quite excited by the title but alas no.

How about equally talented riders racing against each other?. Not been for few years now to any speedway as 80% of races were either won from gate or riders that far strung out i had neck ache watching them.

Just as a small aside. How to we get Cradley in North and Stoke in South when Stoke is further up M6?.

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IMHO the NL has just had one of its best seasons for a very long time and does not need a dramatic overhaul as suggested.

 

Asking / forcing clubs to host NL will not work as too many staff & supporters are set in their ways. The MDL is widely welcomed and the riders embraced by some clubs and others treat them as a second rate hindrance.

 

As a league for home grown riders (plus a few exceptions) the only way the NL will continue to flourish is if there are plenty of riders coming through the ranks fighting for team places not the occasional over hyped hot shot and a few that have bikes and will travel.

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NL will always have this issue while there are stand alone sides and reserve teams, however reducing the points limit last season was a positive step in ensuring teams were all bringing through young riders, while the stand alone teams can still try to assemble title winning teams within the points limit. No major changes to he structure of the NL are needed at all, if anything it is the league with the least wrong at the moment.

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Again you don't see it Midland DEVELOPMENT league. What you are saying is there already. And as *JJ said its a brilliant league in my view.

If you take all the guys who averaged over 7 and put them in the Premier League

 

Someone answer

 

1 - who moves into the premier

 

2 - who steps in and replaces them in the national league?

There's a massive gap so the 7+ in this league average less than 4 points and will do them not one bit of good with confidence. That's why NL as it is has to be a good idea
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I think some of you are missing the point

 

If you remove the 7+ pointers from the Premier League and make them go Elite League racing to make that League stronger

 

Then the guys moving up from National League on +7 averages will not be racing against a certain level of rider every week

 

Doing this would make the Premier League a stronger version of what the National League is ableit with foreign riders - BUT young brits will be racing against better riders than they are now - it would widen the gap between Premier League and Elite League racing which is what the sport needs

 

 

Not many people liked the changes to Darts and look how strong that sport/game is now

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That's simple

 

All premier league clubs have to track 2 British reserves.

 

No draft, however the top runners in the national league go in on a 5 average the rest on a 3.

 

Ellis and Wilson-Dean could quite easily go into the main body of a premier league team under such circumstances.

 

Premier League teams should be put together on a 38 average maximum.

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