Leicester Lions 2018

[Phil The Ace]

30 minutes ago, john birch said:

Does anyone know if Craig Cook is riding tonight ?

No.  Not riding 

[40-38]

Very good crowd, beautiful weather. Appalling racing and my god the atmosphere is flat! 

[Elmo]

And only 5 heat winners at home.

[flagrag]

I think today has confirmed that Leicester are not strong enough and need to look how they can get stronger, keep giving teams points by not winning by enough at home and so far away have been very disappointing. There are a couple of moves that could happen but need to get the right riders 

The problem being as other clubs are finding is to make changes that improve you is difficult as riders don’t want to come or Polish clubs won’t let them come Pawel P is a good example would love to ride in UK but Torun will not allow him to even though they are giving him sometimes 1 ride.

[IainB]

Bjerre is not performing like a No1, perhaps Andersen should take that race jacket.

I've never been DK's biggest fan after watching him do exactly the same at Coventry for a few seasons, always average to good at home, nothing away

I so badly wanted Sarj to do well but with his seemingly uncurable starting illness is just a liability in any team he's in

And everybody knows Newman needs to be at reserve, you can't have a team of 3 reserves

[Hamish McRaker]

11 hours ago, flagrag said:

I think today has confirmed that Leicester are not strong enough and need to look how they can get stronger, keep giving teams points by not winning by enough at home and so far away have been very disappointing. There are a couple of moves that could happen but need to get the right riders 

The problem being as other clubs are finding is to make changes that improve you is difficult as riders don’t want to come or Polish clubs won’t let them come Pawel P is a good example would love to ride in UK but Torun will not allow him to even though they are giving him sometimes 1 ride.

Would the Poles be more amenable to letting one of their more experienced riders out of their prison? I don't mean Greg Walasek but somebody like Jarek Hampel?

[Happy Hunter]

16 hours ago, Elmo said:

And only 5 heat winners at home.

One of the Lion's problems is that the no.1 and no.5 riders are not winning as many races as they should. Bjerre has only won 30% and Andersen 41%. I think you should expect them to win at least 50%.  Pieszczek has won 34% of his. In addition there are problems at the other end of the team that others have mentioned. Has anyone any idea when or if Bates will ride?

[stevethelion]

3 hours ago, Happy Hunter said:

One of the Lion's problems is that the no.1 and no.5 riders are not winning as many races as they should. Bjerre has only won 30% and Andersen 41%. I think you should expect them to win at least 50%.  Pieszczek has won 34% of his. In addition there are problems at the other end of the team that others have mentioned. Has anyone any idea when or if Bates will ride?

It seems to have gone very quiet on the Josh Bates situation & the longer it goes the more you think the injury going to keep him out for most of the season. The ideal situation would obviously have been to slot him in for Kurtz, thus allowing Newman back to reserve, but after the new averages come into effect on 1st June that can't happen, because they will be over the 42.50 limit by 0.01, this could easily have been avoided by either Newman or Bjerre taking heat 15 against Wolves( the last meeting before the cut-off date), & instructing them not to finish in 1st or 2nd, this would have dropped their averages by 0.04, so allowing a straight swap Kurtz for Bates. Instead they opted to put the 2 guests in ( Wells & Worrall) & still conceded a 5-1.All the other 5 team members averages would have been known before that night because King & Andersen weren't riding & the other 3 are on assessed averages & won't change until 4h & 4a. This seems to suggest that Bates isn't going to be back soon or else surely they would have had there heads screwed on enough to know what was needed in that last heat ,especially as the meeting was already won. 

[Hamish McRaker]

6 hours ago, Happy Hunter said:

One of the Lion's problems is that the no.1 and no.5 riders are not winning as many races as they should. Bjerre has only won 30% and Andersen 41%. I think you should expect them to win at least 50%.  Pieszczek has won 34% of his. In addition there are problems at the other end of the team that others have mentioned. Has anyone any idea when or if Bates will ride?

Of course Bates nearly quit during the winter for personal reasons so you have to wonder if those are still causing a problem in addition to the injuries?

[stevethelion]

11 hours ago, iainb said:

Bjerre is not performing like a No1, perhaps Andersen should take that race jacket.

I've never been DK's biggest fan after watching him do exactly the same at Coventry for a few seasons, always average to good at home, nothing away

I so badly wanted Sarj to do well but with his seemingly uncurable starting illness is just a liability in any team he's in

And everybody knows Newman needs to be at reserve, you can't have a team of 3 reserves

Think you're being a bit harsh on Sarjeant, his converted average at the start of the season should have seen him start on 2.56, but he was given an assessed average of 3.00. His average for this season is 3.56, so he's actually put a point on what should have been his starting average or 0.56 on the assessed average he was given, so he is in fact doing his job. Have to agree with you about Newman, to get the best from him he needs to be at reserve, but even though he's not at reserve he's still increased his starting average.

You have to have sympathy with the promotion, because the original team they assembled, looked as good as any on paper & certainly better than anything we've seen representing the Lions since they retuned to the top-flight. But Bates unforeseen  injury & that disastrous heat at Swindon put pay to all the pre-season optimism.

[Bald Bloke]

6 hours ago, Happy Hunter said:

One of the Lion's problems is that the no.1 and no.5 riders are not winning as many races as they should. Bjerre has only won 30% and Andersen 41%. I think you should expect them to win at least 50%.  Pieszczek has won 34% of his. In addition there are problems at the other end of the team that others have mentioned. Has anyone any idea when or if Bates will ride?

I think Hans is doing his job at 40% . Kenny could do better.

I've had a quick look and the only riders i can see winning 50% or more of there rides this season are....

Rory 45 rides.... 27 wins

R. Lambert 35 rides....20 wins

Others I checked....

JD 44 rides.....20 wins

Batch 47 rides....21 wins

Thorssell 43 rides.....21 wins

Morris 42 rides....13 wins, but lots of 2nd's

[Big Al]

1 hour ago, Bald Bloke said:

I think Hans is doing his job at 40% . Kenny could do better.

I've had a quick look and the only riders i can see winning 50% or more of there rides this season are....

Rory 45 rides.... 27 wins

R. Lambert 35 rides....20 wins

Others I checked....

JD 44 rides.....20 wins

Batch 47 rides....21 wins

Thorssell 43 rides.....21 wins

Morris 42 rides....13 wins, but lots of 2nd's

I'd be interested to see stats for last places, or third places only beating a team-mate for a those riders and compare with KB.

The 40% for Hans winning races seems a bit high because lately I keep seeing the number 2 on his scores, maybe that figure comes from early season scores?

[Bald Bloke]

8 minutes ago, Big Al said:

I'd be interested to see stats for last places, or third places only beating a team-mate for a those riders and compare with KB.

The 40% for Hans winning races seems a bit high because lately I keep seeing the number 2 on his scores, maybe that figure comes from early season scores?

Hans . 29 races with 11 wins

Bjerre  25 races....6 wins... 10... 2nd   2.... 3rd and 6 ….4th. 

Edited May 29, 2018 by Bald Bloke

[Teromaafan]

If we are serious about a play off finish, then I suspect that the management are looking at availability of riders for changes (yeah, I know, like every other team). I have respect for the current management set up and I am sure it is not lost on them that we are winning narrowly at home, but do not look like gaining anything away (and risk becoming embarrassing on the road). Since we have only had 2 away matches to date, current averages are likely to fall (particularly assessed averages once 4 away fixtures are completed), which will give us more points to play with after the Wolves away fixture on 25th June. A month is a long time in the speedway calendar though, so do they consider tinkering with options on current averages? Personally I think that Danny King is expensive on his current 6.73 and there must be options on slightly lower averages (Eric Riss, based on last season's average), to free up points for an additional reserve berth swap. I know Sarjeant is a club asset (if that means anything), but is he any better than Kurtz?

I love team sports and fan affinity with player(rider) familiarity, but speedway is no longer like that and it seems that 'building for the future' is now something to be reviewed every week.

[IainB]

14 hours ago, stevethelion said:

Think you're being a bit harsh on Sarjeant

Come on... he's been doing it for years! He may have improved his average but he's always liable to touch the tapes at a crucial time, like on Monday night but on that occasion he got away with it because Riss fell in the first re-run. The team has 3 reserves at the moment and for me you'd have to lose the one that consistently throws potential points away, he HAS to cure his tape jumping or he'll never make it in the game

[Big Al]

14 hours ago, Teromaafan said:

If we are serious about a play off finish, then I suspect that the management are looking at availability of riders for changes (yeah, I know, like every other team). I have respect for the current management set up and I am sure it is not lost on them that we are winning narrowly at home, but do not look like gaining anything away (and risk becoming embarrassing on the road). Since we have only had 2 away matches to date, current averages are likely to fall (particularly assessed averages once 4 away fixtures are completed), which will give us more points to play with after the Wolves away fixture on 25th June. A month is a long time in the speedway calendar though, so do they consider tinkering with options on current averages? Personally I think that Danny King is expensive on his current 6.73 and there must be options on slightly lower averages (Eric Riss, based on last season's average), to free up points for an additional reserve berth swap. I know Sarjeant is a club asset (if that means anything), but is he any better than Kurtz?

I love team sports and fan affinity with player(rider) familiarity, but speedway is no longer like that and it seems that 'building for the future' is now something to be reviewed every week.

With the current 1-7 its looking like Leicester will finish the season with four riders with averages ranging from 6.00 to 7.25 (maybe only 3 if Krys doesn't get going again), and three who will finish with between 3.0 and 5.0. This presumes that Vaculik won't return, but even if he did, he would only be allowed to replace Bjerre, and anyway even at this stage of the season he'd do very well to average 7.5 from the rest of it.

So on the basis that "better" riders just aren't interested in coming to the UK (see Poole thread!), Leicester seems pretty much stuck with the top 4, for the rest of the season.

In which case, all they can realistically do, as you say, is wait for the collective averages to reduce to the point where changes can be made to the lower end of the side, and then hope that one or two in the team produce some unexpected form, enough to scrape into the playoffs.

[flagrag]

The crowds at Leicester this year have been good in general but sooner or later they are going to start getting home defeats with home the team performs.

To me the team is one decent rider away from being a good team but it’s so difficult to make that move at the moment and once some riders sitting out of U.K. do want to do meetings it’s too late 

[Big Al]

I caught some of a Swedish match yesterday, Bjerre and Andersen were on opposing sides and in second string positions. Was a bit shocked at how mediocre they were, Bjerre very poor from the starts and not competitive, Hans being passed by such as Thomsen and Milik on the first lap as if he was standing still. 

[Happy Hunter]

 

Further to my post a few days ago a bit more information for those interested. First the figures are for league and cup meetings. Second you need to bear in mind that the winning percentages are likely to go down as the Lions have only ridden 3 away matches compared to 6 at home.

Third a bit more information:

Winning percentages home & away:

Andersen H 50% A 20% T 32%

Bjerre H 33% A 17% T 27%

Pieszczek H 48% A 7% T 34%

King H 25% A 13% T 21%

Newman H 16% A 13% T 15%

Serjeant H 14% A 0% T 9%

Kurtz H 12% A 10% T 11%

 

Last place percentages home & away

Andersen H 0% A 20% T 6%

Bjerre H 25% A 33% T 27%

Pieszczek H 19% A 29% T 24%

King H 13% A 50% T 25%

Newman H 20% A 40% T 28%

Serjeant H 36% A 64% T 45%

Kurtz H 36% A 60% T 43%

Edited May 31, 2018 by Happy Hunter

[Smithchops]

The simple summary is: we are losing away (not getting bonuses), appreciate not many matches but 2 have been a slaughterhouse !. At home we are “just” holding our own and and giving away bonuses. No 2 ways about it, we have a couple of big hitters .... that ain’t !, and the rest are inconsistent !