Poole 2025

[STEVEHOLS54]

1 hour ago, SteveLyric2 said:

I was told today - from a very reliable source- that Sonny Springer's father did not want him to do Championship this year!!

Thanks for that info Clive.

I noticed in various videos on Youtube incl a lot of practice meetings/practices  up and down the Country his dad was prominent in guiding him on the track.

Maybe he doesn't want too much pressure piled on him this early bearing in mind he only turned 16 in November.

If he does start to show the class & form I saw early signs of riding at 15 he could have a good future in the sport.

He possibly  hasn't had the kind of finance piled on him like Will Cairns has in equip and all the overseas trips to POL etc plus all the private tuition staying at Greg Hancock in Sweden and USA from his I assume affluent parents, but that is neither Cairns or Springers faults. However Sonny's dad certainly seems to have invested plenty of time in getting & guiding him around the UK for practice and other matches.

Will be interesting to see how both riders progress but if Springer does I would love it if Matt/Danny could tie up both of them on multiple year deals. Time will  tell 🙂

[mac101]

Or maybe he just does not want his son to travel to Poole for 3 rides and maybe be at the back every other race and the fans start giving him grief and loose confidence a bit like they did to Max Perry 

[lewy]

2 hours ago, SteveLyric2 said:

I was told today - from a very reliable source- that Sonny Springer's father did not want him to do Championship this year!!

Almost correct, did not want him to do championship at Poole And be the fall guy.

[Catalan]

5 minutes ago, mac101 said:

Or maybe he just does not want his son to travel to Poole for 3 rides and maybe be at the back every other race and the fans start giving him grief and loose confidence a bit like they did to Max Perry 

If I remember correctly fans never got on Max's back.

They were very encouraging

[Arthur54]

1 hour ago, mac101 said:

Or maybe he just does not want his son to travel to Poole for 3 rides and maybe be at the back every other race and the fans start giving him grief and loose confidence a bit like they did to Max Perry 

I never heard fans get on his back, far from it

[SteveLyric2]

3 hours ago, lewy said:

Almost correct, did not want him to do championship at Poole And be the fall guy.

Let's see if he gets any Championship guest (injury) bookings elsewhere? He'll likely be at Poole for one meeting this season anyway.

[lewy]

Just now, SteveLyric2 said:

Let's see if he gets any Championship guest (injury) bookings elsewhere? He'll likely be at Poole for one meeting this season anyway.

When is that it will be the rich pirates contribution to the development of British youth lol.

[szkocjasid]

21 hours ago, mac101 said:

Or maybe he just does not want his son to travel to Poole for 3 rides and maybe be at the back every other race and the fans start giving him grief and loose confidence a bit like they did to Max Perry 

This would probably happen at Poole more than any other team. Poole can be 20 points up, but still take their weakest rider out of his 4th ride. Certainly happened to Sam Hagon at Oxford in the play-offs despite Poole being comfortably on front.

I won't blame the likes of Berwick for doing the same thing to Freddie Hodder, because they were always losing, so needed to give the stronger reserve more rides.

Poole's mentality is simply to win by as much as possible, which is there prerogative, but this could be a situation where it could hinder them, with a promising 2.00 rider deciding he'll get more rides elsewhere?

No such worries for Cairns, he'll be expecting to be the stronger reserve & get extra rides.

Edited 4 hours ago by szkocjasid

[therefused]

19 hours ago, lewy said:

Almost correct, did not want him to do championship at Poole And be the fall guy.

shhh, that will upset the Poole fans who believe there club is the be all end all

[Fromafar]

15 hours ago, szkocjasid said:

This would probably happen at Poole more than any other team. Poole can be 20 points up, but still take their weakest rider out of his 4th ride. Certainly happened to Sam Hagon at Oxford in the play-offs despite Poole being comfortably on front.

I won't blame the likes of Berwick for doing the same thing to Freddie Hodder, because they were always losing, so needed to give the stronger reserve more rides.

Poole's mentality is simply to win by as much as possible, which is there prerogative, but this could be a situation where it could hinder them, with a promising 2.00 rider decoding he'll get more rides elsewhere?

No such worries for Cairns, he'll be expecting to be the stronger reserve & get extra rides.

In a 2 -legged match you would expect the Team manager to make changes to get the best result,otherwise fans would be moaning why he didn’t.Any result is possible in a 2 legged match.

[StevePark]

15 hours ago, szkocjasid said:

This would probably happen at Poole more than any other team. Poole can be 20 points up, but still take their weakest rider out of his 4th ride. Certainly happened to Sam Hagon at Oxford in the play-offs despite Poole being comfortably on front.

I won't blame the likes of Berwick for doing the same thing to Freddie Hodder, because they were always losing, so needed to give the stronger reserve more rides.

Poole's mentality is simply to win by as much as possible, which is there prerogative, but this could be a situation where it could hinder them, with a promising 2.00 rider decoding he'll get more rides elsewhere?

No such worries for Cairns, he'll be expecting to be the stronger reserve & get extra rides.

 

18 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

In a 2 -legged match you would expect the Team manager to make changes to get the best result,otherwise fans would be moaning why he didn’t.Any result is possible in a 2 legged match.

Technically, all matches are two legs, as the League matches have the Bonus Point up for grabs for an "aggregate" win.

[Fromafar]

2 minutes ago, StevePark said:

 

Technically, all matches are two legs, as the League matches have the Bonus Point up for grabs for an "aggregate" win.

Correct.Think some people just can’t resist having a “ pop” at Poole.

[Arthur54]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

Correct.Think some people just can’t resist having a “ pop” at Poole.

Its the jealousy thing, happens every year 

[szkocjasid]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

In a 2 -legged match you would expect the Team manager to make changes to get the best result, otherwise fans would be moaning why he didn’t. Any result is possible in a 2 legged match.

 

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

Correct.Think some people just can’t resist having a “ pop” at Poole.

At what point did I say what Poole did was wrong?

I was pointing out their attitude could potentially stop a 2.00 reserve from wanting to join them, feeling they could get more rides elsewhere.

I've certainly read criticism from fans when Max Perry wasn't getting his 4th ride, despite them winning by many points.

It's not really possible to judge if fans would moan if they didn't make these changes as Poole rarely lose & in this case would any fans moan if Poole only got a 20 point away win in the KOC final?

[Bleeds Pirate Blue]

I have often felt Middlo didn't take out our [Poole's] weaker no.7 when he should have! For me, this is one of his weaknesses as a manager, not being ruthless enough!

The flipside being that he is an excellent man-manager and motivator, so I make the assumption he prefers a team-talk and slap on the arse on the way to the track!!

Would love to see some data here - what percentage of meetings in the last few years has Middlo made a reserve change and given the Poole no.7 just three rides...

Edited 3 hours ago by Bleeds Pirate Blue
grammar

[Fromafar]

1 hour ago, szkocjasid said:

 

At what point did I say what Poole did was wrong?

I was pointing out their attitude could potentially stop a 2.00 reserve from wanting to join them, feeling they could get more rides elsewhere.

I've certainly read criticism from fans when Max Perry wasn't getting his 4th ride, despite them winning by many points.

It's not really possible to judge if fans would moan if they didn't make these changes as Poole rarely lose & in this case would any fans moan if Poole only got a 20 point away win in the KOC final?

Can 2pt riders really pick and choose where they want to ride.They really should be happy to get steam place and just get on with it.IMO

[Bleeds Pirate Blue]

1 hour ago, Bleeds Pirate Blue said:

Would love to see some data here - what percentage of meetings in the last few years has Middlo made a reserve change and given the Poole no.7 just three rides...

I thought I'd answer my own question, so have trawled through the results pages on the Poole Speedway website and tried to keep tab of how many times over the past 3 seasons that the Poole no.7 [weakest rider] was only given three rides...

I do expect I have slightly miscounted somewhere clicking each match sheet over 14 different pages, but regardless, here are the results I collated!

2022
Poole started the year with Drew Kemp and Nathan Ablitt at reserve. As the season progressed Kemp moved into the main team and both Ben and Zach Cook spent time partnering Ablitt at reserve.

Ablitt had three rides in 32 matches that year, which was 84% of meetings. Interestingly, only 29 times were down to reserve changes. There were three instances of him being a 'NS' [non-starter?]

2023
Kyle Newman and Adam Roynon started the year as the reserve pairing, but over the course of the year Joe Thompson was brought in. He spent time at reserve with both Anders Rowe and Kyle Newman.

The Poole no.7 only had 15 matches with three rides (41% of meetings) this season. 

*There was a extended period where Poole were using R/R at second string, which meant there were actually six matches this season in which the Poole no.7 rode five or six times in a meeting. 

**Additionally, Poole had a tendency to make 3 reserve changes of no. 6 and no.7 during a meeting, favouring the no.6, this season.

***This season was the only one in which Poole used a tac-sub to replace their no.7, which happened once. 

2024
The season started with Sam Hagon and Max Perry at reserve, but this soon changed with the addition of Vinnie Foord. Hagon's form also saw him move into the main team with Tobias Thompson riding at reserve alongside the Poole no.7.

Further to this, injuries prevented Foord from riding at times, leaving Ben Trigger, Jacob Hook and Paul Starke to deputise. 

The Poole no.7 had just three rides on 15 occasions (45% of potential meetings).

SUMMARY

Over the last 3 seasons, the Poole no.7 has been given only three rides in 62 meetings, which was 57% of the time. Over half of those instances were Nathan Ablitt in 2022.

Over the last two seasons the Poole no.7 has been given just three rides in 43% of matches. 

CONCLUSION

I was clearly wrong re: Middlo not being ruthless enough! He (and the substitute away managers!) have been happy to make a reserve switch when needed!