Guests to face the Fen Tigers

[admin]

Berwick have announced that William Lawson, Tony Atkin and Paul Clews will be guesting for the club against Mildenhall on Saturday.
Don't think I'll bother.

[Deleted]

My ignorance of only one season in speedway does not make me overly familiar with these names that I'll be watching.
Anyone elaborate on a bit of history/what sort of level they ride at?

[admin]

William Lawson rides in the Elite League for Wolverhampton, although he started the season with Edinburgh in the Premier League.
Tony Atkin rides in the Premier League for Newport and is very handy around the Berwick track.
Paul Clews rides for Newcastle in the Premier League.

Edit:

That you'll be watching? These are only for the meeting in the cruel, crazy town on Saturday - God alone knows who'll be riding in the return meeting.

[banditsfan99]

Tommy Allen, Chris Mills and Daniel Halsey I believe.

[Deleted]

banditsfan99 said:

Tommy Allen, Chris Mills and Daniel Halsey I believe.

No disrespect to these riders but, Jeez, is that the best Berwick can do? Not a heat leader in sight leaving Rempala to work his weirdness up front single-handed.

I suppose it's just a coincidence that the three 'guest' have a sort of 'local' flavour about them so cutting down on travelling costs.

[stevehone]

merlin said:

banditsfan99 said:

Tommy Allen, Chris Mills and Daniel Halsey I believe.

No disrespect to these riders but, Jeez, is that the best Berwick can do? Not a heat leader in sight leaving Rempala to work his weirdness up front single-handed.

I suppose it's just a coincidence that the three 'guest' have a sort of 'local' flavour about them so cutting down on travelling costs.

13 points from Allen
14 points from Mills
2 from Halsey

Rempala working his weirdness single handed with 4.

still, wonder how many the original Berwick riders might have got

[Deleted]

stevehone said:

merlin said:

No disrespect to these riders but, Jeez, is that the best Berwick can do? Not a heat leader in sight leaving Rempala to work his weirdness up front single-handed.

I suppose it's just a coincidence that the three 'guest' have a sort of 'local' flavour about them so cutting down on travelling costs.

13 points from Allen
14 points from Mills
2 from Halsey

Rempala working his weirdness single handed with 4.

still, wonder how many the original Berwick riders might have got

Yep - I have to concede that the scores by Tommy Allen, Chris Mills and Halsey were a lot more than I thought they'd get. They were real 50-1 shots.

Now was that because they were so good or because Mildenhall were so poor?

[stevehone]

or was it the Berwick management looking at who might go well round Mildenhall that fits in with the averages available.


sound familiar?

[Deleted]

admin said:

William Lawson rides in the Elite League for Wolverhampton, although he started the season with Edinburgh in the Premier League.
Tony Atkin rides in the Premier League for Newport and is very handy around the Berwick track.
Paul Clews rides for Newcastle in the Premier League.

Edit:

That you'll be watching? These are only for the meeting in the cruel, crazy town on Saturday - God alone knows who'll be riding in the return meeting.

My mistake, I misread/didnt pay attention.. Amounts to the same thing.
Thanks for the answer of who they are, though.

And Merlin.. How wrong, lol.
Allen was brilliant, and Chris did so very well. Halsey looked good at times, as well, he certainly tried his hardest. A good choice of guests IMO, same for Mildy in Boxall and Haines, made for some good racing.

[admin]

Nevermind that lot, you should've been concentrating on the genius that is Jacek Rempala.

[Deleted]

Didn't look much like genuis today, tbh. I'd expected him to get a high score as well.. Maybe he's more of a genius back in Berwick than down at Mildenhall.

[Deleted]

stevehone said:

or was it the Berwick management looking at who might go well round Mildenhall that fits in with the averages available.

I don't know where this is coming from. According to the brilliant Premier League Speedway statistics site taking the matches both Chris Mills and Tommy Allen have had at Mildenhall since the track joined the Premier League last year their averages round Mildenhall are:

Chris Mills has had 13 rides and scored 11 points and 6 bonus points for a CMA of..........5.24 (including bonus)

Tommy Allen has had 21 rides and scored 26 points and 4 bonus points for a CMA of..........5.72 (including bonus)

Maybe Peter Waite is psychic and consulted the Weirdity but these averages don't lend credence to the suggestion that "the Berwick management were looking at who might go well round Mildenhall that fits in with the averages available." Berwick had a lot more than those figures to play with!

It just so happens that both Mills and Allen had an excellent match and punched way above their weight. Had these two guests had the same six rides each and performed to their known averages at Mildenhall they would have totalled paid 17 between them rather than the paid 28 which they actually got.

[stevehone]

ok, so you concede that it is possible for guests to ride over and above what is expected of them going by averages at a particular track?

so, after your comments regarding IOW v Kings Lynn, don't you think you were a tad harsh?
Kings Lynn had a reserve guest within the averages that scored 13 points ... his current average (according to the brilliant Premier League speedway statistics site) is now on 6.00 around the IOW.
so, all these people that have said things like

merlin said:

Integrity and fair play went out of the window in favour of selfish gain

could possibly have been misguided, and KL might just have been clever in who they picked as a guest?

[Deleted]

stevehone said:

so, all these people that have said things like

merlin said:

Integrity and fair play went out of the window in favour of selfish gain

could possibly have been misguided, and KL might just have been clever in who they picked as a guest?

I have no particular qualms about the rider who they picked as guest as this fitted in within the rules.

I see the general dissatisfaction with the situation is more down to what people have seen as timing of 'sacking' a rider with a replacement lined up and a cup semi-final taking place in the 3 day window before the new line-up comes into force.

Did Kings Lynn have to tell the sacked rider his services were no longer required before the new team actually came into force ? It's not like he could be signed up by another Premier League team. By telling him in advance they've engineered getting a facility for him in the cup semi-final.

Rico

[Deleted]

stevehone said:

so, after your comments regarding IOW v Kings Lynn, don't you think you were a tad harsh?

Not in the slightest! The performance of Chris Schramm exposed only too clearly what you can achieve by looking for loopholes in regulations. I suspect that King's Lynn did not want James Brundle to ride on the Island because they didn't think they could win with his 'usual' sort of performance on that particular track. They were of course correct.

But my post was not so much about the actuality of what happened but about the principle behind the 'guest' rules and what they try to achieve. If you read that post again you will see that I did not dispute the 'cleverness' of what King's Lynn did, just the way they ignored the intention of the rules to gain an unfair advantage. That's what leaves such a sour taste in the mouths of many supporters and loses the Stars a deal of credibility.

I've made my views clear and will leave it at that. You can continue the debate if you like but you will find no change of opinion from me.

As far as the Mildenhall v Berwick match is concerned I still feel that Berwick might have made a better attempt to field a stronger side. However, as it happened, they must have been delighted with the points which Tommy Allen and Chris Mills scored. They could hardly have expected that many in their dreams and their combined total might well have exceeded what any other combination of guests might have produced. We'll never know. On this occasion they got lucky.