Premier League team building is now approaching the final stages with 12 out of 15 teams now complete. Stoke have one second string/reserve place to fill while Reading also have a vacancy for a reserve or second string. No obvious candidaes for those two places spring to mind. If there were then no doubt they would have been signed by now. Hull still have two places up for grabs although Mike Smith looks a strong possibility for one place. Hull assett Simon Cartwright is an obvious choice for the other place although his past poor form at New Craven Park may count against him. Justin Elkins is another candidate whose average would fit.

Glasgow were one of the last teams to complete their declared one to seven. This was all down to the takeover and it was clear to most that Glasgow wished to retain the core of their 2000 team apart from Suart Swales coming in for the departing Rusty Harrison.

The remaining Northern tracks, Newcastle, Workington, Berwick, and of course, Edinburgh have been complete for some time.

The Southern tracks were slower off the mark but are now near to complete with just the one place at Reading to fill. There have been a number of surprises with an unknown French rider Cristof Cayre coming in at number 7 for the Isle of Wight. Even more surprising is the decision by Swindon to pick the rookie Ritchie Hawkins as their number 7. Hawkins averaged around three points in the Conference last year. Given that some nine to ten point Conferece League riders have failed to hack it in the Premier, it does look to be asking rather a lot of the youngster. Exeter have recruited David Osborn who has been of the fringes of things with Ipswich for a while. Lee Hearne has joined Trelawny despite failing to average more than two and a half points with three clubs last year. Add to that Berwick have signed a totally unknown South African. All this indicates that there is something of a shortage of decent three point-riders. Many appear to be intent of riding in the Conference and giving the Premier League a miss for this year. Some doubted if Derek Sneddon was ready for the Premier League this year yet he is beginning to look rather stronger than many reserves.

The teams declared are listed below along with suggestions for certain vacant places in brackets. Newport had coompleted their line-up before Chris Neath received a bad injury in the Antipodese and Emile Lindqvist has been introduced as a temporary replacement.

Teams declared to date

Edinburgh Monarchs
1	Robert Eriksson	9.46
2	Blair Scott	4.95
3	Ben Shields	7.00
4	Jan Andersen	5.71
5	Peter Carr	9.99
6	Christian Henry	4.14
7	Derek Sneddon	3.00
Total		44.18

Informatiion on the remaining places to be filled will be posted when available. There will also be a review of the relative strength of the team (on paper at least) in due course.

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