From £1/4million flop to Rugby’s big hope to turn them back into trophy winners. Marco Ferrari averaged just 3.63 in his eight meetings after signing for the Gravediggers last season, he’s hitting above eight in the warm-ups this year in the pivotal second string position, providing the sort of back-up to the heat leaders that turn close defeats into victories. With GP stars Zygmunt Jablonski and Valeri Elin taking a big chunk out of David Grainger’s GSA allowance, the Gravediggers boss was forced to choose between his big money Italian signing or reliable Brit’ Oliver Wilson, who himself only joined the club part way through SL29. Wilson has gone this week—out to newcomers Lenzie for £20,000—with the gamble already seemingly set to pay off. Ferrari scored nine from his four rides in Rugby’s latest pre-season win, a 42-48 success at Great Barr, the victory their fourth of four in the preliminaries, form which makes them one of the favourites to land a second league title, five years after their first. They are second only to a much changed Whitemoor side in the pre-season form table, with every one of the top six from the defending champions currently averaging above their GSA in the preliminaries. Like those two, Smethwick finished in the top half of division one last season, and like the pair they too are unbeaten in pre-season. Meerkats boss Stephen Hodgkinson has brought Alex Gallagher—for over £1/2million—and Bleidils Vitas into London Road for the SL30 campaign, the signing of the two eight point men means there’s no place for another at that average, Sebastian Koch, who surprisingly is still looking for a club ahead of the new campaign which is just days away!