Four meetings into pre-season and it’s defending champions Leeds who are once again setting the pace. With four wins from four it seems the rest of division one are no closer to catching the Jaguars than they were at the end of last season, a season in which they landed their eighth League Championship title to surpass the record previously held jointly by themselves and Eastbourne. Darren Evans’s next goal for his club? To equal Eastbourne’s run of five consecutive title wins, which they can do in the forthcoming campaign, and then on to a sixth straight in SL35? That’s still a long way off, but not many would bet against them given the form of their top four, led by Aaron Macaulay, who at 39 shows no signs of being ready to garage his bike for good just yet. The SL27 World Champion and current world number three begins the new season with a GSA of just 8.33, his lowest mark in 18 years. He’s been averaging well above ten in pre-season and scored a maximum in his side’s 20 point rout of Normanton this week. Joshua Cartwright has also been averaging in double figures in the warm-ups, over two points above his official mark, his best a 12 in the Jaguars 44-46 victory at Earley, a result which maintained their 100% record in pre-season, every one of the other 29 league clubs have lost at least once. Daniel Lake and Neil Burns complete a familiar looking top four for the champions—the latter promoted one position after Mark Butcher’s departure to Derby—both have also been averaging above their GSA’s in the preliminaries, and at 27 and 26 respectively should be reaching their peak. Rivals beware.