[Robert Williams]

Most probably just that - though in practice, I imagine most stations covering only 7.45 kick offs would be done and dusted by 10pm?

Yes, it is that, if you look at the programme for 24th October: www.bbc.co.uk  there are a number of stations that join at 10.30 due to sport.  Apparently the programme will regularly include an opt-in point at 10.30 for any stations joining late.

Meanwhile, a change of plan in the West Midlands - WM now ends up sharing Drive with CWR (Trish Adudu) while Stoke is lumped in with Shropshire, Hereford and Worcester.

The original plan was for WM to retain its own show and Stoke to for partner up with Nottingham.

Stoke was going with Nottingham and Derby, and Leicester was to pair up with Northampton.  The revised sharing arrangements put the stations back into more established groupings which are meant to be roughly along the lines of the television regions, and also avoids the situation of stations sharing with different groups of stations at different times of day - so now we have the East Midlands (Derby/Nottingham/Leicester) staying together, and Northampton staying in the East, sharing afternoons with Three Counties .

Coventry and Warwickshire only existed as an opt-out of WM from 1995-2005, so this should be nothing new for listeners in that part of the country. And although the Stoke/Shropshire/H&W grouping is awkward, it's probably no worse than the original Shropshire/H&W/CWR proposal.