Arch Stanton

Having watched him weekly for the last two years, I couldn’t disagree more to be honest.

Love a bit of Carol Kirkwood me

Excellent and very welcome two away points. Just a single point from any sort of competent reserve and it would have been more. Still scratching my head at their decision but hey ho that’s another less fixture he has to fulfil. Riss has made a major difference to the upturn in our form. On the face of it not a huge score today, but vital points that I’m not sure either of the previous two youngsters that occupied the position, would have managed. From a position of looking unlikely at best for a play off place, we’ve now given ourselves a good opportunity.

https://ipswichwitches.co/no-immediate-return-for-king/

An excellent 13 points for Drew Kemp away at Birmingham tonight, including a superb heat 15 victory against his partner Danny Ayres, and the home duo of James Shanes and Tom Bacon. Good lad.

Hopefully we’ll see him again, and Jeppesen, in the 16 lapper possibly.

From the fans? I’m pretty confident he will, yes.

Who is expecting a hell of a lot? I’m not sure anyone is. Pretty sure nobody is under the illusion that he’s the saviour and he’ll come in and rack up the points. A lot of us have seen a fair bit of him already, both at Mildenhall and at Foxhall after meetings. He’s a super talent that many of us are excited to see take his first steps in the Championship. The fact he’s a local lad and a fan of the club the same as us, makes it all the more sweeter. He’ll get huge support.

To be fair to Chris Louis, he’s actually said it’s a bit of a gamble. But, he’s had a go and by all accounts has ran out of his minutes allowance on his mobile! They wanted Drew Kemp in, and I still think it was problematic getting someone to do six meetings only. Im not a huge fan of Mark Riss as I’ve already said, and if he was replacing anyone else in the top 5 I would genuinely be scratching my head. But we’ve got to remember who he is replacing here. Mark Riss is currently better than both the riders who’ve occupied the number 2 berth, even allowing his poor form. Hartel and Jeppesen May well have better careers and be better riders in the longer term, but right now surely nobody can question that Riss is a better option. The biggest problem as Taps rightly says, is the ongoing issue with Danny King. We’ve badly missed his scoring power at the head of the team. Even when he was riding after the injury, he was riding through the pain barrier and scoring poorly. There’s absolutely no question that that’s had a harmful effect on our results. I know every team gets injuries and that’s the nature of the sport, but our season seems to get derailed by them every single year! Surely we’ll catch a break one of these seasons..

http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/kemp-joins-witches-1-5610236

I’ve no idea how the asset system works these days. I can remember Oliver Rayson signing “a club contract” to become an Ipswich asset on his 16th birthday back in the day, before he’d even turned a wheel for us. Puszakowski was another who became a club asset having ridden in only 2 or 3 meetings. I remember vividly Stuart Douglas getting the hump the following season because Lakeside wanted to sign him and we wouldn’t allow them permission for whatever reason

The article on the official site is a bit confusing. It says Wallinger will come in for 6 meetings and then be replaced by Drew “Following the meeting at Glasgow” next month. I make that 8 meetings before then? Leaving Drew to ride only 3 meetings, and possible a 4th depending on whether the Worky away meeting is rescheduled before or after his 16th birthday. To add to the confusion, Hawkins has said on the Redcar meeting preview.. “Danyon will be out for a few weeks and it is unfortunate for him to have another crash and another injury and we will see how quick his recovery period is but David comes in at reserve to replace him and his enthusiasm has really impressed us”. That makes it sound as if the door isn’t closed for Hume? If he returned who would he replace? He couldn’t re-replace his replacement in Wallinger and I think his average is too high to replace Garcia??

That was my initial impression as well but on reflection at worst we’re probably no worse off. Riss is an upgrade on the previous two and will probably compensate for the less points we’ll probably get at reserve until Kemp replaces Wallinger. To be honest, I didn’t get the Peterborough team either at the start of the season and had them in the bottom half, they now sit top of the league so what do I know.

“Bringing Mark in should benefit us in the long term” interesting comment from Hawkins. Already in for next season? Or maybe part of a bigger plan to bring brother Erik along with him next year? What ya think Scotsman?

I agree that Wallinger is a strange choice with all due respect him, but I think the problem the promotion may have had was finding someone who would be happy to only do a handful of meetings until Kemp comes in next Month. That more than likely reduced their options. On Mountain, you also have to wonder if last Thursday was the straw that broke the camels back? To have any realistic chance of making the play offs, we simply HAD to win our home meetings. A home defeat is hugely damaging. Yes again we didn’t have luck going our way, but 4 points from 7 rides from Mountain was a huge factor in that home defeat. He scored 6 last night in the top flight! Every rider has a track they dislike, But the lad has had long enough now to at the very least, be winning the reserves race on a regular basis at home and doing far better than he has. Shame as he comes across as a cracking lad and has been solid away from Foxhall.