Ipswich Witches 2024 serious team predictions

[GeneralMelchett 482]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

Not a huge pool of riders to choose from on 4.16 or below. You’re looking at Ben Barker, Jenkins, Kyle Thomson or Hume. Anyone new worth bringing over will be assessed 5 pointers not 4.00 pointers. Trying to find an assessed 4.00 point rider with little to no experience in any top league is too risky, Jenkins would be a far better bet. 
 

Personally Barker would have been my first choice being totally honest, good team man and will chip in with decent points at either 2 or 6 but seems Birmingham bound. Jenkins definitely the choice after that for me. Jenkins and Thompson (fully expect Rew to jump out of the reserve berth quickly) are more than a match for the two lads at Sheffield IMO. 

When they signed Barker last year based on his 2022 I'd been fairly happy but I think he disappointed in 2023 - he was in the team when they lost the home meetings so I'd prefer to look elsewhere.

Ellis means no Riss I suspect, Emil possibly will be confirmed last for a big fanfare so the next two will be the RS and one other. I d be happy to see Dan Thompson back he did enough to deserve a recall for me - his injury was bad timing as he had been doing really well.

Edited November 28, 2023 by GeneralMelchett

[TTT 1,229]

Go to stick with Rew considering Ipswich introduced him to British Speedway in the first place.

No point chucking the towel in on your investment after one season after sticking by him last season during his early season struggles, He'll get better next season, Got a year of Foxhall knowledge under his belt now and he's visited most Prem tracks 2/3 times now.

[Arch Stanton 2,255]

3 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

When they signed Barker last year based on his 2022 I'd been fairly happy but I think he disappointed in 2023 - he was in the team when they lost the home meetings so I'd prefer to look elsewhere.

Ellis means no Riss I suspect, Emil possibly will be confirmed last for a big fanfare so the next two will be the RS and one other. I d be happy to see Dan Thompson back he did enough to deserve a recall for me - his injury was bad timing as he had been doing really well.

If we’ve built the side as we seemingly have leaving only 4.16, then we’re not spoiled for choice. I agree Barker wouldn’t automatically be an instant pick if the pool of riders available at that average were larger. But we’re realistically only looking at Barker, Kye Thomson, Hume and Jenkins that fits so on that basis Barker would be a clear favourite of that bunch for me. I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like him. I’ve seen him leg it from one end of the pits to the other to help a team mate make last second changes to their bikes. I like that. I also think that at this moment, he’s a better rider than all those others mentioned. If Rew struggles again, I think Barker would make a better fist of things at number 2 in the main body than the others. Immaterial anyway really as it seems he’s in at Birmingham. 
 

Agree on Dan Thompson. Poor ol Joe struggled badly and him along with Riss’ problems were almost certainly the reason we lost most of the meetings we did. Dan’s paid 13 at Leicester that was a big factor in our win there was probably the catalyst to the start of our excellent end of season form. Losing him towards the end of the season was another kick in the balls. We ended up losing the title by 4 points, with Joe coming back in and scoring a single point. The way Dan was riding, that could have made all the difference. He’s still only 19 as well and has a couple of years on the likes of Edwards and Gilkes and has already posted better numbers than both in the Premiership last season. Will be one of the stronger Rising Stars. 

[Baldyman 6,243]

2 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

If we’ve built the side as we seemingly have leaving only 4.16, then we’re not spoiled for choice. I agree Barker wouldn’t automatically be an instant pick if the pool of riders available at that average were larger. But we’re realistically only looking at Barker, Kye Thomson, Hume and Jenkins that fits so on that basis Barker would be a clear favourite of that bunch for me. I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like him. I’ve seen him leg it from one end of the pits to the other to help a team mate make last second changes to their bikes. I like that. I also think that at this moment, he’s a better rider than all those others mentioned. If Rew struggles again, I think Barker would make a better fist of things at number 2 in the main body than the others. Immaterial anyway really as it seems he’s in at Birmingham. 
 

Agree on Dan Thompson. Poor ol Joe struggled badly and him along with Riss’ problems were almost certainly the reason we lost most of the meetings we did. Dan’s paid 13 at Leicester that was a big factor in our win there was probably the catalyst to the start of our excellent end of season form. Losing him towards the end of the season was another kick in the balls. We ended up losing the title by 4 points, with Joe coming back in and scoring a single point. The way Dan was riding, that could have made all the difference. He’s still only 19 as well and has a couple of years on the likes of Edwards and Gilkes and has already posted better numbers than both in the Premiership last season. Will be one of the stronger Rising Stars. 

The only reason ipswich made the play offs was because of a random drug test failure.,,,if that hadn't of happened we would have finished 5th from 7.

[Arch Stanton 2,255]

5 minutes ago, Baldyman said:

The only reason ipswich made the play offs was because of a random drug test failure.,,,if that hadn't of happened we would have finished 5th from 7.

I agree and I’ve said this myself on here a couple of pages back. But, we didn’t help ourselves. We’d have made the play offs regardless if the right decisions were made. Very unlucky to lose Jack Thomas obviously, no doubt he’d have been one of the strongest rising stars. But we decided to replace him with Joe Thompson which was a baffling decision as there were far stronger rising stars sitting there waiting to be picked. A lot has been made of the loyalty sticking with Riss through his problems also. That’s all very commendable, but it should have cost us a play off place. If we had the 6 point Erik Riss we thought we’d signed, we were in the plays off regardless of others. Those two decisions or non decisions, probably still cost us in the end!

[GeneralMelchett 482]

We can debate about aunties having balls or not - however for next year the Witches should plan to be stronger at home which is where they needed to be better in 2023, those three home defeats were part of the reason they MAY have finished 5th had the random drug test failure given them a helping hand. The history of 2023 will simply say the Witches lost the playoff final narrowly on aggregate and won the cup.

[GeneralMelchett 482]

59 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

If we’ve built the side as we seemingly have leaving only 4.16, then we’re not spoiled for choice. I agree Barker wouldn’t automatically be an instant pick if the pool of riders available at that average were larger. But we’re realistically only looking at Barker, Kye Thomson, Hume and Jenkins that fits so on that basis Barker would be a clear favourite of that bunch for me. I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like him. I’ve seen him leg it from one end of the pits to the other to help a team mate make last second changes to their bikes. I like that. I also think that at this moment, he’s a better rider than all those others mentioned. If Rew struggles again, I think Barker would make a better fist of things at number 2 in the main body than the others. Immaterial anyway really as it seems he’s in at Birmingham. 
 

 

I do like Hume as he is an honest trier - bit like Barker really, but there were occasions last season where he dropped points he shouldn't have through falls etc, I am sure he was as frustrated as anyone, he has the potential - possibly needs to ride a different shaped track to Ipswich.

I'd be inclined to try something new Jenkins - don't know much about him really as he missed Peterboroughs visits to Foxhall last year - but he seemd to have had a decent season for both Peterborough and Oxford last year so why not!

Edited November 28, 2023 by GeneralMelchett

[Arch Stanton 2,255]

13 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

We can debate about aunties having balls or not - however for next year the Witches should plan to be stronger at home which is where they needed to be better in 2023, those three home defeats were part of the reason they MAY have finished 5th had the random drug test failure given them a helping hand. The history of 2023 will simply say the Witches lost the playoff final narrowly on aggregate and won the cup.

It will, but as a supporter that won’t stop there. The dissection of how and why it was lost will rumble on. Certainly will for me anyway until we exorcise that ghost and actually win it! We had Emil on an assessed 8.00 who put over two points on his average, and yet we failed to take advantage because of poor or non decisions by Chris Louis. It’s all well and good having a sly dig at Sheffield calling them the “pick n mix” Tigers and proudly beating his chest that we “finished with the same seven as press day”, but who has the Premiership trophy in the cabinet and who doesn’t? 
 

Ask any supporter if they’d rather have the “we were loyal to our riders” trophy or the actual Premiership trophy and I’m pretty sure what 99% of them would say. Great for the riders themselves, someone mentioned that Musielak contacted Louis for a team place and that doesn’t surprise me. I’d bet my last Rolo that Louis had more riders asking for a team place this year than any other promoter. He’ll be a riders wet dream because they’ll know like Riss this year, that if they run in to problems or poor form, they’ll be supported and not binned off like at other clubs. 
 

But again, do you want to win or not? If you do, you have to be more ruthless. Poole have made harsh and unpopular decisions for donkeys years, dropping riders that didn’t deserve to be to make multiple changes that strengthened their overall team, but look at their trophy cabinet! Winners. Some clubs don’t have much of a budget so struggle to compete, Louis doesn’t have that excuse either. Even when we dropped a division we had one of, if not THE biggest budgets in the Championship, and we couldn’t win a title in that division either. 
 

Only one team can win obviously and no team has a god given right to win, but he has to get this monkey off his back sooner rather than later because we haven’t won a league title under his watch well over a decade after he took over from Tiger despite being lucky enough to have a budget to help him. Winning the Cup was great, but that’s the only (major) trophy he’s won. It’s a poor record. 
 

Some will say it’s not all about winning and it’s the racing that counts, but I’ve never been one of those. It’s Sport, it’s about winning and losing. I’ve heard some people say their team lost but they walked away happy because it was a good meeting. I’ve never understood that either. I’ve NEVER walked out of Foxhall on the back of a defeat happy regardless of how decent the meeting was!
 

That’s the last I’ll say on 2023  on to next year and try again! 

[GeneralMelchett 482]

21 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

It will, but as a supporter that won’t stop there. The dissection of how and why it was lost will rumble on. Certainly will for me anyway until we exorcise that ghost and actually win it! We had Emil on an assessed 8.00 who put over two points on his average, and yet we failed to take advantage because of poor or non decisions by Chris Louis. It’s all well and good having a sly dig at Sheffield calling them the “pick n mix” Tigers and proudly beating his chest that we “finished with the same seven as press day”, but who has the Premiership trophy in the cabinet and who doesn’t? 
 

Ask any supporter if they’d rather have the “we were loyal to our riders” trophy or the actual Premiership trophy and I’m pretty sure what 99% of them would say. Great for the riders themselves, someone mentioned that Musielak contacted Louis for a team place and that doesn’t surprise me. I’d bet my last Rolo that Louis had more riders asking for a team place this year than any other promoter. He’ll be a riders wet dream because they’ll know like Riss this year, that if they run in to problems or poor form, they’ll be supported and not binned off like at other clubs. 
 

But again, do you want to win or not? If you do, you have to be more ruthless. Poole have made harsh and unpopular decisions for donkeys years, dropping riders that didn’t deserve to be to make multiple changes that strengthened their overall team, but look at their trophy cabinet! Winners. Some clubs don’t have much of a budget so struggle to compete, Louis doesn’t have that excuse either. Even when we dropped a division we had one of, if not THE biggest budgets in the Championship, and we couldn’t win a title in that division either. 
 

Only one team can win obviously and no team has a god given right to win, but he has to get this monkey off his back sooner rather than later because we haven’t won a league title under his watch well over a decade after he took over from Tiger despite being lucky enough to have a budget to help him. Winning the Cup was great, but that’s the only (major) trophy he’s won. It’s a poor record. 
 

Some will say it’s not all about winning and it’s the racing that counts, but I’ve never been one of those. It’s Sport, it’s about winning and losing. I’ve heard some people say their team lost but they walked away happy because it was a good meeting. I’ve never understood that either. I’ve NEVER walked out of Foxhall on the back of a defeat happy regardless of how decent the meeting was!
 

That’s the last I’ll say on 2023  on to next year and try again! 

Feel better now!

It was a case of nearly but not quite! Could be worse tho could be a Kings Lynn fan!

[Arch Stanton 2,255]

1 minute ago, GeneralMelchett said:

Feel better now!

It was a case of nearly but not quite! Could be worse tho could be a Kings Lynn fan!

Much better thank you  

[Bagpuss 10,781]

Ouch

[GeneralMelchett 482]

17 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Much better thank you  

on readin your comments - id have been really happy to see Tobias at Foxhall if it wasn't for the fact they have Doyle (and hopefully Emil) signed on for 2024

Edited November 28, 2023 by GeneralMelchett

[GeneralMelchett 482]

15 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

Ouch

It's a serious point in a way - Kings Lynn have been a perenially weak team for much of my time following Speedway, yes they have had some success but more often than not they are propping up the table (sorry!)

Then my team don't even exist now - but we did win a few things in our 34 of racing!

The Witches are almost there -2 play off finals in 4 years is a decent return but yes they should be looking to go all the way in 2024 if Doyle and Emil are the spearhead again

Edited November 28, 2023 by GeneralMelchett

[2ndbendbeerhut 1,781]

1 hour ago, GeneralMelchett said:

We can debate about aunties having balls or not - however for next year the Witches should plan to be stronger at home which is where they needed to be better in 2023, those three home defeats were part of the reason they MAY have finished 5th had the random drug test failure given them a helping hand. The history of 2023 will simply say the Witches lost the playoff final narrowly on aggregate and won the cup.

Why do why need to be stronger at home though? We won at home by 18 points in the play off final, but still didn't win title...  Surely we need to be stronger away? Or do we need to be beating teams by 20+ to help with poor away results? 

 

[GeneralMelchett 482]

1 minute ago, 2ndbendbeerhut said:

Why do why need to be stronger at home though? We won at home by 18 points in the play off final, but still didn't win title...  Surely we need to be stronger away? Or do we need to be beating teams by 20+ to help with poor away results? 

 

Because the home form was the reason the Witches were not going to get into the playoffs - you have to be in the play offs first, someone has said get riders who can ride Sheffield and Belle Vue better as well in a previous thread that is probably true too - but if you dont qualify for the play offs then you dont even have the chance to test that!