GeneralMelchett

Who would be a promoter eh? Afterall we all know what we think we might or should do - but of course most plans don’t survive first contact or in a speedway sense everything works until the tapes go up!

Completely fair and no disagreement from me - Lidsey is a bit like Brennan at Ipswich you felt they had the chance to step up and so far they haven't made it! Hopefully both will. You would likely keep Lidsey on potential tho as you feel he will get back to where we think he can get / be. I did expect more than 4 from him however.

Agreed and the one that was signed be the No1 isn’t maintaining the expectation!

That in reality is all part of the ebb and flow of a season - most riders drop a bit of form at some point sometimes people lose patience quickly - as the saying goes change for changes sake isn't usually worth it - lack of form usually corrects. No doubting however that due to the lateness of arrival etc you had a pretty weak top 3 - it was about the best you could maybe get at the time. For my money Batch has probably exceeded expectations riding in a tricky no 2 spot - now at reserve and for now scoring ok/ well he is merely replacing another reserve Thompson who had a storming first part of the season! Over to your promoters / team manager! BTW I was impressed with their comms and openness about the rack changes whilst we were sat waiting - as the saying time can go quick in a crisis but most people can handle waiting provided they are told why! I felt they handled that V well.

They are in reality about 1 rider away from being a decent team that can win home matches and that's probably a top end rider who will score in heats 13 and 15. If Zagar could start scoring like NKI then maybe they wouldn't have to make changes. From my anlaysis etc Batch isn't their problem this year

Finally made it last night - very impressed with the set up there - the track was bladed etc after heat 2 and then after that produced some really good racing. Its a shame its a 2 hr drive for me as I would be tempted to go more regularly but its a great set up and sat in the grandstand on a warm sunny evening watching a 45-45 draw with quite a lot of overtaking I was very happy!

Well have to say last night he rode more like the Batch I remember - quick away from the gate and mixing it very well - scored 11 too! Great meeting

I will give the Tigers there due I have seen them putting a lot of content out on social media of late - I hope they can get a few more through the turnstyles. I think the issue with streaming is whilst its great for people who have no chance to attend a meeting, for example I am never going to drive to to say Workington, it also means the locals can stay in watch it and save money so the stay aways are perhaps having a disproportionate effect on the crowd levels. I've been to Ipswich twice this season so far and to my mind crowd levels are down on 2025. Part of that maybe the loss of top line riders like Emil, Jason etc, part of this might be due to lack of competitive sides visiting, or Steaming etc - who knows a- without open and transparency in attendances we have no chance to judge for ourselves. One of the things I would like to see is Mayfield saying right last week we had 2000 in or whatever it might be! When Neil Machin stepped down as promoter in April 14 the Tigers had a very modest deficit on their books - in 11 years this has ballooned to 500k+ which co-incides with operating at the top level! Machin was always insistent (if i recall things correctly) whilst he was promoter they would never operate the top level!

absolutely no issues form me - When he was at Arena he was known as 'Awesome Richard Lawson'

He is a true old National Leaguer in many ways - combined both and probably did / does pretty well out of it. Means he has an income out of season too.

I can think of worse guests to go for actually - I've seen him lower the colours of Jason and Emil at Foxhall previously, if he gates he's often difficult to beat! I would counter argue that Sheffield never have a better chance to win with Klindt replacing Jack 😉

Until this period of 'absence' Lawson was doing exactly as expected a reliable scorer with only three lasts in over 40 rides

hero!! wont have otherwise

High Wide and Handsome I reckon! A couple of ones that I always recall and they actually started to grate on me a bit - 'he's going to wind it on round the outside' - 'Cuts back to the inside' both these phrases usually resulted in no passing!

I think the issue about the comparisons is we are comparing (generally) the one off final era to the GP era and you can't. Loram was an outstanding racer in the Chris Harris mould and was Screen and to a certain extent Smudger but they often lacked the consistency - although Loram did bag a title! Regardless of era etc to be crowned three times is placing him almost alongside riders like Mauger, Olsen, Briggs, Rickardsson, Crump, Hancock, Gundersen and Nielsen etc in terms of greatness purely due to the numbers of titles they all won.

I remember his debut at Sheffield all those years ago 0,0,0, - the following week i think he scored 11 or 12 and it was clear he was going to be good! Long and happy retirement to him and thanks for all those wonderful SGP and World Cup nights!

Putting my support of the Witches aside the league needs this 😉

TY - looking forward to it even more now - sadly i am designated driver so no beer for me

Good result for Lynn - all of a sudden they are in the play off spots!! their home defeats may well ultimately do for them BUT for now there are 5 teams going for 4 spots!!

Q for you did you enjoy, I am planning to go to the Foxes Tigers match Mon 20th possibly 3 or 4 of us going

They lose by an average of 6.5 per meeting which isn't bad they are better than Birmingham last season whose average deficit was over 14pts per meeting of course we are only at the halfway stage. They are not being thrashed each week - if they made a change of two that might make them win a few.

Worth noting the only faller was Kemp who was attempting an outside pass on Tobias at the time! Ipswich seemed to be heading for a slender home win but two things went against them in the latter stages - firstly Kemps fall mentioned above meant they could got for a tactical in heat 12 and that Douglas was involve din about 5 of the last 6 or 7 heats! The t/s was for the conveniently or unfortunately ill Morris who hadn't done much in hi opening 2 rides! Kemp is such an enigma - one heat he is retiring after giving up at the back and then he is winding it on to try and pass Tobias / or outgating everyone to win - so inconsistent in a meeting! Track was dry - heat 2 the riders were finding it very tricky but for the rest of the night from where I was sat on the 2nd bend in the grandstand nobody seemed to be in any real trouble. I would give credit to Dickson for timing his tactical perfect and erm utilising his reserves well in light of Morris 'withdrawing' For the Witches Scott was great, Tobi faded after a good start probably me saying he may well go through the card after his first two rides. Tom again not quite enough - he couldn't land a blow to coin a certain phrase in heat 13 The Track still has the same track staff / Bob Ellis so how its prepared doesn't and shouldn't be too different from last season I would have thought unless the riders have asked for it to be so! Had Lawson and King been there I would have expected a (narrow) home win, combined i would expect them to get more than the 13 that PT and R/R got!

Think we should call this off it's likely to rain sometime between now and Sept! Actually looking forward to just seeing a meeting just my 2nd in 2026 so win, lose or draw I am determined to try and enjoy it!

moved

Do your duty Belle Vue and lose tonight 🙃