GeneralMelchett

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 🙃

anyway moving on both Edwards and Nicholls had good nights for Plymouth so lets have a bit of faith for tomorrow!

Big night needed from the reserves and Scott! King has been great so far in 2026 so he will be a hard replace and Palm Toft will give it a go but i wont expect too much from him but lets hope he surprises me! Lets hope Tom is back to form too!

I think a lot of Witches fans will! 🙃 had the Stars lost then it was definitely 4 teams only!

I must admit having gone through all the heats I am a bit curious as to what changes should have been made? Batch was riding well. The only one perhaps missed apart from. Lidsey in heat 13 would be heat 8 and frankly Jeppeson was unlikely to lower Dans T colours! NKI wasnt really great but not convinced he would have improved on what he got in those heats I also disagree with him being clueless at Ipswich a few weeks ago he was on it with the reserve changes etc and forced a last hear decider!

Bit of a disaster but these things happen, in terms of what's needed for the league it keeps it a five horse race for the play offs - for now! Lets hope the right people are helping Tom right now - form is temporary and all that! Agree with the comments from Mike above - he's having to ride against out and out no1s each meeting and that's not helping right not but he will get there!

Good contribution from him and a decent hold on for the win, as others have said I think Northampton need a home win to get the interest back - we don't want them to be another Birmingham! My Sheffield supporting mate and I are planning to go when the Tigers are in town next!