Arch Stanton

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.

Yes the article states it’ll be guests for King whilst we continue to wait on his fitness. After a little reflection, is Garcia and Kemp a weaker pairing than Hume and Mountain? And is Mark Riss for Hartel/Jeppesen weakening the side? All about opinions and there’s question marks there. Riss has been dropped by Edinburgh for a reason, he’s been rubbish. But, if he can recapture some form that he’s capable of, then he should in theory match those two at the very least you’d think. We have to be careful not to put too much pressure on Kemp, allow him to get a feel for Championship racing and enjoy himself. But there is a bigger upshot here and it’s good he’ll get a taste before next season. Again the reserve pairing, could at least match the scoring of Hume and Mountain, with potential to better it.

That’s utterly bizarre. Don’t get that at all.. ”Awaiting BSPA approval”. I hope they get it this time! As this is the second time in consecutive years Mountain has been dropped. Can’t see him agreeing to come back again somehow. Getting rid of the Dane so quickly is another strange move. Not injury related, just a “victim of the numbers game”. The poor sod has only done two meetings!! From the little I saw, looked a gutsy entertaining rider. Disappointed The only real plus I can see is getting an earlier than expected look at Drew Kemp in Witches Kevlars. Was always going to be a Witch despite obvious enviable glances from elsewhere, but was expecting it to be next season. Good luck Drew. Best of Luck to three riders released and I hope Mountain in particular, gets snapped up quickly which I’m sure he will.

Mark Riss? It’s a no from me as well I’m afraid.

Was gonna say the same this morning Baldy but couldn’t be bothered! May as well rip the team up and try two or three newbies from abroad. If only one of those turns out to be a diamond then it’ll have been worth it. Why not?

Looks a good, close battle this one! Looking forward to it

I know Neil, that’s what I said :p

Interesting that Richie Worrall is guesting for us in place of King up at Edinburgh on Friday. There are two other Championship fixtures Friday night so maybe it’s just a case of Scott and others aren’t available and choice was limited. But with the goings on at Glasgow and Worrall potentially available if their changes get approval, you have to wonder whether there might be a reason behind their choice of guest..

Agree Baldy. I like Worrall as a rider, but we could surely book stronger guests. Not exactly a ton of fixtures to arrange guests for either. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nicholls has been given a list of our remaining fixtures and told to box off all the meetings he can do.

I don’t like using guests long term, but when we’re missing such a big hitter as King I think in this instance I’d carry on with the guest facility. Would you go for a Worrall full time, or carry on using Nicholls whenever possible and then a Harris/Lawson etc when there’s a fixture clash with Peterborough?

Agree with all that, Cam is key, show some of last seasons form and we could even win the meeting. Nico has been top drawer. Sometimes an injury lay off can work in your favour. At the start of the season, he was struggling as much as Cam and just couldn’t get going. An unfortunate injury gave him time to wipe the slate clean and come back firing. He’s done just that. I was surprised to see one or two question whether he was worth retaining this year on his average. I personally would have him first on the team sheet for two reasons. Firstly, he’s the type of rider you pay your money to go and watch, a racer. Secondly, he’s normally bar the odd blip, very consistent away from home. Not sure if it’s changed, but a season or two ago he had the best away average of the entire team. You have to win your home meetings of course, but picking up away points is crucial also and Nico contributes hugely to that. I’d much prefer to have someone like that in my team, than someone like Ludvig Lindgren a similar average, who is awesome at home but struggles for points on the road (with all due respect).

Been an absolute joke this season it really has

Am I missing something?

Lewis Kerr in for Danny against Sheffield Thursday. Seeing more specialists this week but Hawkins says they’re actively looking for “ a semi or even permanent replacement” for him. http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/witches-crash-out-of-fours-final-1-5586188

Absolutely rubbish that Ashley Morris..