Arch Stanton

Think we’ll win our opening meeting fairly comfortably, but I might change that prediction after we see how Belle Vue get on at Leicester on Thursday!

Ipswich wouldn’t give up Thursdays either.

Looks a cracking line up to me Phil. If I wasn’t working I’d have definitely made the effort for this.

No shame in that. Happens to the best of them. Sigalos was my idol as a kid, after his badly broken ankle in 84 he made a brief comeback in 85 but it was clear his bottle had gone.

Good to see some meeting threads again! Just over a week til tapes up so we’ve finally got there. Obviously expecting a home win, Oxford look very decent. But also hoping to see Birmingham at least competitive. Goes without saying but they need to have Pawlicki and Milik committed first and foremost, and in the points.

No idea to be honest. Maybe the Leicester fans on here can confirm?

Looking at that Leicester must be kicking themselves for axing Dan last year! If they hadn’t, Dan would almost certainly be lining up as Leicesters Rising Star instead of Joe this coming season you’d have thought. Also shows that we held on to Joe for far too long last year. I’m all for giving youngsters a chance but it was clear he was struggling to score a point virtually every week and there were no signs of that changing for far too long. Having said that, I still think he’ll do ok this year, certainly much much better than those numbers. His confidence was shot last year at Foxhall but he’ll enjoy being back at Leicester and he’ll score points around there.

No. Ipswich have their traditional press and practice Thursday next week. Not sure about anyone else.

Joe Thompson will be fine at Leicester. He’ll more than likely struggle on the road again, but he’ll be far more comfortable around Leicester than he was for us at Foxhall last year. Joe rides Leicester well.

14/1 rank outsiders alongside Birmingham is absolutely bonkers. I’ll be having some of that!

Home win. Will be interesting to see how Bewley starts the season. He needs to do better here.

Have to agree even though they knew it was coming, it’s around now it’ll be hitting home hard. Feel for all the fans who have lost clubs over the years of course, but especially the Peterborough and Wolves fans as this will be their first season without it.

Beat me to it

Thursday 14th, same day as the meet the riders event later that evening.

Haven’t enjoyed a rider at Foxhall more than Doyle since Sigalos way back in the early 80’s. So dominant around here and you can just tell he’s giving 100% in every single race whether he makes the gate or not. Hates losing here and I love to see it.

Which club was that?

Doyle has made Foxhall his fortress. He drops very few points here and when he does, you can see his anger at dropping those points. Think he had the best home average comfortably in the league last year. He’ll again hit many home maximums.

Leicester for me too. Really like the way they’ve built the side. They won’t be carrying any rider and every member of the team is capable of contributing decent points which collectively will tot up 45+ more often than not.

He could end up being right but I think that would be more luck than judgement. Things can go wrong very quickly in this sport as we know so predicting anything pre-season is almost impossible. It’s a bit of fun and all we can do is predict by looking at the strengths and weaknesses of teams on paper. Mind you I’m not quite sure where Col got his paper from

I think things would have to go seriously wrong injury wise to see us as low as second bottom. We’ll see though. Dragging a bit now ain’t it?

I have the same top 4 as Falcon.

Yeah just tickled me that’s all.

LOL

Allen wasn’t announced as a “temporary” signing at the time was he. You then had the grey area of the “rule” that no changes could be made after the season started which opened up a huge can of worms as I’m sure you know. Ipswich also made a change after Heeps started the season appallingly during the same timeframe that lead some to think the “rules” meant no changes permitted before LEAGUE fixtures had started. Plenty weren’t convinced and as usual, there was a lack of transparency to the rule. Anyway you asked for an example and I’ve given you one. Time will tell if Belle Vue make changes IF they don’t start too well. I think they will but I personally hope they don’t because I don’t see this team being a title threat.