Arch Stanton

Possibly, although Louis said last winter that the idea was to loan him out for a couple of years not the one. Has to be some concern with the lack of progress as well. The thought was he needed a move from Ipswich as riding his home town track was putting too much pressure on him. If anything, he’s moved away and gotten worse!

The opinion seems to be that it’s not now needed, with far more options apparently being available to clubs this time around, married together with an increased points limit. Could see some pretty strong looking line ups next season, compared to what we’ve seen in recent years anyway.

Some want it scrapped, some don’t. No decision made yet.

I was of the mindset that I didn’t want Starke to return as he’s far too unreliable, but on that average you’d seriously have to consider him again at reserve. IF we retain Doyle, we’re gonna need a fair few on low looking averages. Tungate and Riss also look appealing to me on those figures. If our final meeting at Sheffield does get run, we need all 7 having an absolute stinker to help further. Mind you, Sheffield will be thinking the same so it could in theory be a keystone cops meeting and a bit of a farce!

https://ipswichwitches.co/raceday-preview-belle-vue-premiership-play-off-semi-final-1st-leg-h/ Number 1 for Aces still TBC.

Normally get a meeting preview on the Ipswich website Tuesday morning at the latest for a Thursday meeting and still nothing as yet. Must be waiting on news from Belle Vue.

Maybe for Morris?

He certainly does. Basso an option?

Not so sure myself. A fit Starke then absolutely no chance, but as it stands don’t think there’ll be much in it. That’s if Starke is even riding.

I think we’ll take a lead to Manchester. Not one that’ll ultimately be enough, but a lead nonetheless. Our reserve situation is a worry I agree, especially with Starke’s ongoing fitness issues, but other than Wolves who also have poor reserves, I think we’ll get away with it here as Blowhorn and Etheridge are not great travellers normally. Agree with both of you. Fricke is normally very ropey at Foxhall to say the least. Superb last time out though so who knows what Fricke would/would have turned up.

Heard a few rumblings that there won’t be a “rising star” next year. Time will tell.

We don’t know what that the final league table is yet though.. but I know what you mean.

We’ve 6 teams in the league for Christ sake, how we’ve got to the stage where there are outstanding fixtures to squeeze in when we’ve had between April and mid September is ridiculous but here we are. To ride play off meetings with pairings that could up being the wrong pairings is embarrassing.

Fair enough, and no need to apologise

Call me cynical, but I’m not convinced the Sheffield Ipswich fixture will be done. That meeting could well change the finishing order of the table, meaning the play off pairings would have ended up being wrong. Does it make a big difference? Possibly not, but it wouldn’t be ideal. I just think the finishing order at the cut off point (Thursday) will remain the finishing order. Could be wrong of course!

Was going to say exactly the same. It’s a really hard listen unfortunately.

I’d say there’s zero chance of that. As Baldy says, much better average this time and part of the furniture.

I don’t get that impression when he’s racing this season to be fair. I’d like to think I can spot a rider not bothering and I’ve seen a few over the years. He just doesn’t look particularly quick and has to go in to defensive mode when he’s made the gate to stay in front. And to his credit he’s pretty clever in the way he does that at times.

You could argue King was a far worse signing, dropped a point and a half off his. I don’t have a problem with Batch personally. He hasn’t pulled up any trees but he’s had his moments this season and improved his average albeit not by much. Maybe some had unrealistic expectations

He was, he’s upped his. Not by much granted but he wasn’t a poor signing in that regard. I get the frustration with him though.

He’s flaky we all know that. Can be decent for a few weeks then crap for a few. Gotta expect that from a 5 pointer, which people forget he is. Wouldn’t surprise me though to see him score well in the play offs.

Major issue at reserve at the moment. If we don’t have Starke and Hume back, and not just back but properly fit, then we’ll have no chance.

Not great is it.

Kemp and Lambert guest for Panthers, R/R for Palm toft so everyone eligible for a ride.

What wasn’t fair about it? Peterborough didn’t lose their point for the “draw”. If their point was taken away I’d agree with you. The scoring system for this superheat isn’t flawless as much as I like the concept of it. Speedway has more of a home advantage than other sports as we all know, because of track knowledge and machine set ups etc. home sides will always have an advantage which is why in my opinion they got the scoring spot on for a draw, 1 point for the home side (you can’t give a team nothing for not losing the match) and 2 points for an away draw as it’s definitely a better result for an away team than a home team. This is where the discrepancy comes in for the superheat point scoring. We effectively gained an extra point for winning the superheat, turning a 2 point “draw” in to a 3 point win. Whereas if Peterborough had won the superheat, they’d have gained an extra 2 points instead of one. Not sure that can be right so it’s certainly not perfect. Or have I completely lost my marbles and got the old point scoring for a draw wrong? It was 1 for a home draw and 2 for an away draw wasn’t it?