JamesB

I am guessing that the options are limited, who else works within the average available? As much as Danyon always gives his all for the Witches, it was clear that he is not the answer nor is Lambert.

Not in Ipswich. It’s been wet virtually all day and still very overcast with drizzle still around. There’s no way the meeting could have taken place.

How could you suggest that having Doyle and Thompson missing would influence the decision. 😀 To be fair, it’s been raining here just north of Ipswich since 7am and it’s currently hammering it down. There’s no way the meeting would have gone ahead.

My comments were in the context of the weather forecast for today, which was/is rain showers throughout the day extending into the evening. A Speedway Promoter is the owner of a business. In my experience, where you have weather conditions as described then the attendance is diminished probably because people are concerned about paying their money to get in only for the meeting to be cancelled or a mad rush to Heat 10 on a borderline track with reduced value for money both in terms of heats completed and quality of racing. What business owner in their right mind would want to go ahead on that basis? Also, from a customer experience perspective, what would you rather have: 1. A meeting completed on a borderline track with processional racing due to the conditions. 2. A meeting rushed through to Heat 10 to get a result. 3. The meeting postponed and rearranged for a nice sunny and warm evening. I know what my preference is, but each to their own.

Hawkins mentioned on Monday evening that Doyle is targeting the next GP.

I have to say that Monday’s meeting took place on a good track and was enjoyable, however the running of it was hardly an exemplar: 1. The good people of Norfolk failed to work out that there may be ‘quite a good crowd’ for a local semi final clash and decided to turn up at their normal time. The rest of us had to sit around whilst they were accommodated. 2. It was great that so much time was spent preparing the starting grid and just beyond, but not testing the starting tapes until heat 1 was a bad decision which resulted in another lengthy delay. 3. There was less tractor racing in Prague on Saturday night than there was in this meeting. Let’s face it, in excess of 2 1/2 hours to complete 15 heats of speedway cannot be acceptable on what was a lovely evening.

For me, speedway has rightly gone past the approach of ‘can we somehow get the meeting on’ even if conditions are borderline and poor for both riders and spectator’s. There is also the economic angle. Ipswich are a generally well supported team, but a home semi final against local rivals is likely to create an above average attendance. If the weather is inclement during the day with a threat of rain in the evening as well, then inevitably people will decide it’s not worth the risk resulting in a poor crowd and a lost revenue opportunity. Louis will want to maximise the income opportunity from this fixture.

We have to try something. Danyon has always given 100% for the Witches over the years, but it’s obvious that he is not the answer (I do hope that he proves me wrong on Thursday!).

He was at least half a lap behind and he just stopped riding the fourth bend allowing the bike to gently roll in to the fence, jumping off it before it did so. He was not holding his shoulder as he walked back to the pits. Did he aggravate an old injury……maybe, we’ll never know but Heat 8 effectively won the meeting for the Stars.

There was at Foxhall three weeks ago, best guess would be about 4000. It’s a funny old game. Win away at Ipswich and then lose at home to Birmingham a few days later.

I am sure that Doyle and Thompson will be pleased to see you gloating about their injuries and inability to continue their excellent form so far this season. What type of speedway fan takes pleasure out of riders being injured.

You sound very certain on that and I presume that you have some inside knowledge. However, I would expect that the visa application (for which there was a problem) which I think I read somewhere was submitted at the back end of last year would have needed to have been approved prior to Zagar working in the UK. How could he have been able to ride (work) for Birmingham prior to the visa being approved?

Better news than expected. On the flip side, Thompson has withdrawn from the U21 final following a crash in his first heat.

I think that the score depends on which Klindt turns up. If he has a good day 50-40, if not 58-32.

Plain English but a lack of understanding of the qualifying criteria. Programmed rides only, Heat 15 did not count.

No he didn’t. Programmed rides only.

Which part of Gavan’s post stating that ‘they did not qualify’ was too difficult to understand? The Presenter made it clear about two thirds of the way through the main meeting that the qualifying criteria was total points inclusive of bonus points. So, all the qualifying Witches took part but not the qualifying Brummies. I am sure that you will re-directing your ire and criticism imminently.

I have some sympathy with the Tigers fans losing one of your top riders right at the start of the season. As others have said, the options were probably very limited. I would expect them to still be strong and hard to beat at home but may struggle on the road. Sedgmen was woeful at Foxhall last week.

It’s hard to see the Witches scoring less than 60, however things can quickly go wrong in a speedway meeting. Not sure how the Brummies will finally line up on Thursday. Zagar seems to have visa issues which kept him out of the declared line-ups on Monday - will his visa situation be resolved? Rew was also missing from Mondays line-ups with food poisoning which would mean a 7 day ban, however both meetings were postponed. Does a ban still apply as technically he did not miss a meeting but equally he was not in the declared starting line up?

I just had a quick look at the season’s averages so far published on the Witches web site. Dan is top of the away averages and third in the combined. i thought he would kick on this season but what a start he has had - take a bow young man and keep it up!

Incite is a very strong word with the Cambridge dictionary defining it as ‘to encourage someone to do or feel something unpleasant or violent’. I would say that the Presenter encouraged some gentle mickey taking….😀

I don’t know why Wright got so animated, but it created a good atmosphere for 10-15 minutes. Kevin Long was stoking it up and it gave the crowd the opportunity to boo a pantomime villain for a while. Good fun really.

I don’t really get all the noise about Foxhall being a boring track with no passing. I agree that it does not hold a candle to the NSS but that is purpose built, single use, designed from scratch and funded by the taxpayer. No UK track can hold a candle to the NSS, it’s brilliant. When compared to the remainder of the Premiership tracks, I don’t think it’s any worse and I would argue better than some. Yet again, Louis has spent time and money over the winter making more improvements which from memory is the fourth or fifth set of improvements over the past few years. You can’t fault the endeavour. It’s too early in the season to judge how successful the improvements made over the winter are because the only way you would have had close racing with lots of passing this season so far is if you had introduced handicap racing and given every Aces and Spires rider a five yard head start. You can’t have passing when the home team is consistently first and second into the first bend and even on the odd occasion they aren’t, they steam round or under the away riders. It’s pretty hard getting past Doyle, Sayfutdinov, Brennan, etc at Foxhall once you are behind them.

Sorry, I am not a fan, how dare you!! I can assure you that I report every pass irrespective of where it happens on the track even when there are many of them (see heat 8 last week). it takes a lot to annoy me, but you have managed to achieve it.

It’s r/r for Kildemand, so that’s Wright, Sedgmen and the reserves who can take his rides.