JamesB

Apparently, they opened the gates late. There was some debate about whether it would go ahead. Must have been much more rain here than where I live 6 miles away. There is the odd bit of standing water on the track at the moment.

6 miles north of Ipswich - Brief shower 15 minutes ago, sunshine is returning.

On paper, I agree with you, however I have just a few niggling concerns: 1. It seems that Ellis’ injury is more problematic on smaller tracks. 2. Thompson seems to be struggling with Foxhall since his return from injury and hasn’t been the same as pre injury. 3. Edwards last two meeting at Foxhall have not been good with 1 & 2 points respectively. Having said that, I still expect us to turn around the deficit and progress. I just can’t see enough points coming from Mulford, Zischke, Blödorn and even Cook. Cook has scored 1, 3 and 3 at Foxhall this season. Can’t wait.

I would have snapped your hand off for 10/12 at the end of Heat 8. I thought it was a tremendous team performance to draw the second half.

Sardonic humour in light of Tigers fans suggesting that he got last week called off on his tod.

Did Doyle want to race or not?

I don’t know, but the dates have been in the British calendar since the fixture list announced. It would be strange for Sweden to take priority because ‘it rained there first’.

Does British speedway not have priority over Swedish speedway on a Monday/Thursday?

Would we be stronger with Thompson or Ellis at reserve. I think it’s an absolute toss up at the moment.

The eight year old lad (forgotten his name) who was doing laps between the junior races looked better every time he came out. On his last set, he was attacking the corners as well as some of those in the junior races. Looked impressive for an 8 year old.

6 miles north of Ipswich - It has been raining for the past half hour so and there’s no break in the rain clouds at the moment.

Correct, there was no contact but is there any reference to contact in the rule book, I am not sure there is. In my opinion, the only reason that there was no contact was because Thompson took action to avoid it losing control as he did. Was coming in at that speed from that far back hard or reckless, in my view it crossed the line into reckless but I’ve seen those decisions go both ways. Having been to both legs, the Stars deserved to go through. Too many unforced errors from the Witches tonight.

Whatever happened here (and it’s pretty opaque), it’s great to see the club survive and hopefully thrive. All the best.

It’s great to read that Danyon Hume’s surgery yesterday has been classed as successful. Here’s hoping for a full and speedy recovery for someone who always gives their all irrespective.

My reading of Hawkin’s comments are that the Witches proposed to apply the same approach to the RS position that the Stars have been/are being allowed to use and that this request was refused. If that is correct, then that is a terrible state of affairs. A regulation either applies to none or all. If the Stars have been granted an exception to the regulation then great, but again that exception has to be applied to all.

I thought that Flint was excellent tonight. He had the beating of Jenkins and Mountain every time often passing them for the points.

That was a cracking meeting, with plenty of passing. Two good teams who both deserve credit for a hard fought and competitive meeting.

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!).