JamesB

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 On the flip side, Thompson has withdrawn from the U21 final following a crash in his first heat.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

Just been reviewing my updates from the meeting. Two passes in heats 2 & 3 down to rider error. Genuine passes: H6 - 1 H8 - 4 H11 -1 H13 -1 H15 - 1 Discuss

Horrible crash with no opportunity to get away from the bike. All the best to Tai, I was really looking forward to him giving Jason and Emil a real test around Foxhall this season.

That’s a valid view to hold, however speedway is not alone in its approach. Rugby Union amongst many others adopts play offs to decide on the Premiership Champions. Promotion to the most lucrative league (Premier League) in the world is not decided on merit going to the team who came third in the league but by play offs between third to sixth. Broadcasters will always prefer a play off approach as it creates excitement, draws viewers and creates revenue for them. They also create revenue for those clubs participating.

I heard the same.

You have to give Louis credit, he has done pretty much everything he can with the track within the constraints imposed to improve the racing spectacle.

Once the decision was taken to strengthen with Brennan, then one of the 2024 cohort had to move on. I have been told and I have no certainty whether it is true or not that the original plan was for one of the other riders to move on, however the situation with Rew changed the plan.

OK, it’s a cold and boring Friday morning so I’ll take the bait…. 1. Louis has decided to strengthen the team by bringing in Brennan. 2. Therefore, in the same way as Belle Vue ‘somebody has to go’ to accommodate that strengthening. 3. Two clubs offered Rew a significant uptick on his points money. He was ‘keen to stay’ but expected Louis to move towards his new offered points money. 4. Any business when hiring an individual weighs up cost v benefit i.e. value for money and it would appear that in this case Louis decided that did not stack up for him as the owner of the business. 5. I have no issue with Rew wanting to increase his earnings and another team being willing to pay accordingly, that’s called Capitalism. I wish Rew all the best and hope that we see him back as a Witch at some point in the future.

I believe that his head was turned by two clubs offering a substantial up tick on points money. No issue with him looking after number 1 financially, as speedway is a short career. Hopefully, we may see him back in the future.