JamesB

For the sake of the sport and all those involved at Birmingham, I really hope that they have a decent season and get some good numbers through the gate.

Congratulations to Sheffield, they were the better team on the night. A rider who has chosen not to commit to and ride in Britain for the past two seasons has two Play Off winners medals. That is not right and the rules need to be changed for next season.

Zmarzlik is watching so why not give it a crack at the same time………

Perhaps Louis could pop down to the pits at the end of the SON2 and get Cierniak to sign a contract for next season. The lad is head and shoulders better than anyone else and looks outrageously quick. From memory, he is also walking away with the SGP2 again this year.

Doyle and Sayfutdinov were their normal imperious selves. King had a good night but then he normally does against weaker opposition. At least he won Heat 12 beating Basso who looked a bit more like the rider of last season. Thompson did well and had his best meeting by far, really pleased for the lad. Rew struggled and to a lesser extent so did Hume considering the quality of the opposition. Unfortunately, Riss just looks like his confidence is completely shot. Maybe a slight improvement on late but only minimal. A lot of the races were won by a distance, so not the best night of racing.

At the track now and can’t believe it. Not a drop of rain.

Just driven through Foxhall and it looks like it was unfortunately just the wrong side of a thunderstorm. There was a lot of lying water on the roads.

It’s currently fine, however as you say the forecast is for showers late afternoon/early evening. The track will be dry at the moment, so it will depend on the volume of any rain should it happen. With this type of weather, it’s just a lottery. Last week, the forecast was for it to be dry and then it rained for most of the meeting.

Riss being unavailable certainly makes the task more difficult. If the weather forecast is correct, the track could be a bit damp. This could impact on Holder the younger’s mindset, it has been known to before at Foxhall…..

Agreed, but I would have Danny in Heat 8.

I am 6 miles north of Ipswich. It rained overnight but stopped about 8ish, however it’s not really drying up. It’s currently cloudy and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some showers.

Nope, really looking forward to watching him race all season.

Let’s hope Batchelor was saving himself for the play offs. Rowe did OK, but he could be so much better if he didn’t give the other three a yards head start every time.

6 miles north of Ipswich and it’s been dry since the early hours. BBC Weather is predicting light showers between 2 and 6 pm.

Six miles north of Ipswich and we have only had a couple of 15-30 minute spells of rain followed by sunny intervals. It’s also warm, so any rain has quickly dried up. The main risk is a really heavy thunderstorm or spell of rain but the forecast seems to have this as a decreasing likelihood. Fingers crossed.

It’s hard to see how Louis could have done any better than that, well done. It means that we should keep a strong reserve for the remainder of the season which is important. An out and out number one with a strong reserve makes for a very competitive team. All the best to Riss and a speedy recovery. If Ben has been a silly boy then so be it, but if proved innocent then he will have been very unlucky.

Without any changes; 52-38.

Are we still expecting one or more changes? If we go with the team we tracked last night at Belle Vue, I can see nothing but a heavy loss.

Any news on how young Jack’s toe/knee/elbow/shoulder are bearing up?

Let’s hope he is 110% motivated to prove a point. Not sure that my expectations are very high but hopefully I am proved wrong.

The problem is that you can both be right, as the rule about the Transfer Window does not have a start date. Does it apply: 1. From the point that a team announces its 1-7 which could be months ahead of the start of the season. 2. From the point of the first actual speedway meeting of the season involving two of the six Premiership teams. 3. From the point that an individual team rode its first meeting. 4. From the point of the first league meeting involving two of the six Premiership teams. 5. From the point that an individual team rode its first league meeting. and then when do the 25% and 75% stipulations get triggered: 1. When an individual team meets these milestones. 2. When the last of the six teams reaches the respective milestone. As far as I can see the answers to the above can only be by each individual’s interpretation.

A team on paper is exactly that. Am I disappointed that we have built that far below the limit - yes. Do I believe a number of those in the team have the capacity to increase their average - yes. Will I know the answer until we are a few meetings into the season - no. You can have whatever opinion you like of Louis but one thing is for certain, he won’t put the future of Ipswich speedway at risk by spending money that would do that. He will have been working to a budget and once Doyle was signed then he had to build a team to fit the remainder of the budget in a way that he believes can be competitive. Who apart from the most ardent Panthers fans and probably not even many of them predicted they would be champions last season? I actually believe that the team should be strong as a home unit, away not so sure but as always, I will approach the season full of hope and grateful that I still have a speedway team to watch.

As long as Louis wants to continue then I don’t think there will be a problem with the Witches. There is no suggestion that he has had enough and I would say that attendances have been decent apart from the televised meeting and the last meeting due to the bad weather. Also, no problem with track availability or potential track closure. As for British speedway after Buster’s announcement, not so sure at the moment. Are we possibly heading for a number of clubs in both leagues disappearing over the winter?

The Ipswich call off was Thursday. It was called off mid morning following days of heavy showers and a weather forecast that predicted heavy rain from 1930. The forecast was exactly right and so if they had waited those who had decided to risk it would have paid their money only for it to be abandoned without a wheel turning. I know what approach I prefer.

Looks like the weather could intervene. Holder doesn’t like Foxhall at the best of times and so if the track is a bit tricky we could see the annual Jack Holder spitting the dummy routine at Foxhall. Could be close and a Witches win may depend on some decent points from Crump and Allen, hmm.