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Just like before the season started....

Have said the same to my dad watching him at Ipswich - superb around Foxhall and getter better every visit! Would love to see him ride for the witches! wolves have got a gem there, hope he has the right people guiding him could reach the top imo

For me I’d want to 100% stay in the top league. The standard of racing far better and the gulf in class between the top of teams and reserves makes for much better entertainment and close racing imo in premiership than championship. Foxhall is a tricky track with the grip and how tight you turn - not conducive to 2.00 national league wobblers imo, whereas is the likes of say a James sarjeant pops out a heat leader could conceivably race closely and team ride with him at this level with his skill set. id like to see a few more riders back next season, if for example Niels and or maybe zagar could be tempted, Chris holder has expressed a desire to ride here again next season that should make for a more even spread of top boys for everyone. we should have the whole winter for team building rather than be on the back foot making a late decision to change leagues so hopefully be able to grab some better top end firepower! would like to see Heeps, Allen and KP back from this years team. Niels would be fantastic too and then see, Poole and Swindon aren’t going to be able to keep all of their top end strength especially if holder senior is on the way back to Poole so should be a bit of a move around the league and riders available. all if buts and maybes I know but regardless I enjoy watching better riders personally. I also think we have to include drew kemp at 7 next season which will allow for more points at the top of building

I I mean I make it 39..... presumably the 7 for Heeps r/r will be scored by the 6 riders present at the meeting and therefore come from their totals?

Lol I was being sarcastic, apologies if that didn’t come across

Apologies for thinking that when you quoted a post referring to thj and said nki was basically the same, I thought you were comparing them

Agree, and incidentally Ljung is older than both Lindgren and Lindbäck, and hasn’t been as successful as an individual in gps etc.

Lol nki qualifies for next years gp series again at the weekend, rode as a heatleader in Poland and Swedish top leagues all season, thj scores chuff all at reserve in Sweden all season and has just signed for Berwick but yeah their careers have taken the same path

Your comment makes it sound like you’re suggesting the massive losses are due to average manipulation?? The results in August won’t have any affect on riders green sheet averages until 1st September which is after the 28th August cut off for transfers so doesn’t make a difference - what it does show is the promotion have waited until the last week to give the riders the maximum opportunity to rediscover their early season form before deciding on changes - changes have been made to give them what they believe are the best chances of making the playoffs and competing in them

Could well help for sure, less pressure on Lawson at 2 riding with Niels rather than an out of form Harris, less pressure on Harris not at no.1, less pressure on Allen back down at reserve, obviously all riders 1-7 in any team are required to score points to be successful but several may be coming into the coming meetings with renewed confidence from the changes and subsequent position changes. Adding a current Grand Prix rider who has just finished on the podium in the gp challenge must add confidence to the camp mustn’t it? hopefully the weather is decent in the coming weeks the day of and day before meetings like last week as the track was superb and all of them looked much more comfortable on it last week

In fairness yes I said that about dropping bomber and one of the reserves, as someone pointed out to me this wouldn’t have dropped Jake back to reserve tho....Jake back at reserve is a massive plus absolutely no to rather having had tungate tbh, bomber hasn’t been good by any means but he has contributed to a couple of big results along the way that I can’t see tungate would have done - maximum away at Kings Lynn springs to mind, don’t think it would have been any different with tungate, neither him or bomber are no.1’s

Surely it’s Chris Louis that has signed Niels at Ipswich, not buster!? if buster was trying to win the league with one of “his” 3 teams no matter what by picking all 21 riders then surely he’d have been having the biggest merry go round possible to ensure at least one team had the maximum potential to win the league, and you’d think he’d be doing that at Kings Lynn having stated at the start of the season “I still hate losing to Ipswich and will do anything to beat them” he puts the money in and Louis does the team to the budget he’s the promoter simple as that. Kings Lynn/buster would’ve had first refusal on Niels as he’s their rider and obviously deemed it unnecessary to ring the changes to get him in, he can’t then block Niels from signing a deal elsewhere should he wish

Glad to see we’ve made a move to get a top end rider in, think it’s a tough move on both KP and kennett who were both doing their jobs at the bottom end when certain others haven’t been! i guess the decision has been made with a view that if bomber can find some sort of form come the play offs then his best is lightyears beyond his current showings and he could still play a big part.... for me however I’d have dropped one of the two reserves and bomber, this would’ve allowed more to play with for the second reserve coming in and a potential stronger reserve than sarj, Pickering perhaps?? Sarj can go very well at Ipswich tho so hopefully he can find some of that form, also puts Jake back down to reserve which is a bonus Welcome to niels and sarj tho, hope this proves a master stroke

witches to win 49-41 nuts to get 20 points at reserve bomber 12 and fill in the rest how you wish nurse must be along with my meds next

yep, agertoft got better every race, and to be fair although didn't look like troubling danny in 3rd in heat 13 he really wasn't that far behind, no more so than a top flight reserve might be expected to be - certainly looks like in a year or two could be good!

i'm not overly excited about the result and appreciate the panthers team was weakened however when you break down how the meeting unfolded i think it still would've been a comfy win for the witches, - ostergaard scored 9 can't see proctor would've scored any more than that - unlikely he'd have won 3 races, credit where credits due to ostergaard last night his three race win times were 56.7,56.9 & 57.2 so he was unexpectedly quick early on in the meeting. - becker scored 8 paid 10 probably a similar score to that expected of wright, becker rides really nicely at foxhall, was very good in most races - r/r provided 6 for hans possibly a little lean - garrity would've scored more than morleys 0, - tungate obviously would've scored 8/9 probably but if there had been a full team scott wouldn't have had 7 rides, becker and summers wouldn't have had 6 each and ostergaard 5, so several of the points scored from their extra rides would've been distributed elsewhere to tungate and garrity - still think with the way the witches rode on a well prepared track last night they'd have scored 50 against a full panthers side. they will have to sharpen up from the gate in the meetings to come, but it was a much improved performance by all last night Heeps really needs to improve on his starting, i think perhaps he's just putting too much pressure on himself at the tapes now he's in the main body of the team, his gating has been the best its been for much of this season, but now up at no.3 he's sitting there feeling like its his job to make the best start rather than it being a bonus if he does as a reserve in the races and he's not as relaxed at the tapes.

Thought the track was superb last night, hopefully moving forward the weather plays ball and they’ll be able to prepare the track exactly how they wish in the upcoming meetings, clearly enjoyed by the whole team last night! There’s been an torrential rain on the day of or day before most home meetings in recent weeks which can’t of helped track preparation - it’s been different every week and often tricky and greasy on top. i thought the lineup was certainly the best lineup for home meetings yesterday and what Hawkins should’ve gone with straight away when KP dropped to reserve, funny how he needed a few more meetings to realise Heeps and Danny would always want the same piece of track and we could do with pairing a better gater like Lawson with bomber in heat 1

I’m only going tonight to see my dad for a couple of hours as we both have season tickets! If we didn’t it’d be the pub! Still contemplating that idea instead anyway! What a farce! feel sorry for pboro and their fans but also feel sorry for ippo promotion - going to have to pay out 60+ points money on a crap gate!

George 30 Rural Suffolk, half hour or so from Foxhall Ipswich Witches Been going all my life with my dad, my grandad took him when he was a boy, and knew john louis well among others 1998 has to be the best memory, the night we clinched the treble the fans mobbed the track, tony rickardsson disappeared in a cloud of smoke doing donuts on the stock car track, i got my team shirt signed by all six riders, i was 9 years old and my dad lifted me up so tony could reach over the fence to sign my shirt! which i still have in a box somewhere! Not sure of a worst speedway moment, seen too many bad crashes and injuries which is never nice, was present on the 2nd bend to witness chris louis career ending injury which was a sad ending to a career of my childhood hero! similarly with Mark loram and his career ending crash. Big fan of woffinden, when he's on form and fit he's the most skilful rider in todays field for me, as a kid i was always a big rickardsson fan as well as louis, loram and later hamper, always liked ryan sullivan and billy hamill as visiting riders back in the day. In more recent years Chris Holder was a big favourite of mine and his championship year 2012 marks in my mind a point in time when the sport changed - he was for me the last world champion who won the title on raw energy and talent, since then the riders have taken the attention to details in bike prep and fitness more importantly to a whole other level - i don't think this is a bad thing, but i do look back fondly on the era of holder and him getting loose and going fast, i guess Darcy Ward fell in this same sort of bracket just a raw natural talent, some of his off track antics let him down however. I don't want to name names in terms least favourite riders i don't think that's necessarily fair, what i'll say is i've got no time for those that ride with a desperation and leave their brains in the toolbox, i want to see hard, close and fair riding, not riders that if they can get close enough won't think twice about riding straight through someone, rather than making tough but fair passes - its dangerous and i just think its unnecessary. Also don't like to see people trying too hard to ride above their ability - too many seemingly down the years watch the grand prix boys throw the bikes at each other and think that's great racing i'll try that but don't have the skillset to pull these manoeuvres and neither do the riders they're throwing the bike at! once again it's dangerous and causes crashes. Other interests, i love the outdoors, walking, mtb, golf is my main hobby and I'm a lifelong Liverpool FC fan, no children currently but a wife, dog, 2 rabbits and 2 chickens!

It’s a 5% added for home guests not away I thought!?

Sort of, the dirt developed over the meeting and the outside was clearly fastest in the second, still probably a bit slicker than our dirt dogs prefer. swindon quite frankly we’re just to a man better than us in every department, making far better starts, and quicker on the track, even when bomber got out in front batch lined him and went past him bend 4 lap 2 like he was standing still

Bomber + KP = 12.17 - 0.63 to get back to the 42.5 limit leaves 11.54 ash Morris at 7 3.32 - rides our track well leaves 8.22 - to go and get a top rider to ride til the end of the season, still unlikely I know but there must be some out there that aren’t going to in polish or Swedish playoffs so a few extra meetings may be more appealing??? Holder, Lindgren, iversen, zagar!? i know realistically it’s a pie in the Sky suggestion but we’ve got ourselves in a good position for the playoffs unexpectedly and would be a shame for the season to now just implode.

Excellent for Nico yes - for ipswich no. knocked KP off virtually when on a 5-1 in ht 2 completely unnecessarily and again fenced Heeps in ht 8 when on a 5-1 on second resulting in a 4-2, Swindon were by far the better team tonight but Nico didn’t look for a teammate once, rode through anyone and everyone he got the chance to. only way I see us reaching the final now is dropping bomber and KP and bringing in a top rider at no.1 to come and be the hero. shame a few weeks back I thought KP was steadily improving riding at the tough no.5 spot and since he’s dropped to reserve he’s dropped off a cliff

Yes Lawson has had the odd bad meetings as has Danny, KP a bit up and down but you’ve surely got to take into account their experience and position in the team - bombers the no.1, most experienced and thus supposedly our best rider.....the below stats from this years home meetings are pretty damning, bomber and KP stats almost exactly the same, KP has ridden most of the season at 5 which is basically as tough as no.1 really in only his second season in the uk.

Even if they wanted to, what changes could they possibly make tho? Has be available riders to make the difference and I just see where they’d come from! The only way to realistically change bomber for an upgrade would be to say drop him and KP for example as he’s the lowest average their combined is 12.19 then you’d need to lose 0.63 to redeclare at 42.5 meaning an 8 point continental rider and 3.56 left over so perhaps ash Morris - but just can’t see who that continental rider would be? Zagar, a pawlicki, Lindgren? they just don’t want to come here currently! Would be pretty damn harsh on KP or anyone else in the team who are all doing their job for the most part, just bomber letting us down consistently, particularly at home. And on 6.83 who would be available to just replace bomber who’s actually an improvement!!?? Bellego?