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Disappointing to let Swindon get a point. When you’re at home and a reserve scores 16 points you should be getting at least 50 as a team. Bellego looking a very weak link currently - shame as he looked good first couple of meetings and then his speed, gating and confidence has just fallen off a cliff. Although he got an important race win late on in the meeting bomber was not for tonight - couldn’t hold on early meeting when the track was heavier. King very poor. KP did ok gotta watch them jump starts though, and not surprised batch was angry with him, from my view on the second bend his left turn on batch looked pretty psycho! Lawson did ok don’t anyone would dispute Swindon have superior heat leaders and he held his own. Heeps looked quick again - strange to be only be given 3 rides... Jake Allen take a bow! Musielak very impressive on his first visit to Foxhall.

Depends on busters influence at Ipswich...can you really see cook getting a ride at any of the east Anglian clubs now? Lawson showed last Thursday he can beat good riders at Foxhall but he’s got to up his game away from home. i thought it was hard on bellego him losing his ride at home Thursday - hadn’t done much wrong and we’d effectively won the match. He needs to improve away from home also as does king. He never should’ve been in ht15 at Swindon Jake should. impressed with Krystian so far seems to be learning fast and not afraid to mix it.

Lidsey will no doubt improve throughout the season - I have to say in the off season lots of people on here seemed to regard berge as a trump card at reserve and wanted him in their teams....can’t say I’ve ever really rated him at all - mostly seen him at Foxhall where he’s always been poor, and a couple of times at Sheffield which again been very inconsistent. So imo your reserves did what I expected last night - Lidsey improved every race looks a fast learner he’ll do better on his next Foxhall visit Cant really see why bewley is riding at 3 away from home currently, surely would make more sense to put Worrall at 3 which would take a bit of pressure off of wells who also seems to be struggling early season

They had 8 race wins to our 7 but also had 12 last places to our 3!! And 6 of their race wins we nullified with a 3-3 so pretty positive all round imo

Good racing tonight and another good team performance! Particularly very good race between Heeps and Fricke in heat 11 - hope that’s the heat they post a video of - would like see it back again! Great ride from Lawson in heat 15, didn’t think bjerre was gonna be beaten again! He was pretty damned fast for someone’s who’s no longer a heat leader in this league!

Rory Schlein a preferred choice of guest for me - press release on twitter says bombers still hoping to ride on Thursday, I know he’s a tough lad but I hope if he does ride it’s because he’s genuinely fit enough

You’ll see jack riding no.8 all season I’d expect unless for injuries. It’s quite farcical as I understand it - can only have 3 foreign riders from your squad declared in the 1-7 for any given match but can have a 4th foreigner as no.8 - so Toruń use Doyle, c.holder and iversen, they then declare a junior polish squad member in the team at say no.4 but don’t have to ensure he has 3 rides or anything so then just put jack in wherever they feel like! I think they can even declare a polish rider in the team as r/r and then have foreigner at no.8! Seems barmy to me! Yet polish league is supposedly the promised land!

Could be close meeting this one, like someone had earlier said all of the witches can go well at Kings Lynn - think we’ll need to get off to a good start, hopefully bomber is fit and Lawson has found some better speed in the bikes - has scored well at Eastbourne but not necessarily the best indicator for KL, rather different tracks! A couple of good meeting for Cameron over the weekend for Edinburgh him and Jake could be match winners, if bombers fit and bikes sorters I think this one will be a 2-4 point win going either way - hopefully the witches! sadly not going to make it, just haven’t got time to get up there after work but hope there’s a good lot witches Fans that can!

i think your timeline is a little skewed it was well into the 2000’s before the top boys all upped and left. To illustrate here’s a list of a few riders that rode in the elite league in 2005: tony rickardsson, Chris Louis, hans Andersen, Leigh adams, Ryan Sullivan, Antonio Lindback, Pepe Protasiewicz, Billy Hamill, Greg Hancock, Jason crump, Nicki Pedersen, lee Richardson, Scott Nicholls, Sebastian ulamek, Greg Walasek, Freddie Lindgren, Peter Karlsson, Michael max, ales & Lukas Dryml, Mark Loram, Andreas Jonsson, Kenneth Bjerre, Joe screen, David norris, Chris Harris, Kris kascperzak, many others that arguably worth a mention, Troy Batchelor, Matej Ferjan, Jason Lyons, Mads Korneliussen, Martin Smolinski my memories of the late 90’s as a witches fan is the team of 98 - gollob, rickardsson, Louis, Svab, nicholls & clouting!

Who was available and willing to ride in the uk on a 7.67 average....? Not that many, and pretty predictable where they all have ended up so not that extra point would’ve realistically made much difference - kascper might have been a gem and work out a trump card....Lambert is what he is admittedly kascper did not look great Thursday but in fairness Foxhall isn’t an easy track for taller guys, you’ve gotta turn the bike quite hard and their left leg makes this more awkward so will often take more than a couple of visits to master in less experienced riders

Would love to be a “fly on the wall” inside chapmans van on the way back to Kings Lynn tonight positives for all 7 witches tonight, a useful start to the season and great to start off with a win in front of a good size crowd - hopefully just as many of not more will be there again in a fortnight! superb couple of passes from bomber, pure entertainment, and I particularly enjoyed Cameron’s battle and pass over proctor in ht14 Erik Riss has always been good at Foxhall - should absolutely be looking at him for any potential needs for a guest throughout the year

Oops

In the race format for supporters cup, am I right in think 4&5 ride as a pair and the no.3 with the reserves?

And four riders of sufficient quality to potentially make these passes, race closely, maybe win the race in every race rather than just ht13 &15! No inexperienced young lads still learning their craft and half a lap behind!

Could be close, Jorgensen, Riss, proctor and palm toft all go well at Foxhall! And lamberts at the level where he’s pretty good anywhere now. winnings winning tho whether it’s by a point or 20 and still think we will take it but it’ll be close throughout edit: lewi Kerr is no slouch round Foxhall either! Just Andersen that’s the unknown really

An awful lot of ifs, buts and maybes with this one.... had cook still been in home win for sure, now could be a surprise early away win depending on how the Belle Vue away boys coming off of injury are in their first meetings! Peterborough always a fair track tho so either way a good meeting in store think I’ll go for a home 46-44 win with hans getting it done in ht15

I wasn’t at the p&p but dad said his mate went up and KP looked proper quick....I guess we’ll find out next week! Agree would’ve been good for him tho

The past few seasons in the championship Ipswich have been heavily fancied on paper at the start of the season and it’s done us no favours mentally whatsoever and we’ve been wrecked by injuries year after year looking at our team this year we’ve got a team full of racers that have been written off by most already as wooden spoon candidates....I don’t mind the underdog tag one bit and think several of our team members will thrive off of that tag too, so in a small league of just 7 teams I see no reason why we can’t cause some upsets along the way and make the playoffs! Either way having watched the Leicester challenge last night I’m looking forward to watching this team week in week out! up the witches!

Cook never said he’d dump his sponsor for more money. if the sponsor couldn’t have the main spots then they weren’t coming on board - their choice not Craig’s. buster wouldn’t compromise on sponsor positioning so basically told Craig you can’t have the revenue from that sponsor - so he returned and said well if I lose that sponsor revenue are you willing to increase my points money to cover some of that loss of revenue I’m not on either side of argument here tbh the whole thing is ridiculous, there’s no reason a comprimise shouldn’t have been able to be reached - I object to the notion cook has lost all integrity because he’d sell out and dump sponsors when at no point did he claim that, it’s the new software sponsor that would drop him if not getting their own way with logo position colour etc.

I hope so, they’re both Ipswich speedway 100% and that’s what an owner should be

Difficult one to call, can see both sides of the argument - this close to the start of the season you’d think surely some sort of an agreement should have been able to be reached to have team and rider sponsors in prominent enough positions to suit everyone! With this outcome no one is a winner - Craig is going to find it very difficult to make it pay just riding for Glasgow and Peterborough will struggle to find someone of Craig’s calibre (in the UK) willing to come and take his place! Another wonderful advert for British speedway!

Doesn’t sound like Richie’s thrilled to be doing it!

I think you’re right! Got to expect Rory to picking up 10+ so that’s a significant swing! agree with taps very disappointing no KP as he surely could do with a practise meeting but hey ho

Really hope Cameron’s wrist isn’t as bad as it sounds it could be! He’s clearly worked very hard during the off season to get fit - would be a big blow to him and us to have a set back. i hope the absence of KP is just for these challenges primarily and not setting the tone for the year...

I reckon your right, Danny and camo never worked that well as a pairing - often fighting for the same piece of track on the outside