Aries

Still touring! Doing the regent and Spa Pavilion at Felixstowe again this year 😁

He was fantastic wasn’t he? Had an aura, the X factor. His form dipped in his final year here by his high standards but it wasn’t through lack of effort or commitment. I’m sure I wasn’t alone when he first signed wondering how many meetings he’d miss and how much effort would he put in, but I needn’t have been concerned! Class act.

He’d made a home here for sure. People will always be a bit suspicious when riders say they won’t ride anywhere else though. We all know money talks. Pretty sure we’d have been his priority though. Still think we might see him later in the season…

Doyle was never getting a contract offer from Belle Vue. Kurtz and Bewley were always going to be there and they’d have made their availability quite clear early on.

Yes his three year work visa expired and it was apparently very expensive to renew. He done the three years of his visa, won medals in both the Cup and Premiership, so things all came to a natural end.

Up to you if you choose to believe him or not. I’m just quoting what the bloke said. I wouldn’t have thought an offer from Belle Vue would have been forthcoming anyway. They already had their top two.

No idea, but that bond money was quite substantial wasn’t it? Anyway, the statement didn’t come with any caveats ie “confirmed to run on the basis that the club is successfully sold”, just that Ipswich were confirmed starters in 2026 so we have to take that at face value.

Having spoken personally with an ex Witch’ UK mechanic on Monday, he told me an announcement would be made in “a week and a half”. That puts it at the middle of next week. He could be out with that of course and it could come sooner we’ll Have to wait and see.

We can only go by the facts that have been given to us. https://britishspeedway.co.uk/miscellaneous/british-speedway-agm-statement-3/ “Five teams have been confirmed to contest the 2026 season: Belle Vue, Ipswich, King’s Lynn, Leicester and Sheffield. Attempts are still being made to include a sixth team in the Premiership”.

According to him in the Star, he just hadn’t received an offer and got fed up of waiting. Didn’t wanna ride for anyone else here so done deals in other Countries. Let’s not forget the confirmation that Ipswich were running didn’t come until early January after the delayed AGM. By then, Doyle, and others, already had their season’s planned out. Just one of them ain’t it 🤷🏼‍♂️

Doyle just got fed up of waiting. Nobody made him an offer. Similar to Ellis reading between the lines of what his father has posted although I’m sure he’ll Correct me if I’m wrong. We just know the club are running this season. That was confirmed at the AGM so all parties are either 100% sure the sale is going through and it’s just Red tape holding things up, or it’ll be run by whoever regardless.

Think you’re reading way too much in to that personally. Anyway, Nicholls is in.

I was a bit confused as well because they’re still showing the same 18 premiership meetings that they did last year. I re-read the statement again because I thought I missed a bit where they all but confirmed a separate TV deal elsewhere!

As in Scott working for BSN? Don’t think that’s going to happen.

We really don’t know how they work yet. They’ve come in and cut the money at GP level (understandably) so maybe their plan is to come in at Ipswich and run things cheaply? All the genuine number one’s were already snapped up but none of us know yet if they’d have stumped up the cash to get one of the top liners in even if they were still available. We’ll only know that and what their ambitions are, from next season onwards because they’ll get a free pass this time due to coming in so late. We know with Louis that he’s Ipswich through and through and he pushed things to the maximum to get the best team he could. We already had Doyle and nobody would have batted an eyelid if he’d just went with him and then built solidly downwards but he then went and added Emil as well. He could have saved himself a lot of money by just going with Doyle, and then packed in middle and lower order riders below him but he didn’t. It remains to be seen whether the new people have those same ambitions for Ipswich as Chris Louis did.

Don’t worry Iain they have a cunning plan and are just lulling everyone in to a false sense of security! The cavalry will arrive in the Summer 🤪

It’s Brennan, Lawson, Musielak, Nicholls, King, Edwards and one other. Those are “signed” but we don’t know whether they were signed on the provision that Thorssell was also signing and if that’s now not happening, whether that will cause them to have a rethink. My guess is probably not but we’ll see.

Would be lucky to even make it to the foot of the table.

No idea. All we know is the BSPL issued a post AGM statement confirming Ipswich’ participation in the 2026 season.

If Thorssell isn’t happening, there’s 4.60 left for rider seven. Your suggestion, or Jenkins, seem to be the only options. I was told yesterday the other six in your team was done. And the source is as good as it gets. MAYBE, they’ll have a rethink if the planned seventh rider is now off the table.

To be fair, Ipswich committed to racing this year at the AGM in early January and were confirmed starters. There’s nothing that’s been said that that commitment was dependent on a sale of the club being completed.

He was, but that was before his injury that saw him spend most of last year out injured. In all of the guest appearances he made at Foxhall for the Injured Doyle two seasons ago, he didn’t hit a single double figure score. Pretty sure I saw that stat somewhere.

Mind numbingly boring now though isn’t it 😴

The problem there Col, is it’s 2026, not 2023. You’ve picked an anomaly of a season there which is the exception rather than the rule. Put up the season stats for the seasons prior, and after 2023 for a fairer evaluation of his skills in a heatleader position.