Aries

Kelv’s new favourite rider 😁 We’d all look forward to watching him though wouldn’t we? Mad as a box of frogs in the nicest possible way. With the caveat of attitude and effort etc, the usual question marks when these kind of riders rock up over here.

Nope. Belle Vue fans can rest easy with that one 😂

Be interesting to find out wouldn’t it? With all due respect to Becker who is a decent rider in his own right, this isn’t the kind of profile they’re aiming for. There is a clear acceptance from the top that we’ll need to strengthen in the heatleader department, and they want to bring someone in who with create a buzz and make an impact not just on track, but in the media. Emil is done here unfortunately.

He was certainly pleased with it, especially as it was on an off race night. He came up to the sponsors lounge after the meeting for a chat and a few beers. Had the perfect opportunity to have a good chat about various things and he was happy to answer all my questions. Wont go in to what was said on here because that would be unfair, but he’s a really nice fella! Genuinely hope it works out well for him here he seems to have taken to the place already and is enjoying himself.

Fair play to Leicester btw. Great turnout by their supporters. Kemp was outstanding! He can certainly win races around Foxhall these days

It’s a bit strange with Lawson because we had him here for a season under Louis a few years back and he was good as gold. Never missed the parade truck from memory, or any meetings. Hawkins even admitted last winter on a podcast that they made a mistake letting him go because he’s proved himself to be a consistent scorer and reliable. It could simply have been Louis because we know he was a stickler for professionalism and wouldn’t have accepted any nonsense from his riders or they’d have been out the door.

I was told last night that he really wants to come back, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be in the team. Just that it’s a pretty straightforward deal for us to do if we want it. Think it will depend on who else they can get in first.

Doyle wants to come back to Ipswich next season. A GP Pole will be in, and they’re not going to let someone else benefit from Brennan having a lower average due to struggling at 1 this year. Plan is to retain him and fit him in the middle order. He starts meetings well then finishes them poorly. It’s becoming a theme at least at Foxhall.

Could do with bringing another exciting rider over next year to add to the ones we already have. Woryna would be fun to watch..

Will indeed 😁 Thank you for inviting me in to the sponsors lounge and taking me on to the centre green to watch a few heats. Amazing how different the experience is when you’re that close! Blew me away

That’s simply because the track man was forced by the referee to tyre pack the track after Dickson’s complaints, despite the track man telling him it would only make things worse. Which it did! The track was prepared exactly the same as the previous two meetings as Hurry pointed out. Dickson didn’t think it would suit his team so kicked up a fuss and complained to the referee. The ref was weak unfortunately. Taps is correct, we should prepare it exactly how we like which gives us home advantage and stuff anyone from the away team that doesn’t like it. The “dangerous” stuff was utter nonsense.

Hurry touches on that again here 😆 https://ipswichwitches.co/witches-boss-hurry-seeks-sweet-silverware-in-premiership-knockout-cup-final/

Couldn’t agree more. He definitely sees an opportunity to strengthen the Premiership with both personnel,(quality riders), and number of clubs with the Poland plus 1 rule which will in turn enhance the chances of a new TV deal which he sees as vital to the future planning. Poole’s biggest issue was apparently Wednesday race nights but there’s no obvious reason they now couldn’t move back up and ride Wednesdays in the Premiership. Just fill your teams with riders who do Poland and UK and not those who do Sweden and Denmark. The only thing that seems unclear to me and a bit contradictory, is he says he’s concerned about the whole Speedway pyramid below Poland and Speedway as a whole, needs the rest of Europe thriving too. If any rider worth his salt chooses Poland and what he and us want, UK, then what does that do for Sweden and Denmark?

Going to need a 14-16 point lead to take to Leicester to have a realistic chance I think. Not likely but we’ll see.

It was still night and day compared to what we all get now!

Totally agree. From an Ipswich perspective, Ipswich is a sporting Town, and it’s always been a Speedway Town. The people of Ipswich know their speedway and are knowledgeable about the sport in good numbers. They know who the world class riders are and who isn’t. Of course there’ll be plenty of others who have no idea about Speedway there’s no denying that, but they won’t attend anyway so they’re not the target audience. There are so many who know everything about the sport, have been for years, but are now 50/50 on whether they can be bothered to go anymore or not (I’d put myself in that category). They're the ones they have to first and foremost entice back on a regular basis. That’s the start. Give them the incentive and a reason to go from 50/50, to “I’m 💯 going to be there Thursday/Monday”. That begins with having a team worth paying to watch, a world class rider or two that undoubtedly gets more through the turnstiles. More top class riders will increase the chances of TV companies becoming interested again as Richard Coleman points out. Getting a couple more clubs involved to increase variety and fixtures will also help. With all due respect to the Championship, there’s a reason that hasn’t been shown other than streams. Get those people back regularly and then they can work on a strategy to get newcomers to start attending also. I’ve been to a couple of Poole meetings the last couple of season’s and although they still get good crowds (again by Championship standards), they get nowhere near the level they did when they were in the top flight and had peak Holder and Ward amongst others. Any Poole fan that comes on here and say they do, are lying pure and simple.

I don’t know where you’re really going with this Mike. Fans just won’t watch any old speedway simply because it’s still “The Witches” and I think you know that full well. The more attractive the line up, the bigger support you will get. That’s just common sense and backed up by general crowd levels you see the lower you go down the pyramid. Ipswich had decent crowds when they dropped a tier, but that’s by really poor Championship standards. They increased when they moved back up, and they increased again handsomely when the world class top two arrived and stayed consistently healthy during the duration that they were here. Thats completely natural and understandable. You’ve been beating this drum about the top riders not making a huge difference for years now on here, but I think you’re severely underplaying the difference they actually make.

Well I haven’t been one of those. I use my own eyes and I’ve maintained more than once on here, that the crowd levels have taken a fair old hit. I know one or two have said there hasn’t been much difference, but I’m honestly not sure what they’re seeing. My opinion is vastly different. The Belle Vue meeting a few weeks ago was woeful compared to Belle Vue’s visits in previous seasons. No Bewley but Kurtz was there, Belle Vue meetings usually bring out the bigger crowds at Foxhall generally, and it was a glorious summer evening. I was pretty shocked at the turn out to be frank. It can’t all be blamed on the loss of Doyle and Emil because there are a couple of other factors including the new TV stream for a tenna less, but I’ve absolutely no doubt the loss of BOTH heatleaders has been the biggest factor. Talk to literally anyone at the track on meeting day, and they’ll all tell you the same thing, it just hasn’t been close to the same without them. Go in to next season without both of Bewley or Kurtz, promote Zach Cook to number 1 and see how you get on. Do you think it wouldn’t have THAT much affect on your attendances? I bet it would!! Take your point about whether the drop off would hurt the finances due to the savings made on not paying the top stars, but that we’ll never know really. None of us want to be watching speedway in ever decreasing crowd numbers though and that’s what’s happened at Ipswich this year, and would happen at the NSS too if you lost your heatleaders. Sheffield fans have also commented on the lower crowd levels since Holder got injured. Ask Orion and any other Swindon fan who still browses on here, what happened to their crowd levels when Leigh Adams retired.

Another excellent meeting for Blodorn. He’s riding well.

55-35

He’s a very impressive figure. Those that sometimes get the Speedway Star but not always, I recommend picking one up and reading the full piece about British Speedway as well the SGP and his thoughts on Emil/Laguta.

It’s this and NSS he was always going to struggle on. We’ll see though you never know.

Today’s Speedway Star. He’s been here all of five minutes and he already knows. We need more Richard Coleman’s to come in here, because sadly I fear he’ll be a lone voice and he’ll be completed ignored. “Ipswich chairman Richard Coleman believes British Speedway’s model of self governance must change as he calls for the Premiership and Championship to move further apart in Standard for 2027”

That’s if he even rides. Stung in the face by a bee yesterday and his face has ballooned up. Could hardly see yesterday.

https://ipswichwitches.co/hurry-brennan-getting-back-to-his-best-ahead-of-tigers-trip-on-thursday/