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Ipswich Witches 2026


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12 minutes ago, Roger Jacobs said:

Which bits?  Maybe you don't agree with the opening two lines by Gavan, but there's nothing else in what he said that's wrong.

Other teams don't agree with the vision (Gavan didn't say all other teams), and Louis has dedicated a huge part of his life to the sport as well as to the Witches.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's exhausted both physically and mentally.

His last sentence springs to mind. 

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15 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

What I would really like to see is.

Louis pairs up with Dean Wood at spedeworth, Guy Nicholls & another sponsor like Halo.

They then run a breakaway league with Ipswich other spedeworth venues & bring in Belle Vue, Lynn, Leicester & Sheffield.

Only one venue would need infrastructure works. Halo provides the money ( a drop in the ocean) compared to their outlay in football & F1 Nicholls provides the track work equipment.

The league 

Ipswich (Spedeworth

Mildenhall (spedeworth)

Northampton (spedeworth)

Eastbourne (spedeworth)

Belle Vue

Kings Lynn

Sheffield 

Leicester 

The difference being that sponsors would bank role the club’s & an independent chairman would oversee the league. 
 

Harry Redknapp & futures Ltd sorts out the tv coverage.
 

The BSPA could then run the championship & NDL

Happy days.

 

That’s just dreaming IMO. Nobody is going to bankroll Speedway.

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4 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

That’s just dreaming IMO. Nobody is going to bankroll Speedway.

I'll have what he's on 🍻

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25 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

What I would really like to see is.

Louis pairs up with Dean Wood at spedeworth, Guy Nicholls & another sponsor like Halo.

They then run a breakaway league with Ipswich other spedeworth venues & bring in Belle Vue, Lynn, Leicester & Sheffield.

Only one venue would need infrastructure works. Halo provides the money ( a drop in the ocean) compared to their outlay in football & F1 Nicholls provides the track work equipment.

The league 

Ipswich (Spedeworth

Mildenhall (spedeworth)

Northampton (spedeworth)

Eastbourne (spedeworth)

Belle Vue

Kings Lynn

Sheffield 

Leicester 

The difference being that sponsors would bank role the club’s & an independent chairman would oversee the league. 
 

Harry Redknapp & futures Ltd sorts out the tv coverage.
 

The BSPA could then run the championship & NDL

Happy days.

 

Does that include flying pigs as pre meeting entertainment?

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35 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

What I would really like to see is.

Louis pairs up with Dean Wood at spedeworth, Guy Nicholls & another sponsor like Halo.

They then run a breakaway league with Ipswich other spedeworth venues & bring in Belle Vue, Lynn, Leicester & Sheffield.

Only one venue would need infrastructure works. Halo provides the money ( a drop in the ocean) compared to their outlay in football & F1 Nicholls provides the track work equipment.

The league 

Ipswich (Spedeworth

Mildenhall (spedeworth)

Northampton (spedeworth)

Eastbourne (spedeworth)

Belle Vue

Kings Lynn

Sheffield 

Leicester 

The difference being that sponsors would bank role the club’s & an independent chairman would oversee the league. 
 

Harry Redknapp & futures Ltd sorts out the tv coverage.
 

The BSPA could then run the championship & NDL

Happy days.

 

Divide and conquer does not always work but what you are suggesting has its merits. Whether it is for the good of the sport overall might questionable but at this stage in proceedings all options need to be considered as along as all the tracks continue to offer speedway and other two wheeled sports. Great idea that should be explored 

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6 hours ago, ouch said:

You do realise you’ve picked meetings that contain the top stars. Even the play offs have top stars as generally their inclusion makes for top teams. What made you choose these meetings?

They have some jeopardy, and you feel that you are at least attending a "proper sporting event" given the size of the crowd delivers atmosphere....

Maybe the play off semi not so much as the crowds are only a "bit better" than the normal meetings, but at least the meeting has some consequence...

One league would have seen me attend a fair few times, home and away, given the novelty factor..

I will still get plenty of Speedway though as planning a few trips to Poland, and some other GP's..

Sport without jeopardy or consequence isn't really sport, but more of a pastime...

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6 hours ago, Biffa said:

If the Prem go with 5 teams in 2026 to keep the “top” riders here, there could be the chance that 2027 could have more teams in the Prem. Maybe running 1 season with 5 teams and “ taking it on the chin” with the “hope” of Peterborough, Northampton etc boosting the Prem in 2027 is worth the chance 🤷‍♂️

Of maybe running a season with 14 teams and then deciding if it works or not is worth doing? 

The top tier, in its current guise, as is proven by all the evidence of the last decade, clearly doesn't work...

From eleven teams down to seven teams, it hasn't worked..

So five has zero chance, and two more teams added in 2027 will have the same zero chance..

So. How many times are they going to try and revive that dead horse by keeping flogging it?

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9 hours ago, TB1 said:

Does that include flying pigs as pre meeting entertainment?

Far better than the current circus! But yes it’s a pipe dream will never happen & we will be here in 2 or 3 years time discussing the death of league speedway in the uk. Unless there is something radical happening in the next few months.

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12 hours ago, Phannan said:

Lily Savage is in the room … talking the usual bollox 

Aarrghh! You quoted him and I read it. I cannot believe he referenced the junior meeting as an innovative act, unbelievable. Run a junior team if you want to bring on youngsters. It’s completely lost on him that an ex Colt (having graduated out of our team) won the event. Sign young English riders when they are 16 and help build them up (no  mention of the compulsory RS riders please) don’t wait until they are world number three before you come sniffing round. 

What has Louis actually done? Ran speedway at the same venue it’s been at for decades? Let lifelong Ipswich fan Guy bankroll the club? Signed Doyle, so innovative that nine teams had done that before them? Signed Emil when the Ukraine war hit Russian sportsmen? Moved up to the top league six seasons ago? Nobody puts any meat on the bones of him being a standout promoter, well now is your chance but don’t mention the junior meeting again.

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23 minutes ago, ouch said:

Aarrghh! You quoted him and I read it. I cannot believe he referenced the junior meeting as an innovative act, unbelievable. Run a junior team if you want to bring on youngsters. It’s completely lost on him that an ex Colt (having graduated out of our team) won the event. Sign young English riders when they are 16 and help build them up (no  mention of the compulsory RS riders please) don’t wait until they are world number three before you come sniffing round. 

What has Louis actually done? Ran speedway at the same venue it’s been at for decades? Let lifelong Ipswich fan Guy bankroll the club? Signed Doyle, so innovative that nine teams had done that before them? Signed Emil when the Ukraine war hit Russian sportsmen? Moved up to the top league six seasons ago? Nobody puts any meat on the bones of him being a standout promoter, well now is your chance but don’t mention the junior meeting again.

Clown 

You don’t think Chris Louis was a good promoter then you are clueless 

What is a promoter supposed to do?

Bankrolled thousands of his own money into the club

Ran the club on a huge financial safety net

Promoted the club locally year upon year and brought sponsorship into the team 

Had the highest average gates all season 

Brought high class riders into the side … riders who wanted to ride for the club and riders who have regularly stated how much of a family club it is and all riders are happy 

I suggest you shut up about the Emil situation as you clearly have no idea what went on behind the scenes to make that happen and what it cost Chris personally…. And that signing helped every club who always had higher attendances when Emil was I town a true class act

You love to stick the boot in at every opportunity you can to Ipswich …. Occasionally not knowing the facts and most of the time just spouting crap

Imagine having the best track in the UK and one of the most entertaining riders in the world in Bewley and still not getting good crowds … what Belle Vue could do with a promoter like Louis 

Edited by Gavan
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41 minutes ago, therefused said:

you do exactly the same to Poole and Belle Vue to be fair. 

You can certainly tell Ipswich had one top tier winning season in 27 years can't you? :D

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Where has all of this Chris Louis hate come from?

He's one of a very few who actually cares about British Speedway.

Certain other Owners and Promoters couldn't care less about the Sport in the UK.

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8 hours ago, mikebv said:

They have some jeopardy, and you feel that you are at least attending a "proper sporting event" given the size of the crowd delivers atmosphere....

Maybe the play off semi not so much as the crowds are only a "bit better" than the normal meetings, but at least the meeting has some consequence...

One league would have seen me attend a fair few times, home and away, given the novelty factor..

I will still get plenty of Speedway though as planning a few trips to Poland, and some other GP's..

Sport without jeopardy or consequence isn't really sport, but more of a pastime...

Promotion and relegation provides jeopardy and consequence . Apparently though it dosent work. The way it’s run now however …..

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9 hours ago, mikebv said:

They have some jeopardy, and you feel that you are at least attending a "proper sporting event" given the size of the crowd delivers atmosphere....

Maybe the play off semi not so much as the crowds are only a "bit better" than the normal meetings, but at least the meeting has some consequence...

One league would have seen me attend a fair few times, home and away, given the novelty factor..

I will still get plenty of Speedway though as planning a few trips to Poland, and some other GP's..

Sport without jeopardy or consequence isn't really sport, but more of a pastime...

So it’s the jeopardy and not the participants that is the draw. For PCMT see BV junior championship (when it ran) for play offs see NDL play offs (when they ran) for GPs see the British Junior Championship which we also run two rounds. All have jeopardy. 

Doesn’t the visit of Edinburgh, Scunthorpe or Middlesbrough provide any kind of novelty?

I don’t believe you’d attend these fixtures as they don’t have the top stars. They are no doubt a draw.

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58 minutes ago, Phannan said:

Promotion and relegation provides jeopardy and consequence . Apparently though it dosent work. The way it’s run now however …..

A perfect opportunity to do a 14 team league to "whatever" standard, (as long as it can bring 14 competitive teams together)...

And, if it doesn't work, and there is too mcuh of disparate difference between the top and bottom,  simply run 2027 with the top seven being "Div 1" in 2027 and the bottom seven being "Div 2"..

 

If 

 

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13 minutes ago, ouch said:

So it’s the jeopardy and not the participants that is the draw. For PCMT see BV junior championship (when it ran) for play offs see NDL play offs (when they ran) for GPs see the British Junior Championship which we also run two rounds. All have jeopardy. 

Doesn’t the visit of Edinburgh, Scunthorpe or Middlesbrough provide any kind of novelty?

I don’t believe you’d attend these fixtures as they don’t have the top stars. They are no doubt a draw.

The Junior Championships and NDL meetings are akin to me paying to watch the United U23 Academy...

And. I wouldn't do that...

The NDL play offs would barely get 500 there, so no "big match" feel that at least you get (sometimes) with the top league play offs..

Edit. I have attended several Youth Cup finals at Old Trafford down the years with over 30,000 others each time, paying a minimal entrance fee..

The "Big Match Atmosphere* that such a crowd (which was expected to be "big"), got me there..

Every sporting occasion should aspire to be an "event" that encourages repeat visits...

As has been mentioned on other threads, other minority sports seem to do more than OK in their UK domestic leagues without "World Class" talent...

Edited by mikebv
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