Ipswich Witches 2026

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Its not all down to the riders though. Promotors demand riders turn up with 2 x well maintained bikes. The turnaround time of fixtures and fragility of a modern bike compared a more durable older machine dictates that a third bike/spare is a practical option.

Then theres milage picking Jason Edwards out as a standard british double upper (no offence meant) Jason has a 500 mile round trip to home meetings at Redcar. Multiply that by 10-15 depending on cup runs etc, then double it for away fixtures rough estimate 30k miles a year......who would be willing to put that on their own vehicle each year for no sensible offset against the depreciation

In 2003 I did nearly 80 meetings with an average round trip of 400 miles per meeting, my van which I paid for was doing around 60-80k miles a year riding sometimes 4 times per week and washed and prepped my own bikes,,worked part time mechanic for Adam skornicki and sometimes washed Joe screens bikes and worked as a full time courier often delivering on way to meetings and sometimes after meetings and I did it for peanuts so forgive me if I have little sympathy for the likes of Jason Edward’s ,they don’t know they are born  

Edited 4 hours ago by THE DEAN MACHINE

[FAST GATER]

19 minutes ago, Derrickn said:

That's a big problem.I know it's a long time ago,but when Halifax re-opened,only one rider,Dave Younghusband,lived more than 10 miles away from Halifax,so apart from minimum travelling for home meetings,it really felt like a home team you were supporting.

Traveling has always been a big demand on riders ,in the 70's we came back from Workington  to Chester on a Friday night( after midnight ) in work Saturday till lunch time .Then we washed and prepared two bikes in the afternoon  ready for Eastborne the next day  .The rider did all the driving towing a two bike trailer and scored a paid max Friday and I think 13 from five on Sunday and he was  back at work Monday morning as a panel beater .

He was one of the NL all time greats IMO as well 

Edited 4 hours ago by FAST GATER

[FAST GATER]

3 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

In 2003 I did nearly 80 meetings with an average round trip of 400 miles per meeting, my van which I paid for was doing around 60-80k miles a year riding sometimes 4 times per week and washed and prepped my own bikes,,worked part time mechanic for Adam skornicki and worked as a full time courier often delivering on way to meetings and sometimes after meetings and I did it for peanuts so forgive me if I have little sympathy for the likes of Jason Edward’s ,don’t know they are born  

A "proper s/way rider   I witnessed many riders like yourself  in 70's and 80's  the bedrock of the sport now sadly long gone .

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

3 minutes ago, FAST GATER said:

A "proper s/way rider

Well I wouldn’t go that far 😂 I had a go 

[mikebv]

17 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

In 2003 I did nearly 80 meetings with an average round trip of 400 miles per meeting, my van which I paid for was doing around 60-80k miles a year riding sometimes 4 times per week and washed and prepped my own bikes,,worked part time mechanic for Adam skornicki and sometimes washed Joe screens bikes and worked as a full time courier often delivering on way to meetings and sometimes after meetings and I did it for peanuts so forgive me if I have little sympathy for the likes of Jason Edward’s ,they don’t know they are born  

A baffling comment that Matt Ford made in his SS interview was that Poland could pay riders half of what they do and the riders would still be very well paid....

Thus, by paying riders less it would reduce the gap between the UK salary and Poland's...

Therefore, making the UK salary more attractive to some riders...

Maybe just paying riders what you can afford to pay them, is the more simpler idea? 

And, if they don't want to ride for that money, ask someone else who will....

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

6 minutes ago, mikebv said:

A baffling comment that Matt Ford made in his SS interview was that Poland could pay riders half of what they do and the riders would still be very well paid....

Thus, by paying riders less it would reduce the gap between the UK salary and Poland's...

Therefore, making the UK salary more attractive to some riders...

Maybe just paying riders what you can afford to pay them, is the more simpler idea? 

And, if they don't want to ride for that money, ask someone else who will....

I once asked Mike Bowden at Plymouth why he booked me for so many meetings as I lived over 200 miles away, he said because 1 you always do well here and 2 when I phone you you never ask how much am I getting paid 

Edited 4 hours ago by THE DEAN MACHINE

[ouch]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

Which makes the lack of "one league", due to the level of riders it would need, even more baffling...

There won't be any other answer than to use NDL second strings, and even reserves, to fill spaces in just a few years, so why wait?

At least, starting this season, give these riders plenty of rides...

EVERY meeting should have some NDL level races for those who are not tier two ready currently...

Instead we have...

??????????

As a joined up development programme...

The only silver lining to all this is it’s looking more likely that I can achieve my childhood dream of representing The Aces on track. I might not be at Dans level but who cares, right?

[mikebv]

11 minutes ago, ouch said:

The only silver lining to all this is it’s looking more likely that I can achieve my childhood dream of representing The Aces on track. I might not be at Dans level but who cares, right?

Not at Dan's level yet!!!

Is what you mean...

Who knows though....

Keep practicing and you never know....

Edit. I've just told my mate that Ouch was taking up Speedway and that he doesn't think he will be as good as Dan..

He said "Who the eff are Ouch and Dan, and what the eff is Speedway?"..

See. Already you are at Dan's level...

Edited 3 hours ago by mikebv

[Fromafar]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

A baffling comment that Matt Ford made in his SS interview was that Poland could pay riders half of what they do and the riders would still be very well paid....

Thus, by paying riders less it would reduce the gap between the UK salary and Poland's...

Therefore, making the UK salary more attractive to some riders...

Maybe just paying riders what you can afford to pay them, is the more simpler idea? 

And, if they don't want to ride for that money, ask someone else who will....

That seems to sensible for Speedway.

[Roger Jacobs]

2 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I once asked Mike Bowden at Plymouth why he booked me for so many meetings as I lived over 200 miles away, he said because 1 you always do well here and 2 when I phone you you never ask how much am I getting paid 

John Louis once told me that he gave up putting on second half "junior" races, because he was fed up with making phone calls, and the first questions was: "How much do you pay?" ...

JL was 28 when he started riding speedway, and spent his first efforts just turning up and asking if he could get a ride, and still riding for nothing when he was asked back.

 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

A baffling comment that Matt Ford made in his SS interview was that Poland could pay riders half of what they do and the riders would still be very well paid....

Thus, by paying riders less it would reduce the gap between the UK salary and Poland's...

Therefore, making the UK salary more attractive to some riders...

Maybe just paying riders what you can afford to pay them, is the more simpler idea? 

And, if they don't want to ride for that money, ask someone else who will....

Another interesting bit in the star about wages was Poland are trying to introduce a wage cap and if it gets in as an example Jason Doyle’s deal would of been deemed illegal along with a few others like vaculik , Thompsen and pawlicki’s and half of tarnow team

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 minute ago, Roger Jacobs said:

John Louis once told me that he gave up putting on second half "junior" races, because he was fed up with making phone calls, and the first questions was: "How much do you pay?" ...

JL was 28 when he started riding speedway, and spent his first efforts just turning up and asking if he could get a ride, and still riding for nothing when he was asked back.

 

I suppose I could of asked for more money but I didn’t really care, I just wanted to race speedway, the privilege of being part of a team was for me what speedway was all about, it always made me more determined to beat whoever it was if I knew they were on a good screw from their team, I think I was one of the lowest paid riders ever to race for 21 years but not only did I achieve my lifetime ambition I also did alright for myself so looking back what else could I ask for in life 

[Biffa]

36 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I suppose I could of asked for more money but I didn’t really care, I just wanted to race speedway, the privilege of being part of a team was for me what speedway was all about, it always made me more determined to beat whoever it was if I knew they were on a good screw from their team, I think I was one of the lowest paid riders ever to race for 21 years but not only did I achieve my lifetime ambition I also did alright for myself so looking back what else could I ask for in life 

And in that statement lies most of today’s problems. The youth know the price of everything & the value of nothing. Old school vision by myself maybe, or is it just a generation thing and they will be saying it in 20+years time 🤷‍♂️

[Kieran22222]

I am not sure the riders pay is the reason for the stadiums closing and there being no teams left. Most were kicked out because they weren't worth having there. Teams should have been smarter with their money about bought land/stadiums in the early sky years when they had money to burn. I still also think it should I have to one team per rider across all leagues (not just UK, but overall) and then introduced some continental meetings. This would have allowed all teams to race domestically on the weekends and allowed more room for TV deals and midweek racing against foreign clubs which would prevent against racing the same teams all the time.

[BluPanther]

2 minutes ago, Kieran22222 said:

I am not sure the riders pay is the reason for the stadiums closing and there being no teams left. Most were kicked out because they weren't worth having there. Teams should have been smarter with their money about bought land/stadiums in the early sky years when they had money to burn. I still also think it should I have to one team per rider across all leagues (not just UK, but overall) and then introduced some continental meetings. This would have allowed all teams to race domestically on the weekends and allowed more room for TV deals and midweek racing against foreign clubs which would prevent against racing the same teams all the time.

Many promoters from the 70's onwards made a lot of money from speedway. Very few, if any, put some of that money into the future of their clubs or British speedway in general...

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

38 minutes ago, Kieran22222 said:

I am not sure the riders pay is the reason for the stadiums closing and there being no teams left. Most were kicked out because they weren't worth having there. Teams should have been smarter with their money about bought land/stadiums in the early sky years when they had money to burn. I still also think it should I have to one team per rider across all leagues (not just UK, but overall) and then introduced some continental meetings. This would have allowed all teams to race domestically on the weekends and allowed more room for TV deals and midweek racing against foreign clubs which would prevent against racing the same teams all the time.

Well it certainly had a lot of sway in Birminghams plight, they were paying more than they should of to riders and obviously hindsight is a great thing but after the season’s performances it turned out they were paying way more, there were times last season when some riders should of been paying the crowd to watch them 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

51 minutes ago, Biffa said:

And in that statement lies most of today’s problems. The youth know the price of everything & the value of nothing. Old school vision by myself maybe, or is it just a generation thing and they will be saying it in 20+years time 🤷‍♂️

It is a generational thing but doesn’t make your observations wrong 

[Fromafar]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I suppose I could of asked for more money but I didn’t really care, I just wanted to race speedway, the privilege of being part of a team was for me what speedway was all about, it always made me more determined to beat whoever it was if I knew they were on a good screw from their team, I think I was one of the lowest paid riders ever to race for 21 years but not only did I achieve my lifetime ambition I also did alright for myself so looking back what else could I ask for in life 

You certainly gave 100% for Berwick,that’s all most fans wanted in them days.Nowadays 1 bad meeting and they want changes.

[M.D]

6 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Well it certainly had a lot of sway in Birminghams plight, they were paying more than they should of to riders and obviously hindsight is a great thing but after the season’s performances it turned out they were paying way more, there were times last season when some riders should of been paying the crowd to watch them 

It was a massive issue under Ian Jordan at Eastbourne, I spoke with Chris Louis and he said Jordan was paying Richard Lawson more than he was at Ipswich, not that Jordan paid RL in full at the end..

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

You certainly gave 100% for Berwick,that’s all most fans wanted in them days.Nowadays 1 bad meeting and they want changes.

I loved it a Berwick, the fans made me feel like it was my home and it felt like a big family, it was 550mile round trip for home meetings but worth every mile and days I’ll never forget