Ipswich Witches 2026

[Aries]

“There are lots of areas where we will be stronger together than we would be on our own. I'm quite excited and enthused about the benefits that this strategic partnership can bring."

One obvious potential area for cooperation could be with riders. Could Wroclaw send the likes of 2021 World Champion Artem Laguta, Brady Kurtz or Dan Bewley to Foxhall? Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon might have something to say about the latter two options and Laguta is not known for being a fan of the tight and technical Ipswich track.

But Coleman hopes the strategic partnership, as he calls it, could open some doors for the Witches in terms of attracting top talent to Foxhall.

Asked if Wroclaw may have a role in team-building, Coleman replied: "That has already been discussed. Obviously, these things have to work for both parties and the riders we are talking about. But I feel that Wroclaw will be very helpful and involved in how we build our squad for 2027.

"Ultimately, we were very late with team-building after I was able to buy the club for this year, so we were on the back foot with how we built the squad

"I'm really pleased and proud of how we were able to build the team given the lateness of everything coming together. But I want to be in the opposite camp for 2027. I want to be building a squad early.”

Just a snippet from today’s Star. First three pages dedicated to Wroclaw buying 30% of the Witches. Well worth a read not just for Ipswich fans either.

Edited 3 hours ago by Aries

[Steve Irving]

17 hours ago, TTT said:

True.

I just hope the announcement is worth the hype.

I’d say it definitely was personally.

He’s mentioned “multi contracts” between the two clubs more than once and better access to the rider market. So basically when you sign for Wroclaw, you also sign for Ipswich in the British League.

They can say no of course, but then they’ll run the risk of waking up with a horses head in their bed.

[ShanoXtra]

People also need to pay attention to what Me Rusko said, who it anyone doesn’t know, if a very rich man. When he speaks and tells the world that British speedway needs to be stronger then people must listen, he is clever individual and thinks outside of just his own club, he looks at where the future of speedway is and how to make is sustainable. When you then add that with the fact Swedish speedway is on the decline, like Richard said from 200 to 70, it really opens your eyes about not just opportunity for British speedway but the necessity to make this work for the global scale of speedway.  In 5 years time maybe we will have promotion and revelation in our leagues, a lot to do before hand to build British speedway financially to make this viable but with sponsors and TV deals it could force the likes of Poole and Glasgow to want that dangling carrot of the premiership finally. Like Richard said, at the moment everyone is a bit too comfortable with how things are and nobody really wants to make drastic changes, but that is what will be required.

[ouch]

1 hour ago, Aries said:

“There are lots of areas where we will be stronger together than we would be on our own. I'm quite excited and enthused about the benefits that this strategic partnership can bring."

One obvious potential area for cooperation could be with riders. Could Wroclaw send the likes of 2021 World Champion Artem Laguta, Brady Kurtz or Dan Bewley to Foxhall? Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon might have something to say about the latter two options and Laguta is not known for being a fan of the tight and technical Ipswich track.

But Coleman hopes the strategic partnership, as he calls it, could open some doors for the Witches in terms of attracting top talent to Foxhall.

Asked if Wroclaw may have a role in team-building, Coleman replied: "That has already been discussed. Obviously, these things have to work for both parties and the riders we are talking about. But I feel that Wroclaw will be very helpful and involved in how we build our squad for 2027.

"Ultimately, we were very late with team-building after I was able to buy the club for this year, so we were on the back foot with how we built the squad

"I'm really pleased and proud of how we were able to build the team given the lateness of everything coming together. But I want to be in the opposite camp for 2027. I want to be building a squad early.”

Just a snippet from today’s Star. First three pages dedicated to Wroclaw buying 30% of the Witches. Well worth a read not just for Ipswich fans either.

 

It absolutely should not be about poaching other clubs riders but more about bringing on your own. You need to swap out the previous mindset of signing off the peg big hitters or repeating the Tom situation between you and Birmingham (remember them).
It’s well known that Belle Vue prefer to nurture and bring on riders for the good of all and I would hope Colman follows our lead on this too, he appears to have come on board with many of our initiatives. The age of teams is another thing he is addressing and I would hope he will assist in getting the NDL back to where it was and we can look forward to Ipswich v Colts fixtures. Maybe then we will no longer be the Belle Vue babes as the age of all other teams come down.

Fingers crossed things progress and don’t get snuffed out by the cartel. 

[YeOldPitGate]

11 hours ago, mikebv said:

The sport would be mad to allow those two to stay together...

The real top talent, especially given so few can be arsed riding over here, needs to be shared around....

Either that...

Or no one gets a GP rider/Emil and Laguta..

But you know Laguta is another one who doesn't fancy it half the time in the UK Mike.

[YeOldPitGate]

10 hours ago, GeneralMelchett said:

absolutely love the Donc!

Who's Donc ? Jeremy Doncaster ?

[YeOldPitGate]

This all sounds positive and the kind of path the sport in the UK desperately needs , I'm not taking the p-ss here but was there any mention of if Harry and co have actually achieved anything yet ?

[mikebv]

I suggested this the other week on the Sheffield v Northampton thread..

Now, "maybe" Richard was already in talks with Wroclaw, and "maybe" he wasn't....

(Taps nose knowingly and winks)...

 

The size of the sport in the UK makes it perfect for it to be a feeder league to Poland...

I would go as far as to say that UK clubs should form links with them...

The BSB deliver a great product using some old heads, some young UK riders, and some young riders from Europe, Japan, and Australasia who are not ready for the higher echelons..

They ensure that the talent they "lose" to MotoGp and WSB as the best riders, organically, move through the levels, get replaced by the next riders in line, due to running several lower classes including youth racing...

They don't rely on other competitions to bale them out, nor allow other competitions to impact their fixture schedule...

In short. They know their place and cloth is cut accordingly..

The result is a strong competitive format...

Given the amount of young Poles who ride Speedway there will be a surplus of reasonable talent that cannot get team places, therefore, the UK should enable them to ride over here as part of their development..

In any business, why wouldn't a smaller entity try and forge great relations with the biggest business in their industry?...

UK Speedway is now at a point where it needs significant help, and a conveyer belt of riders from the No1 Speedway nation on earth would certainly help them..

And, at the same time, help Poland with their overall rider development...

 

 

[castrolargh]

This could be fantastic news for british speedway so long as the small minded bspl dont bring in new rules to scupper it such as " no young riders from Poland allowed to race in the uk"  or something equally ridiculous. Rather than other clubs panicking about their top riders being sent elsewhere, maybe part of the plan is to send young poles over to gain experience on varying tracks, and in return give more young brits better opportunities abroad as well.With the new rules set to come in next season in poland regarding the number of other clubs their squad members can ride for, surely this must favour British clubs? Well, Ipswich so far but this could just be what British speedway needs

[szkocjasid]

11 hours ago, mikebv said:

The sport would be mad to allow those two to stay together...

The real top talent, especially given so few can be arsed riding over here, needs to be shared around....

Either that...

Or no one gets a GP rider/Emil and Laguta..

 

11 hours ago, mikebv said:

Or no-one had one if not enough to go around ..

Heats 13 and 15 deliver a massive imbalance depending on your one and five...

How could that ever work? Only 5 GP standard riders willing to ride in Britain so you ban them all?

[ouch]

31 minutes ago, castrolargh said:

This could be fantastic news for british speedway so long as the small minded bspl dont bring in new rules to scupper it such as " no young riders from Poland allowed to race in the uk"  or something equally ridiculous. Rather than other clubs panicking about their top riders being sent elsewhere, maybe part of the plan is to send young poles over to gain experience on varying tracks, and in return give more young brits better opportunities abroad as well.With the new rules set to come in next season in poland regarding the number of other clubs their squad members can ride for, surely this must favour British clubs? Well, Ipswich so far but this could just be what British speedway needs

We had a similar tie up with Unia Tarnow about 10 years ago and it saw us use several Polish lads throughout the campaign. The Aces also took part in training days at their track plus other commercial & sporting initiatives. A first for British Speedway though different to this latest one with the 30% financial stake. 

[Aries]

1 hour ago, ouch said:

 

 

It absolutely should not be about poaching other clubs riders but more about bringing on your own. You need to swap out the previous mindset of signing off the peg big hitters or repeating the Tom situation between you and Birmingham (remember them).
It’s well known that Belle Vue prefer to nurture and bring on riders for the good of all and I would hope Colman follows our lead on this too, he appears to have come on board with many of our initiatives. The age of teams is another thing he is addressing and I would hope he will assist in getting the NDL back to where it was and we can look forward to Ipswich v Colts fixtures. Maybe then we will no longer be the Belle Vue babes as the age of all other teams come down.

Fingers crossed things progress and don’t get snuffed out by the cartel. 

I do indeed remember them. But I’ll look at it another way to you. We tried to help Tom in the next step of his career to help him progress. Learning from Doyle and Emil and further his speedway education riding in a successful team, giving him a Champions medal in front of a healthy crowd. Instead of leaving him to fester at a club that just wasnt supported, riding in front of one man and his dog at a track that had no future. 
 

You can look at things in different ways, depending on your agenda. 

[Aries]

1 hour ago, YeOldPitGate said:

But you know Laguta is another one who doesn't fancy it half the time in the UK Mike.

His attitude at Foxhall was quite telling. Polar opposite to Sayfutdinov who obliterated the Foxhall track record pretty quickly. All riders are different and have different mentalities. It wasn’t just Foxhall where Laguta’s “effort” was called in to question either, there were others. 

[ShanoXtra]

1 hour ago, YeOldPitGate said:

This all sounds positive and the kind of path the sport in the UK desperately needs , I'm not taking the p-ss here but was there any mention of if Harry and co have actually achieved anything yet ?

Speedway Futures were mentioned 😂

@Ouch it was mentioned also about Ipswich running a NDL team in the near future.

Edited 51 minutes ago by ShanoXtra
.

[Aries]

49 minutes ago, castrolargh said:

This could be fantastic news for british speedway so long as the small minded bspl dont bring in new rules to scupper it such as " no young riders from Poland allowed to race in the uk"  or something equally ridiculous. Rather than other clubs panicking about their top riders being sent elsewhere, maybe part of the plan is to send young poles over to gain experience on varying tracks, and in return give more young brits better opportunities abroad as well.With the new rules set to come in next season in poland regarding the number of other clubs their squad members can ride for, surely this must favour British clubs? Well, Ipswich so far but this could just be what British speedway needs

This was also touched on in the Ipswich/Wroclaw piece in this weeks Speedway Star. It’s a good read

[WookieboyDon]

1 hour ago, ouch said:

 

 

It absolutely should not be about poaching other clubs riders but more about bringing on your own. You need to swap out the previous mindset of signing off the peg big hitters or repeating the Tom situation between you and Birmingham (remember them).
It’s well known that Belle Vue prefer to nurture and bring on riders for the good of all and I would hope Colman follows our lead on this too, he appears to have come on board with many of our initiatives. The age of teams is another thing he is addressing and I would hope he will assist in getting the NDL back to where it was and we can look forward to Ipswich v Colts fixtures. Maybe then we will no longer be the Belle Vue babes as the age of all other teams come down.

Fingers crossed things progress and don’t get snuffed out by the cartel. 

I agree. But the Polish cartel has bigger teeth...

[Steve Irving]

26 minutes ago, Aries said:

I do indeed remember them. But I’ll look at it another way to you. We tried to help Tom in the next step of his career to help him progress. Learning from Doyle and Emil and further his speedway education riding in a successful team, giving him a Champions medal in front of a healthy crowd. Instead of leaving him to fester at a club that just wasnt supported, riding in front of one man and his dog at a track that had no future. 
 

You can look at things in different ways, depending on your agenda. 

That is exactly the way he would have spun it if Brennan went back to Belle Vue from Birmingham instead of going to Ipswich and everyone knows it. The bloke is a troll. 
 

Ignore him. 

[TTT]

2 hours ago, Steve Irving said:

I’d say it definitely was personally.

He’s mentioned “multi contracts” between the two clubs more than once and better access to the rider market. So basically when you sign for Wroclaw, you also sign for Ipswich in the British League.

They can say no of course, but then they’ll run the risk of waking up with a horses head in their bed.

100% was worth the wait, Hyped up announcements from British Clubs are normally always a let down but Mayfield have well and truly delivered.

I was very downbeat on Monday night after the battering at Belle Vue but last night's announcement has restored my full confidence that 2027 will be much much different, Light at the end of the tunnel as the saying goes.

Riders will always do what the Polish Club tells them to do (We all know that) hence why certain Belle Vue fans are rattled because Kurtz and Bewley are Wroclaw riders.

Ipswich need a No.1 in 2027 and with Wroclaw buying 30% of the Witches and a lack of No.1's on these shores, The target will surely be Dan Bewley considering Mark Lemon isn't likely to let Kurtz go for anyone other than Zmarzlik.

Bewley dual contract is an odds on shot in betting terms imo.