Arch Stanton

let’s hope we get some decent weather in the days leading up to Good Friday Taps! Really looking forward to it I’ve missed the Good Friday fixtures.

Tapes up a week tomorrow so time to start a meeting thread! A few things to look out for from a Witches point of view. How will Hartel start, how will Covatti and Hume return after their near season long injuries, and a chance to look at the track after the final tweaks were completed. Bit concerned that it looks like only a couple of the lads will have rode competitive laps, whilst the Lakeside boys will all have had two meetings in the Lee Richardson memorial, and a fixture against Peterborough. Will that give Lakeside the edge? With such a small group you lose a home fixture you’re probably out!

But they’ve already said they tried to arrange a Challenge with a Premiership side. My point is why stop at a Premiership side? If they wanted to give the riders a Challenge meeting before the real stuff they could have arranged something surely? As it turns out maybe it wouldn’t have happened anyway if the track work wasn’t completed who knows. The official line last week on press day was that there would be no practice due to the weather, not that the track work hasn’t been completed.

Have they not finished it yet?

No idea why they haven’t arranged a challenge for Thursday. Ok the weather has been poor of late but nobody knew that would be the case when the fixtures were sorted. CL admitted he tried to arrange a meeting with a Premiership team but none could agree. Did it have to be a Premiership team? Why not do similar to what Lakeside have done and started with the Billy Sanders memorial with a field including the 7 Witches? would have at least given them semi competitive laps before the real stuff starts Good Friday. Not exactly overloaded with fixtures this year either compared to previous years so it’s a strange decision.

Oh dear..

Agree. When you see the team written down like that it looks strong all over. As ever, the success or lack of will depend on keeping everyone fit and having a bit more luck than we had last year! If we can, then we stand as good a chance as any of winnng the title IMO. Genuinely wouldn’t swap our septet for any other.

Crikey how tall is the German lad!!

Quite fancy Scunny myself. Manzarez, and then Nielsen at reserve could be huge for them

Good luck to the Diamonds in their quest to complete the team. Fingers crossed they can pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat and look competitive at the very least.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/0/2646057 Tuesday and Wednesday looks dry so far. Unless the track isn’t ready? Last update we had was that the track work wasn’t completed because of the poor weather and we’ve heard nothing since..

So press and practice this Wednesday as well as the meet the riders evening. Fingers crossed for some dry weather so the lads can get some decent laps under their belts.

https://ipswichwitches.co/wayne-bavin-presenter-foxhall/

Agreed. Kevin Long is a big loss no doubt about it.

So Wayne Bavin on the mic it is. Hope he does well. P.S Hope you don’t mind me linking your tweet Mr Long

At first glance I thought nah not for me. But looking again I’m not so sure! Always so difficult to get a result at Edinburgh and I expect that to continue. Honestly haven’t a clue where to place them in the table. Ruml looks an exciting signing though I think he’ll be a hit.

Baracus?

Good to read Guy Nicholls is sponsoring Cam this year and has already brought him a brand new engine with another on the way. That has to be a massive boost to him and will help him continue the superb progress we saw last year.

Any ideas?

Disagree personally. Hartel is a talented lad and was highly sought after when he burst on the scene as a 16 year old a couple of years back. He comes with a good pedigree at youth level and he reportedly has a very good set up and comes with top equipment which is half the battle. Now I could be vaulted in a month or two and look silly as he could always flop badly, but as it stands right now, I’d rather gamble on him than gamble on Nathan Greaves in the 1-5. We’ll soon find out.. edited to say I loved Greaves by the way. 100% trier who gave us a big boost at reserve last year after the blow of losing Hume.

Nicholls on the face of it is actually a poor signing. It’s not a question of IF he’ll drop his starting average, it’s a question of how much. I’d say around a point minimum. But having said that, I’m pretty sure Ged has a plan and there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Nicholls won’t be the only one to drop his average so I’m fully expecting a Kennett or another heat leader to replace a lower end rider after the first set of averages. Peterborough will then look a much better outfit and will challenge IMO. Will be interesting to see how much ground they’ll have to make up and if there’s time to do it with fewer fixtures. I wouldn’t rule them out though and like I’ve said before, trophies are handed out in October not March.

Looking forward to watching the youngsters with particular interest in Drew Kemp and Jordan Jenkins. Seen them do plenty of Foxhall laps already but not competitive racing so very much looking forward to seeing them.

Press and practice on the same day you reckon Badge?