Arch Stanton

Not sure on the reasoning TTT, dunno if clubs were told they had a bye or whether they wanted fewer meetings and requested it, but personally I’d rather have the extra meeting to go and watch. Not enough meetings as it is for me.

https://ipswichwitches.co/2024-signing-dan-thompson/ Dan Thompson confirmed.

Looks very good to me.

Jenkins alluded to his average going up that meant he wasn’t eligible for the Rising Star anymore. His average is 4.21 so I’m guessing the threshold is 4.00? Rowe is 3.76

We thought that last year with Brennan so who knows how the rules are interpreted this year..

https://ipswichwitches.co/2024-signing-jordan-jenkins/ Jenkins confirmed.

Fricke.

I’m not falling in to any trap, Daniel, it’s just common sense. There isn’t a single Kings Lynn supporter including you if you’re honest, that would pick MPT over either Harris or Lawson. You just wouldn’t. You’re relying on MPT to put a point and a half on his average to match the two mentioned, and that’s if they both stand still average wise! Its irrelevant anyway as it seems both were targeted but decided to move elsewhere so the choice wasn’t there.

Then that’s just unlucky unfortunately and even more frustrating! Stick either of the two mentioned in that line up and it would have looked tasty. Fine margins. Still has potential though. If Wotsit does similar to what Tenko did this year then it could be in the mix. Gonna be even more impossible to predict the play of four this time. Luck will play a huge part.

Disagree. If the points are there, use them. You can still have average improvers in your team, but the fact is if you’d been a little more ambitious and pushed the boat that little further, you could have had Harris or Richard Lawson instead of MPT. You can’t tell me neither of those two wouldn’t have made this team even stronger by using the available points. Yes I know they’ve agreed deals elsewhere and they may not have even been an option, but on the other hand they may have been if you’d been quicker off the mark. The team looks ok and has potential, but it could and probably should, have been better. If I were a Lynn fan this would have left me frustrated. Slight missed opportunity for me.

https://ipswichwitches.co/2024-signing-emil-sayfutdinov/ Emil confirmed.

Jenkins I think is at Foxhall. We’ll soon know in the next day or two.

No, 3.00 minimum in the Premiership.

Same. An excellent number 1, and then very solid all the way through including a very strong reserve. Looks well balanced and strong.

Look through all the prediction threads before the start of every season and you’ll note that the vast majority of us haven’t got a clue some of my predictions in particular are horrendous!

Much better thank you

Either that or the reverse for others. Injuries to crucial riders for the more fancied teams or team’s season goes down the pan due to failed blood tests! All sorts of things can happen in this sport, nothing is certain.

It will, but as a supporter that won’t stop there. The dissection of how and why it was lost will rumble on. Certainly will for me anyway until we exorcise that ghost and actually win it! We had Emil on an assessed 8.00 who put over two points on his average, and yet we failed to take advantage because of poor or non decisions by Chris Louis. It’s all well and good having a sly dig at Sheffield calling them the “pick n mix” Tigers and proudly beating his chest that we “finished with the same seven as press day”, but who has the Premiership trophy in the cabinet and who doesn’t? Ask any supporter if they’d rather have the “we were loyal to our riders” trophy or the actual Premiership trophy and I’m pretty sure what 99% of them would say. Great for the riders themselves, someone mentioned that Musielak contacted Louis for a team place and that doesn’t surprise me. I’d bet my last Rolo that Louis had more riders asking for a team place this year than any other promoter. He’ll be a riders wet dream because they’ll know like Riss this year, that if they run in to problems or poor form, they’ll be supported and not binned off like at other clubs. But again, do you want to win or not? If you do, you have to be more ruthless. Poole have made harsh and unpopular decisions for donkeys years, dropping riders that didn’t deserve to be to make multiple changes that strengthened their overall team, but look at their trophy cabinet! Winners. Some clubs don’t have much of a budget so struggle to compete, Louis doesn’t have that excuse either. Even when we dropped a division we had one of, if not THE biggest budgets in the Championship, and we couldn’t win a title in that division either. Only one team can win obviously and no team has a god given right to win, but he has to get this monkey off his back sooner rather than later because we haven’t won a league title under his watch well over a decade after he took over from Tiger despite being lucky enough to have a budget to help him. Winning the Cup was great, but that’s the only (major) trophy he’s won. It’s a poor record. Some will say it’s not all about winning and it’s the racing that counts, but I’ve never been one of those. It’s Sport, it’s about winning and losing. I’ve heard some people say their team lost but they walked away happy because it was a good meeting. I’ve never understood that either. I’ve NEVER walked out of Foxhall on the back of a defeat happy regardless of how decent the meeting was! That’s the last I’ll say on 2023 on to next year and try again!

I agree and I’ve said this myself on here a couple of pages back. But, we didn’t help ourselves. We’d have made the play offs regardless if the right decisions were made. Very unlucky to lose Jack Thomas obviously, no doubt he’d have been one of the strongest rising stars. But we decided to replace him with Joe Thompson which was a baffling decision as there were far stronger rising stars sitting there waiting to be picked. A lot has been made of the loyalty sticking with Riss through his problems also. That’s all very commendable, but it should have cost us a play off place. If we had the 6 point Erik Riss we thought we’d signed, we were in the plays off regardless of others. Those two decisions or non decisions, probably still cost us in the end!

If we’ve built the side as we seemingly have leaving only 4.16, then we’re not spoiled for choice. I agree Barker wouldn’t automatically be an instant pick if the pool of riders available at that average were larger. But we’re realistically only looking at Barker, Kye Thomson, Hume and Jenkins that fits so on that basis Barker would be a clear favourite of that bunch for me. I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like him. I’ve seen him leg it from one end of the pits to the other to help a team mate make last second changes to their bikes. I like that. I also think that at this moment, he’s a better rider than all those others mentioned. If Rew struggles again, I think Barker would make a better fist of things at number 2 in the main body than the others. Immaterial anyway really as it seems he’s in at Birmingham. Agree on Dan Thompson. Poor ol Joe struggled badly and him along with Riss’ problems were almost certainly the reason we lost most of the meetings we did. Dan’s paid 13 at Leicester that was a big factor in our win there was probably the catalyst to the start of our excellent end of season form. Losing him towards the end of the season was another kick in the balls. We ended up losing the title by 4 points, with Joe coming back in and scoring a single point. The way Dan was riding, that could have made all the difference. He’s still only 19 as well and has a couple of years on the likes of Edwards and Gilkes and has already posted better numbers than both in the Premiership last season. Will be one of the stronger Rising Stars.

Completely disagree with this one. We nearly didn’t and arguably shouldn’t have made the play offs this year because we lost three? Meetings at home. I’m not convinced this Pole will get around Foxhall especially to start with, and we’d be even more vulnerable at Foxhall again at least to begin with. I’d also have concerns about how long he’d stick around for. Whatever the reasons were this year be it his Polish club, himself, a combination of both or as some suggested, a visa issue, bottom line is he disappeared after a couple of meetings. Let’s see if he sees the season out and how reliable he is.

Those links haven’t worked for me properly for a while Badge. Whenever I used to copy the links and paste them here, they always turned out like yours, the full page with Pictures etc. now all they do is display in written text form. No idea what changed

Not a huge pool of riders to choose from on 4.16 or below. You’re looking at Ben Barker, Jenkins, Kyle Thomson or Hume. Anyone new worth bringing over will be assessed 5 pointers not 4.00 pointers. Trying to find an assessed 4.00 point rider with little to no experience in any top league is too risky, Jenkins would be a far better bet. Personally Barker would have been my first choice being totally honest, good team man and will chip in with decent points at either 2 or 6 but seems Birmingham bound. Jenkins definitely the choice after that for me. Jenkins and Thompson (fully expect Rew to jump out of the reserve berth quickly) are more than a match for the two lads at Sheffield IMO.

https://ipswichwitches.co/2024-signing-danny-king/ King confirmed.

He wouldn’t be there long. Will almost certainly swap with Rew after the first change of averages. With 4.16 left and Barker off to Birmingham, we’re left with three choices that I can see. Jenkins, Hume or Kyle Thomson. Jenkins would be my pick personally.