ZODIAK

Eh? You can't just ignore Manzares' R/R rides and take the totals of Ipswich' top FOUR against the Somerset top five and call it a top 5 domination 42-29. It was 42-36 in Somersets favour. These are of course, 7 man teams these days not five man teams and the reserves points do actually count towards a teams meeting total.

So the group is now in our hands. Beat Rye and Plymouth next week and we top the group regardless of what Peterborough do at Somerset. If Rye take a point at Foxhall on Thursday, we can still top the group but will need to take the full 4 points at Plymouth next Friday. Rye in theory also have the group in their hands as a win at Foxhall will see them top the group. We must be favourites though at this stage.

Yes he should and that decision or lack of, could have cost Ipswich the victory. Neither Hawkins or Heeps were having particularly good meetings whilst Covatti was obviously a man on form. When you have a rider at reserve racking up the points and in fine fettle, you take advantage of that and give him the maximum rides possible. For whatever reason, that didn't happen. Maybe the new team manager had his reasons but I guess we'll never hear them.

Do we need the full 4 points at Plymouth or is any win enough as long as we beat Rye next week?

Agree with you Baldyman. Leading by 4 going in to heat 15 and with King and Tungate in the heat, that feels like a defeat and could be costly. Covatti indeed finally looking a classy rider in this league, lets hope it continues! Can see him and Hawkins swapping places before too long. Also good to see Tungate scoring well on a track he's never gone well on in the past. Need to get Heeps going again. The lad started the season in superb form, but has recently looked like the struggling rider from last year so that is a concern.

A few Peterborough fans were thinking the same yesterday too but Plymouth put in a much better performance so who knows which Plymouth will turn up Thursday!

That's the new rule brought in this year, the new rule from next year will be riders can double up/down for as long as they like!

Palm Toft wasn't interested in the UK this year either.

At 16/17, he's going to have low(er) key meetings and he'll have plenty more before the season is out. It can be a long season for any rider let alone one as young as him, who are not used to riding a full season of fixtures so I expect he may well suffer from fatigue later in the season. Huge talent though and sky is the limit it seems for this young man.

They wouldn't fit as well as keeping MPT surely? Mads/Hougaard and MPT in and Olly Allen and Roynon out?

Totally agree. Peterborough can keep their grubby mits off King and use someone else

Maybe Louis had a word? Ipswich and Peterbrough are rivals in a very tight LC group. Maybe Louis wasn't comfortable with the Panthers borrowing arguably the leagues best rider? He maybe more at ease with King taking guest booking when the PL starts, hence the "but now the club plan to offer him guest bookings in the near future". I'm only guessing here, but I doubt very much Peterbrough would have changed the guest on Sunday by choice, as good as Lasse is. Not a bad substitute mind! Bjerre has started very well also.

Yes apologies bit of a brain fart should have ready Roland's post more carefully! A home meeting is a lot different from an away meeting though so I'll be shocked if we throw in the same kind of performance we did at Peterborough. No doubt the Peterbrough meeting knocked us down a peg or two, so I think we need a convincing win tonight to restore a bit of faith and confidence amongst the supporters. Got to be honest this Somerset team doesn't look all that inspiring to me compared to previous seasons. No doubt they'll probably win now tonight with Worrall scoring a match winning maximum!

Dire? That's a bit harsh! Tungate 10+2 and Manzares 9+1 from effectively 4 rides done ok. Both have had better meetings yes, but dire is a bit extreme. We won on Good Friday very comfortably and at no stage did we ever look like getting anything other than 3 points. In this fixture, I'm not overly concerned about the returning Worrall or Lanham in the slightest. Are people forgetting just how crap Worrall was for us last year? Massive flop and he hasn't started this season much better either. He might well pop out and win a race or two, but he's not exactly a returnee that has me quivering.

As an Ipswich supporter I'm pleased that Stefan Nielsen scored a few points after having an awful start to the season. He's been struggling to get his machinery going but promising signs that he's getting that sorted.

Was going to post the same, much better. Hopefully raised his confidence for tomorrow.

Between first and second bend? Thought it was him but wasn't sure.

He is normally I agree, but he had a bit of a stinker there last week and failed to win a race.

I was quite clearly being sarcastic. We've raced three meetings, I just don't for the life of me understand the point of bringing up the fact he's won one race in 8 away from home. It's a long season. Is Tungate going to be this years scapegoat when things go wrong now that Risager is out of the firing line?

Only the one win from his first 8 rides away from home? Well that's it then drop him immediately!

To be fair to Tungate, to have an average of over 8 after only three seasons in the sport he must be doing something right..

Edinburgh and Somerset don't look as strong as last year either. You can do a comparison with all teams from last years top 6 and the majority if not all of them won't look as strong.

Tungate normally goes well at the showground but you're right, he was never going to fancy that last night. I think even more of a problem was Hawkins. I know he comes from Peterborough and was tempted to give it a go, but would he have declared himself ready if he knew the track was going to be like that? He clearly wasn't fit and it turned in to a foolish decision. Hawkins' scores at the showground last season were 5+4, 5+2 and 5+1 so he's normally good for 5 points. If he managed that last night that's a 10 point swing in the scores and it suddenly doesn't look quite as bad. If my Auntie had balls and all that I know, but there were reasons the defeat was such a heavy one. I think everyone from the Witches camp were caught off guard by the conditions.

We really need to get the reserves going. That's an area I thought we'd have an advantage on most teams in the league but both of them look to be riding awful equipment. I was never one who brought in to the theory that Covatti was a heatleader on a reserves average, simply because he done absolutely nothing for Birmingham in the EL, and absolutely nothing for Sheffield in the PL. BUT, I did still think he was a shrewd signing on a 4 point average and capable of being a 6 pointer in this league. Again I know it's early, but from what I've seen already I have my doubts that he can even achieve that. He doesn't come across as the most professional sportsman does he? Turning up late at Rye (not the first time this has happened according to Sheffield fans), nearly missing the two minutes on Good Friday after farting about with his one and only machine etc. Time will tell if he proves to be as good a signing as it originally looked, but at the moment I'm unconvinced.