Super Blue

Yes, there were some seriously negative predictions about Nico, I said he was an absolute bargain on his starting average and was proved totally correct. He was certainly the most entertaining rider we had this year if not the highest scorer, an absolute pleasure to watch him! Shame most of the rest let us down badly.

For those of us who are old enough to have seen him ride John Louis was a class rider as well!

Believe it or not Tungates average is too high to fit anyway.

If Lewis Kerr can't ride for the Witches surely he must have a relative called Wayne Kerr who could fill in for him? Mind you, if he has to be replaced we would have 7.34 to play with as he is 6.85 and we were 0.49 short of the limit.

Toys r us?

I think it will be after Christmas and into the new year before most Ipswich fans will start talking about the new season. You get an initial flood of opinions about any new team after its been announced but then it goes quiet till on here till we're on the Speedway countdown clock.

Surely you've already named your No1 in your post, it must be Tungate!

Well Ipswich have announced their season ticket prices but don't appear to have named an individual meeting price yet so it's impossible to tell if they are good value or not! Mind you, they never usually are so why would next year be any different. Edit, side issue. How many teams out there allow someone else to use a season ticket if the actual owner is away on holiday for example? I only ask as the main reason I don't usually get one is you've only got to miss a couple and you end up out of pocket.

No opinions yet from the Bald wise one? A bit of pondering going on no doubt!

Well, having had a bit of thinking time I believe any potential silverware success will revolve around those in the team with the ability to up their averages. Danny King, a great No1 who should certainly remain around the 9+ mark. James Sarjeant, a better main team choice for me than Stefan Nielsen and a true gating tart. Lewis, Good heat leader if fully recovered from his horrendous injury last season. Morten Risager, well Morten is who he is, a white line willy but should be a good 2nd string. Nico Covatti, box office rider, all action, never gives up, good signing. Paco Castagna, only saw him in 16 lapper and wasn't impressed but ought to improve with a bit of track time. Darryl Ritchings, don't really know much about him but every team has to have a 3pt man so go for it boy. To me it seems like the new top heavy approach is going to be tried in 2016, we have a long tail in the team but I'm sure if they can up their averages who knows how it will go. The main thing we need to do is become alot more convincing and unbeatable at home, that was last seasons big let down!

Ipswich full team is all confirmed in local paper. Danny King Lewis Kerr Nico Covatti Morten Risager James Sarjeant Paco Castagna Darryl Ritchings Sorry, no time to sort averages yet, I'm sure someone can find time to confirm these.

Paco Castagna is the new full transfer and Club Asset .

And the lineup is Drumroll please Danny King Nico Covatti Lewis Kerr Morten Risager James Sarjeant Paco Castagna Darryl Ritchings Opinions will no doubt be forthcoming from all , mine maybe later . Oh, and Hilton agrees to step down as team manager , I wonder why ? Hmmmm .

Official team debating time starts tomorrow then! I'm usually up bright and early so will post the 1 to 7 subject to paper arriving at about 6-30 as normal.

I still think it is too early to speculate this much before the team is even officially announced. We can debate all the positives and negatives when that's done as at least one of the original leaked team members is quite clearly not going to be in the line-up.

To be fair Ipswich could never run regularly on a Saturday as it would clash with the stadium owners beloved Stock car events, Friday would be good though for youngsters to attend with no school the next day! Of course team selection could be an issue depending on how far the regular race nights topic went as there are currently alot of Friday night teams in both leagues. Suffice to say any potential ideas would have to be looked at in great depth.

You mean like the one we put together this year? On paper a definite top 3 side but we didn't even make top 6 when we started off with Nico at reserve! To be fair it must be a real struggle to work out how to get the right balance but Edinburgh seem to manage to achieve precisely that every year. If I knew the answer I'd be in charge but not only am I not in charge I also have no idea of any financial constraints that are stopping Chris Louis from putting together the best possible team. Let's just wait and see and pick the bones out after the official team is announced.

If that is the team then another season of mid table mediocrity springs to mind for me, far too many weak links. And as has been said before Chris Louis will have an absolute fit that the team release has come out this way!

Says the Muppet

So why the need for secrecy over the 5 confirmed signings? Just tell us, would be much more fun speculating on the last 2 once the amount of points left has been calculated!

£20 a point is national league money, they would have to score 12 pts a meeting and still wouldn't break even unless appearance and travel expenses were seriously excessive. Don't know where these figures are coming from but they are way off the mark!

The "rules" did previously state a rider with an Elite league average of over 6 could only ride in the Premier League for 2 seasons, I suppose we'll find out soon enough as to whether Dannys half season in 2014 counts. If it does we'll be looking for a new no1, if not I'm sure he's nailed on to be a Witch. Of course we still have the 2nd half of the agm on Nov 3rd to screw things up as they usually do!

Have we had an expensive team then?

If you put in Makinen and Konopka instead of King and Covatti that would be awesome and cheap ( for the National league maybe ) I know CL is talking about the costs but cheap teams don't win titles.

For any top heavy team to succeed you will still need to find someone in the lower order that really ups their game to win anything ( like Nico did this year) If they don't you'll just have a team that's there or thereabouts in every meeting never picking up maximum points. I must admit that alot of the suggested top heavy teams so far would probably produce at least 40pts per match but would the lower order take the totals to 50pt+ enough times. I'd have to double check but I don't think we had a 4pt away win anywhere in the Premier League this year and when you combine this with the inconsistent home form we were never going to win titles!