Roger Jacobs

Great to see Redcar claim the victory - a well deserved reward for a very good season 😃

We don't know do we, because they don't publish attendances.

The big question is: would independent track prep overview (whatever that entails), make any difference? More importantly, the whole point of home advantage is that teams generally setup their track to suit their riders - and even they don't always get it right. Why should anyone say the track has to be prepared differently just because it's the Grand Final?

As much as everyone loves to criticise Poole - and Mr Shovlar 😃 - he has hit the veritable nail on the head. Very few, if any, Poole fans would have left the stadium last night thinking it was a poor meeting - the Pirates won, and have given themselves a great opportunity to claim another trophy. If Glasgow win by 14 points on Friday night and it's all from the gate, will their fans care about the quality of the racing? Do whatever you need to do to send the home fans happy. And that really is all that matters.

WooHoo Witches!!! Absolutely marvellous! Son #1 and I watched it this afternoon (Friday) here in sunny Perth Hills. What a fascinating meeting to finish, with incidents, talking points, and a superb team effort by the Witches: only six heat winners - yet by six different riders; top men looking for their partners; the engine room coming up with the goods - Brennan and Rew scoring decisive 5-1s, King taking care of Heat 8; and the reserves taking points off their opposite numbers. Really can't ask for more - huge congrats to Chris Louis, in particular, for never giving up 👏 Cheers!

And that's the manager's fault.

There has always been a gulf between top end and bottom end riders - just look back at averages over the years. There was a time when the top league was packed full of riders who averaged 9 or 10 per meeting, and there were riders at reserve on 3 or 4. Nothing has really changed, except that league matches are on TV for all to see ...

Looks like Fricke has been mugging you Lions off all year 😜

Friday afternoon here in Aus, and we've just watched the coverage. I would say that Ellis was caught out by the patchy track in his first ride ... hardly kamikaze. Is he expected to hold back in a Grand Final? No doubt if he had settled for the inside line, there'd be criticism that he didn't try the outside 🙄 To others calling for a rerun: the ref didn't put the lights on until the leader had started the third lap, and the Regs allow a race to be awarded from that point ...

Absolutely - athough I thought the Witches might have gone with Brennan at #5, because he's good a Leicester, while Ellis seems more inspired when paired with Doyle. Whatever the score over the two legs, the result won't be life-changing. In a week or so, it will be forgotten*, and everyone will be talking about 2026 ... * except for Gavan and Salty Sheffield 🤣

The Ouch post says "Louis wouldn't put up with this", yet it's not obvious what Ouch assumes JL wouldn't put up with. Gavan is correct, JL is adored throughout the Witches fan base. He was a thoroughly professional rider and promoter, - traits which his son picked up and continues, and expects from everyone associated with the club. After the fiddling by Morris in 2024, the Regulations have been followed correctly this season. Sheffield fans are remarkably salty - why can't they accept that the cut-off was reached before the fixtures were completed? They didn't complain about finishing third a couple of years ago, when their team then went on to win the Grand Final. The reason the Tigers aren't in the Final this season is because they lost against Leicester - that's really quite easy to understand.

There was definitely a difference between the way they rode and attacked the track that night. Kurtz didn't bother.

That would make sense, because Brennan seems to enjoy Leicester.

You speak with such authority, yet without any knowledge: https://ipswichwitches.co/raceday-guide-sheffield-a-4/

Thompson returns to reserve for the Grand Final.