JamesB

Whatever happened here (and it’s pretty opaque), it’s great to see the club survive and hopefully thrive. All the best.

It’s great to read that Danyon Hume’s surgery yesterday has been classed as successful. Here’s hoping for a full and speedy recovery for someone who always gives their all irrespective.

My reading of Hawkin’s comments are that the Witches proposed to apply the same approach to the RS position that the Stars have been/are being allowed to use and that this request was refused. If that is correct, then that is a terrible state of affairs. A regulation either applies to none or all. If the Stars have been granted an exception to the regulation then great, but again that exception has to be applied to all.

I thought that Flint was excellent tonight. He had the beating of Jenkins and Mountain every time often passing them for the points.

That was a cracking meeting, with plenty of passing. Two good teams who both deserve credit for a hard fought and competitive meeting.

I am guessing that the options are limited, who else works within the average available? As much as Danyon always gives his all for the Witches, it was clear that he is not the answer nor is Lambert.

Not in Ipswich. It’s been wet virtually all day and still very overcast with drizzle still around. There’s no way the meeting could have taken place.

How could you suggest that having Doyle and Thompson missing would influence the decision. 😀 To be fair, it’s been raining here just north of Ipswich since 7am and it’s currently hammering it down. There’s no way the meeting would have gone ahead.

My comments were in the context of the weather forecast for today, which was/is rain showers throughout the day extending into the evening. A Speedway Promoter is the owner of a business. In my experience, where you have weather conditions as described then the attendance is diminished probably because people are concerned about paying their money to get in only for the meeting to be cancelled or a mad rush to Heat 10 on a borderline track with reduced value for money both in terms of heats completed and quality of racing. What business owner in their right mind would want to go ahead on that basis? Also, from a customer experience perspective, what would you rather have: 1. A meeting completed on a borderline track with processional racing due to the conditions. 2. A meeting rushed through to Heat 10 to get a result. 3. The meeting postponed and rearranged for a nice sunny and warm evening. I know what my preference is, but each to their own.

Hawkins mentioned on Monday evening that Doyle is targeting the next GP.

I have to say that Monday’s meeting took place on a good track and was enjoyable, however the running of it was hardly an exemplar: 1. The good people of Norfolk failed to work out that there may be ‘quite a good crowd’ for a local semi final clash and decided to turn up at their normal time. The rest of us had to sit around whilst they were accommodated. 2. It was great that so much time was spent preparing the starting grid and just beyond, but not testing the starting tapes until heat 1 was a bad decision which resulted in another lengthy delay. 3. There was less tractor racing in Prague on Saturday night than there was in this meeting. Let’s face it, in excess of 2 1/2 hours to complete 15 heats of speedway cannot be acceptable on what was a lovely evening.

For me, speedway has rightly gone past the approach of ‘can we somehow get the meeting on’ even if conditions are borderline and poor for both riders and spectator’s. There is also the economic angle. Ipswich are a generally well supported team, but a home semi final against local rivals is likely to create an above average attendance. If the weather is inclement during the day with a threat of rain in the evening as well, then inevitably people will decide it’s not worth the risk resulting in a poor crowd and a lost revenue opportunity. Louis will want to maximise the income opportunity from this fixture.

We have to try something. Danyon has always given 100% for the Witches over the years, but it’s obvious that he is not the answer (I do hope that he proves me wrong on Thursday!).

He was at least half a lap behind and he just stopped riding the fourth bend allowing the bike to gently roll in to the fence, jumping off it before it did so. He was not holding his shoulder as he walked back to the pits. Did he aggravate an old injury……maybe, we’ll never know but Heat 8 effectively won the meeting for the Stars.

There was at Foxhall three weeks ago, best guess would be about 4000. It’s a funny old game. Win away at Ipswich and then lose at home to Birmingham a few days later.