Aries

Really? Then you have a far better memory than I have as I don't recall saying that before but hey ho.

None of this "asset" stuff would cut any ice in a court of law and some of the dealings between riders and clubs seems dodgy to say the least. An ex brother-in-law was an Ipswich rider for years and some of the things he told me regarding "assets" beggared belief.

So, the Visa's..

There isn't a big deal, probably just boredom setting in as nothing much left to discuss.

Couldn't King ride the Good Friday Foxhall meeting before hot footing it to Coventry in the Evening? That would make things a little easier. A right pain in the arse now though as we'll be leading up to numerous fixtures this season wondering who our number 1 is going to be

Wasn't it said that the reason Adam Ellis dropped out of contention at a late stage was because he was named for Lakeside, a Friday track that would rule him out of too many fixtures? So now we have the exact same problem, this time with our number one

King for me, as captain. Fine with Hawkins and no problem if he retains it, but I'm another that prefers to have your best rider and number 1 as captain as long as he has leadership qualities and King has.

He probably thinks he is.. The "official" line also say's that he is, but who knows. Anyway It'll be interesting to see how he performs this season. Got to be honest I was a little surprised that he did as well as he did. Whilst never a regular at Mildenhall, I have popped along from time to time with a friend and Lewis never really stood out or looked any better than Jacobs or Stefan Nielsen. In fact, Nielsen nearly always looked the better rider to me. Fair play to Blackbird though he certainly stepped it up last year and looked impressive at Foxhall so It'll be interesting to see if that improvement continues.

There's been a few instances where riders were thought to be assets of a club, but were in fact assets of the promoter who was currently there at the time. One example was Steve Johnston from Somerset to Birmingham. Everyone assumed he was then an asset of Birmingham, when in actual fact it turned out he was an asset of Gary Patchett. All a bit confusing and has been said, dodgy. If you want a rider for more than a year and the rider is happy to stay for more than a year, agree and sign a 2/3 year contract. If a rider signs for a year then he should be a free agent on October 31st, and he should then be able to sign for whoever he likes the following year with no say so or financial benefit to anyone else.

Agree, King as captain for me too.

Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Catch22 was a sponsor of Oliver Rayson? If my memory serves me right I'm pretty sure he knew the ins and outs of the swap "deal" at the time. Doesn't really matter anyway as Blackbird won't be missing meetings for Peterborough through fixture clashes. I'm interested to see how Blackbird does next season and if he continues improvement, or whether last season was a one off. Jury still out for me.

Am I missing something here?

When you sign a 9 pointer at #1 and then follow it up with a rider over 8, more often than not you end up with a very long tail and weak reserves so to end up with Covatti and Stefan Nielsen at reserve is a right result.

Agreed I'm happy with that could have been a lot worse! King and Tungate will score points at the top end no danger, Covatti and Nielsen likewise at reserve. Just need the youngsters in the engine room to crack on again and we should do ok.

As it stands I'd probably take Nico Covatti out of most of the names mentioned on here. Never going to be a world beater obviously but got to be a decent reserve on that average surely? I think there's a point increase there. I never like to judge riders on non competitive meetings, but he rode Foxhall quite well in the 16 lapper last year.

Great stuff

I hope you're very wrong about that! No offence to Lanham he seems like a great lad and a top professional, but he's 37 and been on the slide for a good few years now. Would be an awful signing. Chris Louis has again been making all the noises in the paper about building for a return to the EL. If he wants to do that then he needs to be signing another Manzares/Heeps/Tungate and put another brick in the wall, not sign a rider at the twilight of his career.

In the paper it doesn't sound to me as if Louis knows his two reserves yet or maybe I've just interpreted it wrong. When Mike Bacon asked if he's going for a 5 and 3 pointer or a couple of 4 pointers, Louis was non committal with "no comment" Why? If he knows who he wants no harm in saying which route he was going down he didn't have to name names. Ellis on 4.67 still easily fits in to one of the reserve berths with 8.63 still to play with, so it would seem strange he's already been ruled out if there's nothing concrete elsewhere. You'd think until he got signatures on contracts which he obviously hasn't yet, he would at least keep the Ellis option open.

I agree the smart money would be on those 4, but I'm personally hoping for something a little more exciting. No disrespect to those 4 as 3 of them would definitely be in my 1-7, but I'm hoping for a fresh face that will intrigue and excite the fans.

Got to be honest I'm also shocked at Ellis not being kept on it looks a strange decision at the moment. If the 5 are King, Tungate, Manzares, Heeps and Hawkins, then that leaves 8.63 for 2 reserves. The only thing I can think of at the moment, is perhaps a new 5 pointer is coming in with a 3 pointer and Chris Louis wanted the newcomer to start at reserve? With Ellis in the team instead of Hawkins, any new 5 pointer would have started in the main body.

On Tungate, think he needs to stay while his average continues to inch northwards. If he finishes next season with an average the same or lower than this years, then we can assume he's reached his level. I'd hate to see him improve again next year and really kick on again for someone else

Assuming you do actually have some inside info and not just on a wind up, I'd go for.. 1 King 2 Manzares 3 Heeps 4? 5 Tungate 6 Ellis 7? As the 5 out of 7. Anyone know what that leaves us for the final 2?

Over the moon with King just what we needed and I fully expect him to buck the trend of #1 riders struggling when they get to Foxhall!! If that does mean no Tungate, then that would be extremely harsh on the lad IMO. Only 3 years as a professional speedway rider, and to increase his average in every one of those 3 years to make it to #1 with an 8+ average and then find yourself discarded would be harsh. If we don't use him, then I certainly hope someone else picks him up because to do what he's done and then find no team at all would be even more of a travesty.

I think a few Ipswich fans are slightly blinded by the fact that Wells goes quite well at Foxhall, but Wells goes completely AWOL on far more away tracks than Risager does which he often seems criticised for.