Aries

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.

King on 8.88 is a no brainer and I agree with you a top 2 of King and Worrall would be excellent. I'm sure there'll be plenty of competition for both riders' signature though so we'll see. On the Tun motivation-gate (see what I did there?) I think he was incredibly naive with the interview he gave to the Ipswich Star. Everyone has bad days at the office in all walks of life where everything seems a struggle, but to admit to the local press that you're travelling to away meetingS with a lack of motivation to do well is a little bit naughty and like I say, naive. He's also left himself wide open to criticism and question marks every time he has a really poor meeting, which he's bound to have from time to time. There will be meetings where he's busting a gut for every lap of every race but things just aren't happening for him, but suspicions will probably remain that he's making little "effort". Also a little disappointing from the Ipswich Star on this occasion. They've been excellent backers of the Witches for many many years now, but they would have known before printing that that was a negative article and wouldn't have shown the rider in a particularly good light. Possibly because his average was achieved elsewhere in the team, and he's only just moved up to that position. Got to be honest, I wouldn't be comfortable having him leading the team at number 1 either, that would be a mistake in my opinion.

Sorry but I've got to be honest, I don't think there's a cat in hell's chance we won't go through this evening.

Yup mine too. Worrall was again up and down, but had just won heat 13 beating Kennett in the process so the thinking there was that probably he'd got it right at the tail end of the meeting. The second choice was a closer call, and you could definitely make a case for Hawkins. But in the end I personally would have plumped for Risager too.

Strange, because I've attended in the past and Louis has been more than happy to answer questions.

Thought so..

oooh hard man! LOL I have zero interest where you'll be at 9.00 pm, absolutely Zero.

Nice trolling, well done.

This doesn't make sense in context to the previous posts. Has someone deleted their post?

Yes got to admit I've never had fish without the skin from a fish shop either.

How cold was that! I know the cold contributed, but I couldn't make up my mind whether the crowd was par for the course these days, or whether it was really poor? Does having the stand all the way across the back straight now give it the illusion that there is less people in the stadium then there actually are? And when did they start not opening the Garden Bar? Been standing there and nipping in for my pint for more years than I care to remember Good win, the pass by Worrall in heat 13 was superb. Not many will catch and pass Kennett this year in the PL when he gets out in front. Ellis looked superb, and very confident. Probably taking confidence from a good showing from Lakeside the night before? I think he'll up his average in a similar way that Heeps did last year. I'd heard that Tungate was awesome against very good company in Morten's testimonial, so I was disappointed with his showing as he looked a bit pants to be honest. Heeps looked on the pace, but like Gino struggled to get out of the traps. Anyone know just how much he's still struggling with his hand? Definitely looks like it's affecting him sadly.

I was going to wait until Good Friday for my first meeting but decided to go to this one Thursday. Got a feeling we might come a cropper here but we'll see. Much will depend on Heeps' fitness.