Aries

Then why is he missing a Rye fixture to ride for Lakeside? I thought the riders parent club had priority over ALL fixtures?

There's also the possibility that the team manager had a change in mind also, but for reasons not known to any of us didn't/couldn't make that change. Unless you're right there in the thick of the action, it's impossible to know why some changes did or didn't happen during meetings. No doubt sometimes managers miss a trick or two, but also I'm sure there are times when some decisions look baffling to us sitting in the stands, but make perfect sense down in the pits.

Unfortunately that isn't just restricted to Rye. He needs to settle down and eradicate these spills if he's to progress. No doubting the boy has talent and he's pretty quick when he's upright.

What's happened to some of the regular Ipswich contributors on this forum in recent times? I know Badge still hovers and posts every now and again but nowhere near enough as she used to, and there are plenty of others. LW, Ipswich Jules, Bailey's hat, MissingOut/Robyn, Boxer, Broomstick, tomcat, Presenter, even Lovey/Had Enough has disappeared again. A few only used to post sporadically but a few were regular posters but we haven't heard from any of them in yonks! Would be interesting to know whether it's a case of losing interest in the sport, losing patience with the forum nowadays or simply being far to busy these days to contribute. Most importantly, hope you're all still alive and well!

Quite fancy us to win here. Two of our weaker riders on paper in Hawkins and Nielsen are no strangers to Rye, especially Hawkins who tends to go pretty well in recent times. Should be some good battles between Kennett and King too.

Great news on the boys visas. Now that's been sorted I quite fancy us to do well. I'm predicting an impressive year for Heeps too. I was expecting one last season but the wrist injury obviously put paid to that. He started to look much much better towards the end of last year so hopefully he hits the ground running. I can see a good couple of points on his current average.

I read on another thread that this Visa business could drag on until May! If that happens, could there be fixtures where we're looking at R/R and three guests for King, Nielsen, Tungate and Manzares?

Just organised a sitter for the kids so definitely coming to this and looking forward to it Hopefully Cook confirms the booking as there could be some good battles between Him, Barker and King. I know it's basically a warm up fixture, but I'm sure all three will want to put down a marker for the season ahead and will want to come out on top in their battles.

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