The away visit to Wolverhampton was the low point in an already
disappointing season. I made the trip to the black country with some hope that the witches may at least be competitive around the tight Monmore track, but I was left bitterly disappointed with what I saw.

The team were not helped out with the early withdrawal of David Norris, leaving the team with only 5 riders, the task was in the end an impossible one as the witches crashed to a heavy defeat.

I took along with me to the meeting a first time spectator to the sport, who had never heard of the sport before. I promised him that the meeting would be exciting, I informed him about the history of the Witches, but maybe I had given him to much expectation of what he was going to see. Unfortunately, this is one fan that will be forever lost to the sport as there was no contest in this meeting, something needs to be done to make meetings closer.

We have already seen some massive margins of victories already this season, Kings Lynn recorded a 75-15 win over Sheffield, and even in the Elite league there have been some non competitive meetings, unfortunately a lot of them involving Ipswich on the wrong side, and as a result new fans are being turned of the sport.

I for one was a big fan when the tactical rider rule was reduced as it
clearly wasn’t fair that team could come back into the meeting in a couple of heats after it took the other team effort to get so far in front, but seeing the big defeats that teams are suffering so far this season making meetings uninteresting, is it about time that this rule was modified once again.

Speedway has the ability to be very exciting, and that is what attracted me to sport in the first place, but it can be very boring if teams run away with a meeting.

The bad weather this week has seen two of the witches fixtures get called off and the meeting at Peterborough called off after 12 heats. I was confident that had the meeting at Belle Vue had gone ahead, the team could have put in a performance that would could have been a springboard for the season.

Belle Vue are themselves struggling for form so far this season, so a first
away win would have been very possible.

Going around the rumour mill is that the promotion are trying to sign
Antonio Lindback on a loan deal from Poole, and this has caused great debate amongst some Witches fans.

Personally I don’t think that this would be a bad signing. Antonio does have the ability to be a top class rider, after all he is in the GP series. Fair enough, he has failed to perform so far this season for his clubs and
in the GP’s but given time on the Foxhall track I believe that he can
recapture the form that he once had.

Surly a permanent rider is better than relying on a guest, where you have to keep chopping and changing.

I had the opportunity to watch the Stoke Potters take on Mildenhall at
Loomer Road from the pits, an experience I found very interesting.

I couldn’t believe how different the riders are with the way that they deal with situations. Stokes’ number 7, Jack Hargreaves was having an horrendous night and clearly had a problem with his bike but refused let this get him down, and although he had to withdraw from the meeting, did his best to help out his team mates. On the other side, Mark Thompson was having an equally bad evening, but his body language told the story, he was clearly down and obviously wanted to
get away from the track as soon as possible.

Mildenhall went on to win the meeting convincingly on what was difficult track made worse by the rain. If the Witches have riders wit the attitude of Hargreaves then things can be turned around, however if they have the attitude the Thompson had, one that only concerned himself, then the Witches will be in serious trouble.


Reading will have a tough time in the next few weeks, already having lost a couple of big riders there was news that former Witch, Danny Bird, failed a random drug test. It is hard to believe that Danny would have intentionally have taken any banned substance, certainly many of the Reading fans are hoping that it was just a mistake he made when using over the counter medication.

The season has not been the best so far for Danny, and this will just add to the difficult time.

Chris ‘bomber’ Harris has made a sensational start to his first season in
the Grand Prix series, finishing third in Poland.

Harris will certainly be the surprise package of the series and has the
potential to add to the third place he gained on Saturday, and establish
himself as a top rider in the world.

The series hasn’t gone so well for Scott Nicholls. Two disappointing
performances by his high standards in the opening rounds of the series,
leaves Scott with a lot to do if he is to finish where he knows, if he is on form, he can finish. Everyone knows that Scott has the ability to be in the top five in the world, but this season it just is not going right for him.

Coming up for the Witches is a fixture that is up for grabs. Oxford are the only team that the Witches have gained a victory over, and it was a win that was convincing. A victory could see the Witches rise of the bottom of the league. The Cheetahs have some quality in there team however, and I don’t expect this to be as easy as the Cup match.
 

NB: Isaac is not officially connected to the Promotion at Ipswich Speedway and therefore his views are entirely independent of the Promotion.