It is near the end of the season now and the Witches have just had a disappointing bank holiday Monday, but at least we still have a team to follow unlike the supporters of Cradley Heath.

I know that Cradley has nothing to do with Ipswich but I recently interviewed Steve Johnson of Cradley Heath about the developments at the midland club, and felt the need to tell you all about their petition on http://www.cradleyspeedway.co.uk/.

Everyone remembers the name of Cradley Heath, once the big team of the midlands, envy of every other club, then in 1995 tragedy happened, the Heathens were forced to close. Their stadium in Dudley Wood was owned by the Bridgwater family, a piece of land that was handed down through generations, was to be sold. The family decided that speedway was no longer viable at the site and they announced that Cradley Heath would not be able to continue at its home for 60 years. “I can’t blame the family really. It was handed down to grandchildren who didn’t have the interest in speedway like their grandfather had.” Steve Johnson, one of the driving forces behind the efforts to bring speedway back to Cradley said. “ As a sporting venue the land is worth only a few thousand pounds, but as land for development it is worth millions, so they just did what anyone would do.”

The club examined all possibilities around the area, including a possible ground share with Wolverhampton and a switch to Perry Bar, the former home of Birmingham Brummies. However, Cradley speedway announced that they would not be entering the new British elite league, and for the first time in over 30 years, there would be no Cradley speedway team in the British league “There is overwhelming support for the return of speedway to the town. It was the focal point of the place, every week we would go down there to watch the speedway. Because we aren’t a big town and don’t have a big football team, everyone was really proud of the team.”

“The biggest obstacle that we face is the local councils. Over the past ten years we have identified sites that we believe fit the requirements to bring speedway back, but we find that there are some unfounded reasons for the rejection of the application.”

“ Many people have an outdated view of the sport, they remember the sport from the time when it was more popular in the 1970’s, but the sport has made great strides in recent years to improve things to make it better on the environment. Because people have this outdated view, they think that speedway is a dirty noisy sport, but it has changed. With the introduction of dirt deflectors, you don’t go away filthy and the bikes are a lot quieter now.”

“There are a small minority of residents that are against the application. They are concerned about a speedway track being put at the end of their garden and the effect of the traffic and noise. Some of the concerns that have been given are completely ridiculous. One reason we have been given is that there might be something archeologically important under the site, or that it will disturb the balance of the local area.”

“Another obstacle is that the councils are just not flexible enough, we have submitted about 60 applications that have just been rejected. We understand that they have their regulations that they have to keep to, but we identify a site and it may have one problem. Instead of finding a way round it, they just throw it out. It was reported that we were looking at a site, and immediately the opposition started. We find that we have to educate the local residents about speedway and try the allay their concerns.”

“One hundred per cent I think that we can get back to how successful we once were. The current riders would have had their idols racing at Dudley Wood.”

There is no doubt that the Cradley Heath story is far from over and maybe one day, the small town will get its speedway team back, but they need the help of Speedway fans around the country to sign their online petition and hopefully one day we all will be visiting Cradley again.

Looking at the Witches now and Mark Loram has said that his sights are still firmly on riding again for the Witches. This is absolutely brilliant to hear as Mark is a Quality rider and an asset to the team, certainly we have missed him this season. The Witches find themselves back down in second to last in the league after the found themselves in the dizzying heights of Eight place in the table, but the promoters should already be thinking about next season and have an idea of who to bring in.

I would like to see the Witches look into the premier league as there is a lot of talent around the teams in the league, and one rider I would like to see at the Witches is Michal Rajkowski at Newport. I have seen this particular rider a few times this season and has always impressed me.

Rajkowski is a rider who is able to pass on most tracks and on his day can beat any rider in the league on any track, he also consistently gets high scores. In two visit to Stokes’ Loomer Road he scored 29 points, which is amazing for a visiting rider to the track.

I would like to apologise for the lack of blogs lately but as I am a student I have had to work more hours than I thought possible over this summer. There is still a couple of months left of the season and lets all hope there are still a few more Witches wins.

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