Witches to release a rider next week
IPSWICH Witches will make team changes to their under-performing Elite League side early next week.Captain Leigh Lanham, Polish star Piotr Swiderski and reserve Dawid Stachyra, are the three names in the frame to face the axe as early as Monday, with one definitely leaving straightaway, with the other two being given more time to sort their seasons out.
Mike Bacon
EXCLUSIVE
By Mike Bacon
IPSWICH Witches will make team changes to their under-performing Elite League side early next week.
Captain Leigh Lanham, Polish star Piotr Swiderski and reserve Dawid Stachyra, are the three names in the frame to face the axe as early as Monday, with one definitely leaving straightaway, with the other two being given more time to sort their seasons out.
Lanham, whose year has been badly hit by a first-night crash back in March, is favourite to get the boot on Monday.
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He has struggled to get going and has been on the receiving end of plenty of Witches fans' criticism.
However Witches rider/manager Chris Louis was remaining tight-lipped on which rider was leaving, although he admitted one is set to get the push.
“By the time we ride our next meeting at home to Lakeside on June 25, there will be at least one new face in the line-up,” Louis said.
“We will let people know more after the weekend, as we don't want to say too much now. But yes, there will be changes.”
Quite what those changes will be remains to be seen, but rumours circulating the speedway grapevine last night suggested former Witch Robert Miskowiak could be on his way back.
Miskowiak was left out of the starting line-up at the start of this season, after a poor finish to 2008.
He is popular with the Ipswich fans, and with the new averages coming into force, he could be a straight replacement for Lanham or Swiderski.
If Miskowiak did return and Lanham went, it would see four Polish riders in the Witches team for the first time in their history.
All that is currently rumour however and Swiderski and Stachyra are both also walking the Witches tightrope too.
Whatever happens, Monday's Witches changes may not be the last this season.
(N) 'MONEY talks, but are the Witches being too prudent'. Read Mike Bacon's two-page special on the state of the Witches and the state of speedway. Pages 32 and 33.
(N) MIKE Bacon's blog and webchat . . . www.lovespeedway24.co.uk
