Ipswich Witches ace Danny King takes a look at the meeting with Edinburgh, the Peterborough defeat and why he’s supporting England in the World Cup - oh and Sweden!
We need to build up some momentum now.
July and August are looking very busy months for the Witches after the most truncated start to a speedway season I think I can ever remember.
The lack of Championship fixtures in 2018 has been talked about enough by many people, but we are back at Foxhall tomorrow night for a crucial league clash with Edinburgh.
And of course with there being less fixtures, you simply can’t afford to lose at home.
If we can reproduce the type of performance we did against Sheffield two weeks ago, then I’m confident we will take all three points. But the important thing is not to let the Monarchs take anything.
Every point is going to be absolutely crucial in the chase for the play-offs.
We have only ridden four league fixtures and sit seventh in the table on eight points.
That’s not surprising, but already there are four teams on 16 points all holding the play-off places.
OK, so we have meetings in hand, but we need to win them.
The Witches injury curse goes on and on.
Now we have lost Michael Hartel with a fractured arm after a horrible long track crash at the weekend.
That’s such a shame because I felt Michael was doing really quite well for us and winning a few races.
British Speedway is all quite new to him, but he is a determined and professional character and was showing loads of good signs.
Hopefully he will be back with us soon.
So, we race Edinburgh using rider replacement for Michael, which means Nico Covatti and the reserves can have extra rides. I hope they can make the most of them.
It’s a real tricky fixture for us, as the likes of Ricky Wells, Mark Riss and Josh Pickering all ride Foxhall well.
Erik Riss is injured, but Mason Campton is a good choice of guest for the Monarchs.
Our defeat at Peterborough was disappointing.
I was stressing to the boys before the meeting, the importance of winning the tie and gaining some momentum. And with three heats to go and just four down, we were still in it.
But we fell away at the death and to lose by 16 and concede three 5-1s in the final three races was not great.
My arm is still far from right, I sadly have to tell you.
Hopefully the more I ride, the stronger it will get, but I seem to start meetings well at the moment, but fade away.
I can assure you I’m doing everything in my power to get it sorted.
Again Rory Schlein was in top form at Peterborough.
What we would have done without Rory so far this season?
He continues to lead from the front and is such a good team man.
At Peterborough we needed our top five to shine but apart from Rory and a couple of early heat wins from me, we didn’t.
Our young guest rider, Georgie Wood did his best and looked one for the future, so well done for him on that.
MORE: Witches lose Hartel to injury
The World Cup is up and running and I was happy to see England beat Tunisia on Monday.
However, in the Ipswich Witches World Cup sweepstake that Ritchie organised, I got Sweden. So I’m a half-Swedish fan at the moment as well.
Getting the Swedes could have been worse and I was pleased to see them get off to a winning start.
While I was glad to see England win, I wasn’t that impressed with them to be honest. Yes, there were more positives than negatives and perhaps it was really hot down on that pitch, but I thought the pressure got to them a bit after Tunisia equalised.
However, they kept going didn’t they?
And it was great to see Harry Kane’s winning header go in. Come on England!
But back to speedway and back to our meeting tomorrow.
We must get those three points because quite incredibly we have 15 Championship meetings scheduled for July and August! We only have 20 in total!
It’s time to build up the momentum.
Come and give us a shout and don’t forget to ask for those autographs!
See you at Foxhall on Thursday.
DANNY
AS TOLD TO MIKE BACON
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