Choosing your favourite-ever Ipswich Witches team is clearly proving fun. Here ROB SCRUTTON chooses his... Join in the fun and email mike.bacon@archant.co.uk with your favourite Witches team.
1 MIKE LANHAM
My favourite all time Witch, I saw him from a 1971 junior rider right up until he moved on to Eastbourne. Never the fastest starter and probably not mounted on the best of equipment, he was always an honest trier over all four laps. One of the best races involving Mike would be an Anglian Cup meeting against King's Lynn in 1974, he was racing against Terry Betts and Phil Herne who made the gate. Mike was all over them for three and a half laps before riding clean between them to claim the win. A solid team man who rarely missed a meeting.
2 BEN HOWE
Another rider who rarely gated but he thrilled the crowd with his outside sweeps around the boards. His two best meetings at Foxhall were winning the British Under-21 title in 1995 and the Star of Anglia the following year. An England international during his time at Foxhall, he was sadly twice the victim of the speedway numbers game, losing his team place when the side was reshuffled.
3 DAVID NORRIS
David joined the team when just 16 from Eastbourne in 1990 and quickly settled into the team. His most memorable meeting was the 1991 four team fours meeting at Peterborough. In one of the early heats he moved from fourth to first inside two laps passing the entire field with a daring full throttle burst around the outside. He eventually re-joined Eastbourne to become a World Cup star and featured vin a couple of British Grand Prix. It seemed a shame that it took so long for him to find out how good he really was. His summarising on Sky TV meeting was fairly interesting too.
4 JOHN LOUIS
Mr Ipswich Speedway who galvanised interest in the club shortly after reforming in 1969. An ideal team leader, he was instrumental in the league Championships and Cup wins of the 70 s, a British Championship win in 1975, third place in the World Final the same year and British League Riders Champion in 1979 when it was a title worth winning. World Team Cup wins with Great Britain and England in addition to numerous other individual wins were also picked up along the way.
5 DENNIS SIGALOS
Silky smooth rider who captained the team to the 1981 KO Cup win. Seemed to have so much time to make a move on the track but inevitably made an outside sweep to win the race. Claimed third place in the 1982 World Final held in his homeland, he was also a regular in the USA team for international matches and other meetings. A popular captain of the club.
6 TONY RICKARDSSON
A rider signed from "no where" who very quickly became an integral part of the side. A good team man too, he got a very young Ben Howe home for a 5-1 ahead of Mark Loram no less in one of his first home meetings against King's Lynn. A man you would put your life on to pull something out of the bag in a tight situation, multi World Champion and a lynch pin of the all-conquering 1998 side.
7 TOMASZ GOLLOB
Quickly adapted to the Foxhall track, he seemed to get so wide at times, he must have got splinters in his rear tyre from off the fence. He managed to find lines that others could only dream about on tracks in England and abroad and was very brave in finding a hole and breezing through it. We were so lucky to have him at Ipswich, he was a real attraction wherever the club rode. A regular winner on the GP circuit, he was World Champion in 2010 and maybe should have won more.
Reserves
Billy Sanders
Mark Loram
Scott Nicholls
Chris Louis
Beryl Lay e-mailed me in her top team.
1 Mark Loram, 2 Chris Louis, 3 Scott Nicholls, 4 Tony Rickardsson, 5 Tomasz Gollob, 6 Jeremy Doncaster, 7 Tony Davey. Reserves: Mike Lanham, John Cook, David Norris and Ben Howe.
Keep them coming in, more 1-7s coming in the next few weeks.
mike.bacon@archant.co.uk
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