Danny King reflects on a good week for the Witches and hopes for a quick-fire double over King’s Lynn
Well, what a great meeting at Foxhall last Thursday as we sent King’s Lynn packing.
All in all it was a good night with all the Witches contributing, a big crowd in and, most importantly, our neighbours from Norfolk sent home without even a bonus point.
I must confess the derby clash really got to me.
I never realised there was such a genuine edge to the meeting and certainly by the time we rocked up at Foxhall last Thursday night, I was really determined we should put one over our Norfolk rivals.
And that fed through to the rest of the team as well.
OK, so perhaps we didn’t expect Robert Lambert to have such an off night. But that’s the way it goes.
And I honestly know there is so much more to come and plenty of room for improvement from all the Witches, which is a nice thing to say after a 28-point win.
Against Lynn every Witch showed what they are capable of and that was nice to see.
It was a very good crowd as well and the support we received made a real difference and as I said earlier we all understood the ‘need to win’.
It was strange for me to scored 10+4 points last week.
Netting bonus points is not something I usually make a habit of doing, but I made a few passes and in the end dropped just one point.
The Twitter vote for fans to nominate their heat 14 riders seemed to go well and I know, having spoken to a few people, they seemed to enjoy it.
So, thanks to all of you who voted for me to appear in heat 14 with Cameron Heeps. We had already enjoyed a couple of 5-1s together, so it as nice to make it three in the heat nominated by the fans!
I’ll get onto young Cameron later, but I just wanted to say a well done to Krystian Pieszczek, who had two fine wins on his debut last week.
For a Polish rider to go straight into the heat of the action (remember he was missing our challenge meetings against Leicester), Krystian did really well.
He doesn’t speak much English, but he is keen to learn and I like him because nothing fazes him.
Even after he had a last in his opening race, he just knuckled down and a couple of heats later came out and won his next race.
As he went over the line I looked at team boss Ritchie Hawkins and just smiled because I knew he would have been thrilled for Krystian to go out and do that in just his second-ever ride at Foxhall.
MORE: Witches Watch! What we learned about the Witches in their win over Lynn
Cameron Heeps has made a great start to the season.
And deservedly so.
I hope he has a superb 2019 because he has put so much into his preparations this season. I know he’s only 23 but he’s been riding in this country long enough now.
He knows he needs to start really grasping it and last week just showed what a talent he is.
Over the winter back Down Under, he has trained and trained and trained. He’s cut out all the crap food and eaten probably what he (and most of us) consider ‘crap food’ – you know? The good stuff.
He’s lost weight and last Thursday was just reward for all that effort. Keep it going Cam and a big year lies ahead pal.
After beating Lynn last Thursday, I was off to Redcar the next night, riding for Sheffield in the Championship.
It was a bit of a mixed night for me to be honest.
I started with a race win but crashed in heat 13 when I knocked myself off my bike after getting my foot caught on the white line and spinning myself round! I fell off gracefully!
It was a misty evening and quite tricky as the meeting went on. Sheffield lost which was a bit disappointing.
But two days later at our own track, we got our revenge and in style.
We beat Redcar in the return and I really should have had a maximum. In the final heat I gated really well from the outside, but got nowhere coming out of turn two as my bike seemed to get stuck in the thick shale on the outside I had headed for.
I was not amused!
No meeting at Foxhall for the Witches this week, but we are off to King’s Lynn on Monday in the Supporters’ Cup.
How good would it be to do a quick double over Lynn?
We are certainly good enough and I know there will be a huge load of Witches fans there to cheer us on.
Here’s hoping we can keep up our unbeaten start to the season!
I’ve taken a few days off this week as I don’t ride until I am at Newcastle with Sheffield on Sunday.
So, with family in tow, including our dog Mini – who is a puggle – a cross between a pug and a beagle, we have stayed at a place called Docking, up in Norfolk.
It’s been fun spending time with the boys. A bit cold, but plenty of laughs.
And finally. I see our team manager Ritchie Hawkins’ ‘tache has vanished!
I was thinking the more we went on about his moustache, the more it would stay on.
I can only assume it blew off after a gust of wind got hold of it!
Shame, I was sort of taking to it.... NOT!
Speak soon...
DANNY
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