SPEEDWAY: Toni Svab is set to be back in the Ipswich Evening Star Witches side next year after the combined average points limit was kept at 45 points.

By Elvin King

SPEEDWAY

TONI Svab is set to be back in the Ipswich Evening Star Witches side next year after the combined average points limit was kept at 45 points.

Promoters returned today after what was described as a "highly successful" annual conference at Swindon over the weekend.

The Sky Sports Elite League is to be reduced to eight clubs, and a British League Cup, with a combined points limit of 36, is being introduced to run on Grand Prix weekends.

It is hoped this will be the answer to the club versus GP problem that has caused so much anxiety to top promoters over the last few months.

Ipswich will now set about completing their team by the New Year with Scott Nicholls and Jarek Hampel certain starters. Greg Hancock is way off the mark as the third heat leader with a 9.11 average, although Tomasz Gollob is still a possibility despite a heavy workload.

Chris Louis, with an average possibly as low as 6.10, is set to be a second string while Pole Chris Slabon and Swede Kim Jansson have also been pencilled in.

A number of other Poles are keen to ride and Hampel and Slabon could well be joined by another of their fellow countrymen.

Joonas Kylmakorpi is expected to ride for his parent club Eastbourne – with Toni Svab moving back the other way. The Czech Republic rider lives near Stowmarket and he rode for Ipswich for four years from 1997, being a valuable member of the 1998 treble-winning side.

The Elite League will feature eight clubs with 28-meetings per team and the Premier League could be set for 18 clubs.

Once again the top-flight title will be decided by play-offs, but this time the top four will meet on a semi-final basis, home and away, to establish the two grand finalists.

The British League Cup will have five qualifying groups and run on a Premier League basis with top flight clubs working to a 36-point limit.

Oxford's application to move into the Premier League has been placed on hold as King's Lynn boss Nigel Wagstaff has yet to agree a new lease with his Norfolk Arena landlord.

The same applies to Somerset who withdrew from the league during the AGM as they have been unable to finalise a long-term lease with their landlord.

Both King's Lynn and Somerset have been handed 21-days in which to resolve their respective problems.