Witches flying high...

Well it seems that things are finally looking up for the Witches. Following the loss of Skipper Chris Louis - possibly for the remainder of the season - the boys have pulled together and turned in a string of excellent results at home, disposing of Eastbourne, Peterborough and most recently Wolves in fine style. The shot here shows young German Tobi Kroner team riding home to a maximum heat score with stand-in Captain Steve "Johnno" johnston on Thursday night. Tobi faces his first big test in his Witches career from our next meeting as due to some inbalances within the team regarding averages, he moves to a "heat leader" position within the side. Until now he has ridden as a "reserve" - giving him easier rides in most of his races, however, he's aquitted himself well and beaten many riders far more experienced than he is, so we don;t think he should have too many problems making the step-up. A lot of it is in the mental attitude, and young Tobi has his head firmly screwed on - I can't see him letting the pressure get to him too badly. Good luck Tobi!

Robyn

All the fun of the fair

Ben and I added a new piece of kit to our bag yesterday with the purchase of a second-hand Canon EOS 20D. It's pretty much a carbon copy of my 30D - just without spot-metering and third-stop ISO adjustment, and with a slightly smaller screen. For a while now we've noticed that we tend to have our long lenses on the cameras a fair amount when we're out and about, leading to us missing shots which could have been better captured with a shorter focal length. We also had a bit of a scare with the D30 the other week - now sorted out - which left me feeling that I would be "safer" with a more up to date body as a back-up. The intention is that as well as using the 20D as a shared body when we're both out, I can use it as an additional at speedway, saving me needing to change lenses as often - not a bad thing in such a dusty environment. MPB Photographic of Brighton impressed me a huge amount - they were easy to deal with, and their kit is exactly as described. I'd certainly use them again in the future. Having picked up the camera, I took it for a wander along Brighton Pier in order to check it out and get all the custom settings sorted out - judging by this shot, it certainly handles colour well enough!

Robyn