By Rob Binns
Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins has high hopes for the 2025 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership season.
Hawkins is excited for the season to get underway and believes that after last season’s injury struggles, the Witches are ready to win the league title.
He said: “It’s good to get back, especially after last season and how it ended. It’s nice to be back and have everyone positive, fit again and ready to go. Between this side, they’ve won absolutely everything in the sport and now we need to do it together as an Ipswich team. It’s been a long while since we’ve won team trophies, and we’ve lost a lot of finals that I can pinpoint every one where they went wrong.
“I think winning the Knockout Cup [in 2023] got that monkey off our back and I believe we would’ve won one or two trophies last year if it hadn’t been for the injuries. I think this is a team, if we can keep them together, that is mentally strong enough to get ourselves over the line this time.”
Ipswich go into the new season with six of the seven riders from last year with Tom Brennan coming in in place of Keynan Rew and Hawkins spoke of the importance of keeping this group together.
He said: “Everyone was great to work with and obviously we were flying before the injuries struck so we wanted to keep it pretty similar. Everyone knew Danny (King) would be back fit, Doyley (Jason Doyle) as well and Emil (Sayfutdinov) coming back is always a big bonus every year so yeah, everyone is back fit, and we hope to pick up from where we were before the injuries.
“Just one change in bringing in Tom who has rode for us a lot anyway, so it keeps things pretty similar. He’s settled in well; we’re quite a heavily British side and all the Brits know each other well and he rides with Doyley anyway so we’re a close-knit group. When guests come in it’s something I’m looking at, that they fit into that as well before you sign them permanently, so it’s been pretty simple for him to slot in with us.
“[Over the winter] they’ve seen each other about when they’re practicing, and we’ve kept in touch. Everyone was initially concentrating on getting back fit and it’s nice to have a little break, but everyone is really keen to get going again now. We’ve kept a good team spirit in the majority of my time here and I think that’s led to the majority of good results. Someone like Adam (Ellis) is paramount in that and it makes a big difference when things are tough like last year and in previous years when we’ve been successful against all odds.
“I’ve got a very good relationship with all the boys, and I know how they work now, most of them. It’s certainly working, you can’t allow for injuries, but our results have been good. I’ll give them absolutely everything and they know that and that’s the main thing.”
Hawkins insists the Witches’ aim for the 2025 season is to win trophies but knows there’s a lot of work to do starting with the quarter-final of the Knockout Cup against the Belle Vue Aces.
“Our goal is to win both trophies and do the double. I think that’s a realistic goal as well but that’s a long way off and the toughest test we could have is at Belle Vue in this first meeting. Opening nights can always be banana skins and we’ve got the hardest test possible against the reigning league champions.
“They’re definitely one of the top three sides on paper, probably us and them are the top two sides on paper in the league. We couldn’t have asked for a tougher test so if we can get through this week then we’ll have a bit of time to relax into the league before the next round of the cup.”