Speedway: Ipswich Witches retain captain Danny King
It'll be his fifteenth season at Foxhall
Ipswich Witches have announced club captain Danny King will stay on with them for the 2024 season.
King has been at Ipswich for the past eight seasons and next year will be his fifteenth at Foxhall.
He says it's no surprise he wanted to stay in Suffolk: “I think it is pretty obvious I don’t want to be anywhere else.
"Ipswich is my club and my home club and although I am not from Ipswich, I look at it as home.
"They have been so good to me, and they brought me up, they raised me as a rider, and I feel like I owe everything to them, and I am over the moon to be back.”
"It was an honour to stand on that podium"
The 37-year-old managed to fulfil his dream of lifting a title with Ipswich with the club winning the Knockout Cup last season: “It was unbelievable, it really was. I have waited a long time to do that, and I actually felt quite nervous going up those steps to collect the trophy.
"It is hard to build yourself up to how you are going to feel, and it was such a strange feeling, but it was a mixture of excitement and nervousness, but I got caught in the moment.
"I was so excited, and the boys were so happy, I am proud of everyone and the reception we got from the crowd was unreal. It was an honour to stand on that podium and lift that trophy in front of them all.”
"We want that league title"
The 2016 British champion says that defeat in the Premiership play-off final still hurts but has made him more determined to win the league title in 2024: “It almost feels like the one that got away, and it is still hard to take now.
"I really feel we should have been able to maintain that lead, but it is what it is and that is the sport and unfortunately, we were not good enough on the day.
"We want to retain the Knockout Cup but even more so, we want that league title and that is what we will be going for again.”
King suffered a hand injury in the final meeting of the year after a heavy fall but whilst that is healing, he says the preparation doesn’t stop for next year: “The left hand isn’t 100% yet, it is a niggling injury it seems but there is nothing broken.
"There is some sort of damage there so I am getting it checked out and getting some physio and hopefully in the next month or so it will be back to 100%."