Ipswich Witches v Sheffield Tigers

Report

IPSWICH secured their first full team silverware since 1998 with victory over Sheffield in the Premiership KO Cup Final.

The Witches faced a six-point deficit heading into their home leg at Foxhall and comfortably defeated the Tigers 55-35 for a 14-point margin overall.

A dominant display from the home side saw them provide all but two of the race winners – both of those coming from Sheffield guest Max Fricke in the early stages of the meeting.

Jason Doyle raced to a 12-point maximum for the Witches with Emil Sayfutdinov scoring 13+1 and Danny King 12 from five rides apiece, whilst Keynan Rew made a key contribution at reserve with 9+1. Tobiasz Musielak top-scored for the Tigers with nine.

Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “A brilliant night and a great team performance. I thought the track was superb tonight, perfect for us.

“We have had a lot of different variations that we have experimented with and tried different setups, but I think it suited us down to the ground tonight. The boys have got used to the grip and used it to our advantage and I thought it was a superb performance all round.

“We know Sheffield are a good team, they are in the Cup Final and the play-offs. Tonight, we stepped up more than them – if they all click together, they are a solid team but today we all clicked and contributed, and it was deserved.

“Out of the six fixtures in this Cup run we have done very well and been solid throughout this competition and deserved to win it. It is nice to get the monkey off the back and nice to win a Final, and the boys did it in great style.”

Sheffield manager Simon Stead said: “Over the two meetings we were beaten by the better team. We know we need to be better as we look towards the play-offs and there’s a lot we need to work on.

“We’ve been unsettled losing Jack (Holder) and then Tai (Woffinden) to injury but we need to overcome that. I believe we’ve still got it in us, we just didn’t show it against Ipswich.”

PREMIERSHIP KO CUP FINAL, 2nd leg
IPSWICH 55: Emil Sayfutdinov 13+1, Danny King 12, Jason Doyle 12, Keynan Rew 9+1, Danyon Hume 4+1, Erik Riss 3+1, Joe Thompson 2+1.
SHEFFIELD 35: Tobiasz Musielak 9, Max Fricke 8, Chris Holder 6, Jason Edwards 5+1, Josh Pickering 4+2, Kyle Howarth 2+2, Kyle Newman 1+1.
Ipswich win 97-83 on aggregate

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Photo credit: PHIL HILTON