WITCHES BACK ON TOP

IPSWICH returned to the top of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership with a convincing 54-36 win over Leicester thanks to a hugely impressive start to the meeting.

Tracking their full-strength side for the first time since mid-May, the Foxhall side opened up with three straight 5-1s and led by 20 points after Heat 6.

A landslide victory looked on the cards before the Lions regrouped in the second half of the contest with skipper Max Fricke leading their response towards a respectable scoreline.

Tom Brennan led the Witches’ scoring with 11+1 as he was unbeaten barring a fall in his third ride, whilst Danny King put a weekend crash behind him to score 10+1.

Fricke racked up 16+1 from seven rides for the Lions and Ryan Douglas scored 9+1, being involved in 5-1s in Heats 11 and 12.

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “I am absolutely delighted to get the win in the fashion we did. I have to admit I was surprised we won so comfortably considering half of the boys are riding injured.

“That leaves you with doubts in your mind over how they are going to perform, but having that one-to-seven back together certainly gave the boys a spark and they seemed to gel.

“There is something special about them when they are all together, even under the circumstances where in reality they are nowhere near 100 per cent fit and could be doing with more time off.”

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “We were just getting bullied in the first corners. They were making better starts than us but even a couple of times when we did make the gate, the Ipswich riders were going by us as if we weren’t there.

“I did have a few words to say it was getting a bit embarrassing, we’re a lot better than that, and we said we wanted to be competitive in the second half of the meeting at least, to show that it wasn’t the real Leicester away from home.

“Max led from the front and Dougy picked up as the meeting went on, one or two of the other boys had difficult nights, but we can’t make excuses. It hasn’t happened very often, but you’ve got to be on it every match in this league or you’ll get found out to your cost.”

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Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT