Ipswich Witches v King’s Lynn Stars

IPSWICH enjoyed local derby success over King’s Lynn with a 50-40 win at Foxhall in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership.

Richard Lawson defied the stress of a van breakdown to score 14 points for the Witches, with he and Tom Brennan (12+2) only being denied maximums in the last race by Stars No.1 Max Fricke.

The home side went 16-points up at the halfway stage before the visitors staged something of a recovery including a 5-1 from Fricke and youngster Cooper Rushen over Tobiasz Musielak.
Fricke scored 12 from six rides for the visitors but they only managed three race wins, with 16-year-old Rushen picking up 6+3.

Ipswich boss Paul Hurry said: “There were a few little fiascos before the meeting. Richard’s van broke down.
“Richard is Richard – even if the applecart is falling apart around him, he still goes out there and does his job. You can’t fault him for that.

“I got a phone call at 7am to say, ‘Paul, my van has broken down.’ Very kindly, his Poole teammate Fraser Bowes brought him and his equipment up, which I would like to thank him for.

“We had to phone around and we found some. Cameron Heeps had sold an old Ipswich suit to someone, and they said they were more than happy for Richard to use it to get us through.

“He had emptied the van in a rush and, on the way up, Richard realised he had forgot to put his boots and race suit in.

“Fortunately, he keeps his head. Nothing really flusters him, and he went out there and did the job.”

King’s Lynn manager Rob Lyon said: “It felt a bit like a battle today if I’m honest, and again we started so slowly.

“We’d talked at length about how we needed to make sure we stayed with them in the first four or five heats, but it nearly mirrored what was going on in the first (KO Cup) meeting.

“We were really struggling at the midpoint of the meeting, but we did get it together towards the end, and it was a case of damage limitation really to make it as respectable as possible to give us a chance for the aggregate point.”

IPSWICH 50: Rickard Lawson 14, Tom Brennan 12+2, Danny King 8+1, Tobiasz Musielak 7, Jason Edwards 5+1, Jordan Jenkins 3, Scott Nicholls 1.
KING’S LYNN 40: Max Fricke 12, Ben Cook 7+2, Chris Harris 7+1, Cooper Rushen 6+3, Jan Kvech 6+1, Jody Scott 2+1, Paco Castagna 0.

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Photo credit: STEPHEN WALLER