Ipswich Witches v Sheffield Tigers

IPSWICH returned to winning ways with a 52-38 victory over Sheffield as a dramatic finale to the meeting also saw them take the aggregate point.

There were only four points between the sides after Heat 12 but the Witches finished with a 4-2 and two 5-1s, with the aggregate scores being tied when Tigers skipper Josh Pickering crashed out of second place in Heat 15.

Pickering picked himself up to win the subsequent Super Heat but crucially it was home duo Tom Brennan and Scott Nicholls who kept Chris Holder at the back as their side moved back to third place in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership table.

Witches skipper Danny King returned from a broken rib with a 12-point maximum from four rides, whilst Nicholls (12+2) and Brennan (9+1) both made major contributions. Pickering top-scored for the Tigers with 11+1, but they currently find themselves outside the top four.

Ipswich boss Paul Hurry said: “At some point, people have an off-night, and when you do, the others have to step up. Those are the ingredients you need to have a winning team.

“When Tobi (Musielak) and Richard (Lawson) didn’t have their best nights, Danny, Scott and Tom stepped up. It was a great effort.

“People don’t become bad riders overnight, and you stick with them. When you drop them and they regain their form, other teams benefit from that.”

Pickering said: “If I stayed up, it would’ve been enough and we’d have been okay and it wouldn’t have been a Super Heat.

“But, unfortunately, when you’re racing it’s hard to switch off sometimes and if I’d have known it was so ‘marbley’ how it was, there’s no way in the world I would’ve followed Tom in on the outside – and that’s rider error.

“I know we could’ve been in a much better position from other riders to get us that point – but we weren’t. We were then in that point in Heat 15 and I stuffed it.”

IPSWICH 52: Scott Nicholls 12+2, Danny King 12, Tom Brennan 9+1, Tobiasz Musielak 6, Will Cairns 5+1, Richard Lawson 5, Jason Edwards 3+1.
SHEFFIELD 38: Josh Pickering 11+1, Anders Rowe 7, Chris Holder 6, Leon Flint 5, Jye Etheridge 4, Luke Killeen 3+1, Nicolai Klindt 2+1.
Aggregate scores tied. Ipswich win the aggregate point after winning a Super Heat 5-4

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Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT