Sheffield Tigers v Ipswich Witches

Report

IPSWICH ended a ten-year hoodoo with a dramatic 46-44 win at ROWE Motor Oil Premiership champions Sheffield on Monday.

The league leaders, who lost the Grand Final at Owlerton last October and had not been victorious in South Yorkshire since 2014, edged a tight contest which boiled up into a tense finale.

Keynan Rew defeated Chris Holder in Heat 12 with Adam Ellis third to put the visitors in front, and the remaining three races were all shared with Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov keeping Jack Holder at the back in Heat 13 and then Chris in Heat 15, behind the flying Tai Woffinden.

Rew, Sayfutdinov and Doyle all scored 8+1 for Ipswich, whilst Rising Star Dan Thompson collected the Omologato rider of the meeting award for his 7+1 score. Woffinden scored 14 for the Tigers with Chris Holder on 11.

Witches manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “A brilliant result that carries on our terrific start to the season.

“I’m delighted that all seven contributed and we were so solid again. We were criticised heavily last year for being a two-man team, but we are far from that this year.

“There is still more to come from us, and I am not getting carried away with one win at Sheffield at this time of year because I think we will have a lot of tough battles against them this year, but it is nice to go 1-0 up!”

Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “It’s disappointing, we’re all hurting, but certain parts of the team were far from their best tonight and ultimately, Ipswich capitalised and we got caught short.

“We weren’t fielding our proper 1-7; Luke (Killeen) has come in at super late notice, and we thank him for that, but if Jason (Edwards) would’ve been here and popped out and done his normal thing then that would’ve made the difference.

“We know we need to improve at home, we have to work hard as a team, we’ve not been clicking all at the same time and that showed and that was our undoing.”

SHEFFIELD 44: Tai Woffinden 14, Chris Holder 11, Jack Holder 8, Josh Pickering 6+1, Dan Gilkes 3, Kyle Howarth 2+1, Luke Killeen 0.
IPSWICH 46: Emil Sayfutdinov 8+1, Jason Doyle 8+1,  Keynan Rew 8+1, Dan Thompson 7+1, Adam Ellis 6+1, Ryan Douglas 5+1, Jordan Jenkins 4+2.

OFFICIAL REFEREE SCORECARD
Available here

Photo credit: CHARLOTTE FLANIGAN