DREAM START FOR WITCHES

EMIL Sayfutdinov made a triumphant return to British Speedway with a 14-point haul in Ipswich’s 48-42 win at Peterborough.

Sayfudtinov dropped just one point from five rides and combined with Witches No.1 Jason Doyle for 5-1s in Heats 13 and 15 as the visitors completed a comeback having been six points down with five races remaining.

But the success for Sayfutdinov was in stark contrast to a disastrous start for new Peterborough No.1 Nicki Pedersen, who crashed out of the meeting in Heat 1 when he hit the fence on the exit of the second bend.

The Danish superstar walked away from the incident but was withdrawn with lower back pain.

Doyle scored 10+4 for the Witches, being involved in all four of the Witches’ maximum advantages, whilst Benjamin Basso scored 13 for the Panthers and was the only rider to take points off the Ipswich top two.

Witches boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “I’m delighted to get an away win on the board early because it gives us a really good start to the league season. I was really happy with all seven of them, obviously there is room for improvement, clearly at the bottom end but there was also a lot of positive rides from them.

“Peterborough was a nice one to come back to for Emil and everyone really, it is always nice place to go. It suits Emil and he was rapid, and it was great to see. Him and Doyley are class, it is far from a given that they are going to do the business in Heat 13 and 15 but they did tonight.”

Panthers manager Rob Lyon said: “We got four paid five from Nicki’s rides, and that would have been tough against any of the other sides, let alone Ipswich.

“We just ran out of steam towards the end, but I think if you look at the rest of the team we did okay. The boys rode well at times, but we lacked that extra bit we needed at the end.”

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Photo credit: JEFF DAVIES