EIGHT POINT LEAD FOR WITCHES

IPSWICH have an eight-point lead to take to Leicester on Thursday with their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final perfectly poised at the halfway stage.

The Witches won the first leg 49-41 at Foxhall which resulted in mixed emotions as they had raced into a 16-point advantage after ten races only for the Lions to battle back strongly in the closing stages.

Guest Jan Kvech scored 10+1 for the home side with fellow stand-in Tom Brennan and captain Danny King both notching nine.

Lions skipper Max Fricke (10+1) recovered from a slow start to the meeting to dominate his latter rides, and his 5-1 with Sam Masters (10) in the final race of the night could yet prove vital.

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It was good to get our first win for a while by eight points and all the boys contributed. It felt a lot more like a performance we had earlier on in the season with everyone chipping in with points, and it was much-needed tonight.

“We built a big lead early on, but we knew they would come back strong as the track slickened off a bit and they had the better gates in the latter stages of the meeting.

“Heat 15 is a bit of a blow to us, but we go into Thursday in a decent position being eight up and ready to fight for a place in the final again.”

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “We tried to keep it together and not let it get totally out of reach, and the 5-1 in Heat 15 was pivotal because I would have been happy to walk away with a 12-point gap, I was thinking that was as good as we could get.

“We didn’t race well but that’s taking nothing away from Ipswich, they did race well. They asked questions of us, and we didn’t quite have the answers.

“But the tie is still bubbly for Thursday. We need to ride better, Ipswich were the better side tonight, but we’ve kept the tie alive for the second leg.”

OFFICIAL REFEREE SCORECARD
Available here

Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT