WITCHES WIN DESPITE THE WEATHER

IPSWICH maintained top spot in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership with a weather-affected 37-23 win over King’s Lynn.

Only ten races were possible as heavy rain moved in at Foxhall during the afternoon, and the meeting was abandoned after an attempt to improve conditions was met with a further downpour.

Emil Sayfutdinov and Adam Ellis both scored 7+1 from three rides for the Witches with guest Scott Nicholls adding 6+2, whilst Niels-Kristian Iversen won two races for the Stars to finish with seven.

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “From a racing perspective it was another good performance and a comfortable win, but it was a bit overshadowed by the weather and not getting the full meeting in.

“We had a second half planned as well and a big day of racing, so it was a big disappointment for the big crowd we had in. Bank Holiday meetings are a special day and enjoyable, and it is a shame the weather has spoiled that.

“It started raining during the meeting and the boys were struggling, we saw a couple of crashes, but we pushed on to Heat 10 and I didn’t hear any of the 14 riders that wanted to carry on.”

Stars boss Rob Lyon said: “It was always going to be tough without our talisman and No.1 (Tobiasz Musielak) who’s pretty good around Ipswich, so we knew it was going to be a tough meeting.

“We were sort of hanging in there a little bit but it was obvious what the result was going to be, it was one of those days.

“It was 100 per cent correct to call it off. The weather just ruined it again and you couldn’t race in those conditions, so it was the right decision.”

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Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT