DANNY King is hoping to be back on a bike next week, as Ipswich Witches search for another impressive home performance at Foxhall Stadium tonight.Witches captain King broke his sternum in a track crash in Sweden last Tuesday, and two nights later the Witches thrashed Poole to continue their climb towards the middle of the Elite League.

Mike Bacon

DANNY King is hoping to be back on a bike next week, as Ipswich Witches search for another impressive home performance at Foxhall Stadium tonight.

Witches captain King broke his sternum in a track crash in Sweden last Tuesday, and two nights later the Witches thrashed Poole to continue their climb towards the middle of the Elite League.

The new-look Witches have impressed, and King couldn't be more delighted.

“I think the new team is impressive, really good. The atmosphere is excellent and it just makes my job as captain really easy.

“I'm hoping to be back next week, I did think about riding on Thursday, but I don't think I could do it.”

King has returned to Foxhall and has not only taken over the captaincy from Leigh Lanham, who has moved to Newport, but also upped his average.

“I haven't progressed as much as I would have liked, although I know I've done OK, getting into Team GB and upping my average.

“But I want a strong finish.”

The Witches entertain Peterborough tonight and will hope to continue their fine form of late, using rider replacement for the injured King. Panther's team manager Trevor Swales has shuffled his pack after the release of the new averages. Claus Vissing moves up into the team to partner captain Niels Kristian Iversen at No.2, Kenneth Hansen at three will now be partnered with Kenneth Bjerre and Mads Korneliussen takes over the No.5 race jacket.

Swales said: “I felt we needed to change something because we are not getting the results in the right places and we are certainly lacking race wins, this should make us stronger in heat 14 and provides us with other options.”

Promoter Mick Bratley said: “Every time we face Ipswich, there seems to be some sort of controversy. At home we had the 'white line' incident, and I witnessed John Louis almost self-combust.

“Then in our last visit to Foxhall, Bob the track man used almost his whole year's budget for diesel on re-laying the track during the heat eight interval, also causing John to nearly self-combust!

“Seriously though, I always enjoy our visits to Foxhall, though I don't always enjoy the results.”

Ipswich: 1 Scott Nicholls, 2 Tobias Kroner, 3 Robert Miskowiak, 4 R/R, 5 Troy Batchelor, 6 Dawid Stachyra, 7 Carl Wilkinson.

Peterborough: 1 Niels K Iversen, 2 Claus Vissing, 3 Mads Korneliussen, 4 Kenneth Hansen, 5 Kenneth Bjerre, 6 Ales Dryml, 7 Henning Bager.