Simmons fury as ref takes no look

Mike Bacon

STILL without an away point on their travels this season, after the defeat at Peterborough, Ipswich Witches boss Pete Simmons rued the actions of referee Margaret Vardy, which he felt got the visitors off to a disastrous start.

While it was clear to many in the stadium Henning Bager had both wheels over the grass, as he past Dawid Stachyra in heat two, an excludable offence, referee Vardy did not come to the centre green to view the evidence.

“The referee gave us nothing and we got off to a bad start as a result,” Simmons said.

“The guy (Bager) was clearly over the grass and not on the track. The ref said she was coming to take a look, but then changed her mind and got on with heat three.

“It was visibly clear what Bager had done, you can see the tyre marks, it wasn't difficult to take in. Yet one heat later she excludes Robert (Miskowiak) for not having a dirt deflector on, which is fair enough, but she was happy to view the evidence of that.

“We could just have done without that sort of start and already we were 10 points down. I'm sure things will improve and Troy Batchelor was superb tonight for us, as was Miskowiak who rode really hard and would have had three more points but for the exclusion.

“Scotty too showed good form at times, but I expected at least a point from tonight and again we've failed to deliver.”

Batchelor, meanwhile, made an impressive debut for the Witches.

The young Australian, who lives in Norfolk, is already looking forward to riding for the Witches at home on Thursday.

“If you can gate well, Foxhall is a good track and I'm hoping for a decent night on Thursday,” Batchelor said.

“Everyone so far has been nice and helpful. It's a relaxed club with a good atmosphere. I'm disappointed we didn't get our first point away from home here tonight, but it will come I'm sure.”

Ipswich, meanwhile, travel to Poole tomorrow, are at home to Wolves on Thursday and travel to Coventry on Friday.