IPSWICH Witches management will be hoping the entertainment being dished out on the newly-shaped Foxhall circuit begins to transform itself into Elite League points for the Suffolk outfit.

The new track has brought much praise from fans, riders and officials from both home and visiting teams so far this season, with the extra width on the straights and bends allowing for more manoeuvres and passing than ever before.

However, despite the extra excitement, the Witches have only picked up four points from five meetings and are going to have to start nailing home some Elite League points, before they start to leave themselves too much to do near the bottom of the Elite League.

This afternoon, start 2.30pm, the Witches entertain Peterborough in a meeting both sides will feel they can get points from.

The Panthers have made a decent start to the season and in Grand Prix star Kenneth Bjerre, Troy Batchelor and Niels Kristian Iversen, enjoy a potent heat leader trio.

But on Friday night, the Witches, minus Robert Miskowiak (riding in a European Championship event), and Dawid Stachyra (injured), pushed the Panthers all the way at the East of England Showground. Today should be a close encounter.

At Peterborough, the Witches riders most under pressure so early in the season, Claus Vissing and Olly Allen responded superbly with some gutsy and determined riding.

More of the same from those two today and the Witches will have a great chance of taking all three points.

Stachyra rode in Poland yesterday and is travelling to England today, despite a nasty crash in his native country last week that left him with neck injuries and ruled him out of Friday’s clash at Alwalton.

The Witches will need his presence in the reserve position, as they have had to call on Sheffield’s Hugh Skidmore at No.7, a Premier League guest, as Linus Sundstrom, Carl Wilkinson and No.8 Ritchie Hawkins are all in action for their sides on a busy Bank Holiday Monday speedway day.

Entertainment at Foxhall Stadium so far this season has been cranked up many notches, but it’s points on the board the Foxhall faithful want to see if the Witches are going to seriously contend for the play-off positions later in the season.

Today is all the fun of a Bank Holiday afternoon at Foxhall, with children, accompanied by a full-paying adult getting in for free, team posters for children, with riders signing them at a special poster-signing session before the meeting, so it is advisable to get there early.

This afternoon’s teams

Ipswich: 1 Scott Nicholls, 2 Olly Allen, 3 Claus Vissing, 4 Danny King, 5 Robert Miskowiak, 6 Dawid Stachyra, 7 Hugh Skidmore.

Peterborough: Niels K Iversen, 2 Ulrich Ostergaard, 3 Lewis Bridger, 4 Kenneth Bjerre, 5 Troy Batchelor, 6 Linus Eklof, 7 Krzysztof Buczkowski

CURRENT TABLE

P pts

Poole 9 23

Belle Vue 9 14

Lakeside 8 14

Peterborough 6 13

Eastbourne 9 12

Wolves 6 10

Swindon 6 8

Ipswich 5 4

Coventry 8 3