Ipswich Witches 52 Edinburgh Monarchs 38 Aggregate score: Ipswich 86 Edinburgh 94
Ipswich Witches needed a miracle performance . . . but they never looked like producing one as Edinburgh cruised into the League Cup final.
Twenty-two points up from the first leg, the Scottish giants were professionalism personified as they started the meeting well and never let the Witches get up any sort of momentum, as they ran out 94-86 aggregate victors.
Yet, in the end it was a shame the home side left themselves so much to do after a poor first leg in Scotland, because they didn’t ride badly and fully deserved their 14-point victory on the night.
Admittedly the Monarchs were without their talisman Craig Cook, who was ill, but at least the Witches made the most of that fact.
Danny King roared to a paid maximum and Nico Covatti dropped just one point. With Ashley Morris gating to two heat wins, but it wasn’t hard to see where the Witches failed in their bid to overturn the big Monarchs lead.
Both Gino Manzares and Cameron Heeps dropped points when in good scoring positions, although Manzares was unlucky that his engine blew.
Rohan Tungate only came to the party with the meeting over – his win in heat 14 the highlight.
The season is not over for the Witches just yet though and all eyes now turn to Plymouth to see how they fare in their final Premier League fixtures.
Should they not overtake the Witches, certainly the Suffolk side are one of the form teams – if not the form team – in the League right now.
All that could be too late however and if it is, this will be a big season of missed opportunity.
Ipswich: D King 14+1, C Heeps 3+1, G Manzares 2+1, R Tungate 8, N Covatti 13+1, S Nielsen 4, A Morris 8
Edinburgh: R Fisher 6+2, J Sedgmen 5, K Wolbert 10, E Riss 2, S Masters 9, M Clegg 4+1, R Branford 2
1 King, Sedgmen, Fisher, Heeps 56.5 3-3
2 Morris, Clegg, Nielsen, Branford 59.2 7-5
3 Wolbert, Tungate, Manzares, Riss 57.9 10-8
4 Masters, Covatti, Branford, Morris 58.6 12-12
5 Sedgmen, Fisher, Tungate, Manzares (e/f) 59.1 13-17
6 King, Masters, Clegg, Heeps (f/r) 57.5 16-20
7 Covatti, Wolbert, Nielsen, Riss 58.2 20-22
8 Morris, Heeps, Branford, Sedgmen 59.4 25-23
9 Masters, Tungate, Manzares, Clegg 58.8 28-26
10 King, Wolbert, Heeps, Riss 58.5 32-28
11 Covatti, Fisher, Nielsen, Sedgmen 58.5 36-30
12 Wolbert, Morris, Clegg, Manzares 59.2 38-34
13 Covatti, King, Fisher, Masters (r) 58.4 43-35
14 Tungate, Riss, Nielsen, Branford 59.4 47-37
15 King, Covatti, Masters, Wolbert 59.0 52-38
Aggregate: Ipswich 86 Edinburgh 94
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