The Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches pairing of Danny King and Erik Riss just fell short of the semi-final at Leicester on Thursday night in the Sports Insure Premiership Pairs.

The Suffolk side went into the meeting as reigning champions but were without their top two Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov for this event, with Doyle having to ride for his Polish club in a re-arranged fixture which took priority and Sayfutdinov not contracted to ride.

However, skipper King and Riss were right in the mix throughout and were on course for the semi-final until a controversial exclusion for Riss in heat 19 ended their hopes of silverware. Belle Vue took the title on the night.

"I thought it was a decent performance," said Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins.

"We were leading for most of the qualifying heats and then made a hash of the fifth qualifying race and it put the pressure on the last one.

"I felt it was pretty clear on the BSN coverage that Erik had his leg taken but the ref said he fell over on his own.

"Danny started the meeting flying, he was making such good gates and that is brilliant to see for everyone. Erik improved every race and by the end of the meeting looked like his old self, so I was pleased with the boys.

"Dan (Thompson) did well in his ride and got stuck in. I can’t fault the team.

"It was one of those incidents that could have gone the other way and we could have been in the semi-final and then who knows what would have happened.

"I suppose Belle Vue would have been pre-meeting favourites and in the semi-final they looked really good.

"In a sense it was good to see Peterborough do well, which was a turn up for the books. They took a lot of criticism before the start of the meeting and then won the qualifying heats; it goes to show there is a lot more to racing than what is on paper and people’s opinions.”

The Witches are next in action when they host the Wolverhampton Wolves at Foxhall Stadium in the Sports Insure Premiership on Thursday night. 

 

PETERBOROUGH 33: Ben Cook 8, Richie Worrall 23, Jordan Jenkins (RS) 2. Team Manager: Rob Lyon

BELLE VUE 32: Dan Bewley 20, Brady Kurtz 12, Jake Mulford (RS) 0. Team Manager: Mark Lemon

SHEFFIELD 29: Jack Holder 16, Tobiasz Musielak 13, Dan Gilkes (RS) 0. Team Manager: Simon Stead

LEICESTER 26: Max Fricke 19, Justin Sedgmen 2, Drew Kemp (RS) 5. Team Manager: Stewart Dickson

IPSWICH 26: Erik Riss 8, Danny King 18, Dan Thompson (RS) 0. Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins

KING’S LYNN 22: Nicolai Klindt 22, Thomas Jorgensen 0, Anders Rowe (RS) 0. Team Manager: David Hoggart

WOLVES 21: Sam Masters 5, Steve Worrall 16, Leon Flint (RS) 0. Team Manager: Peter Adams

SEMI-FINAL: Kurtz, Bewley, Holder, Musielak – 7-2 to Belle Vue

FINAL: Kurtz, Bewley, Worrall, Cook - 7-2 to Belle Vue