Ipswich Witches 54-36 Peterborough Panthers: Speedway report

Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov both registered maximums as the Witches dominated the race wins, and with skipper Danny King also in double figures, the Panthers were limited to just four successes on the night.

The visitors were hampered by the absence of both regular reserves, Rising Star Jordan Jenkins having been hurt in a heavy crash at Oxford on Wednesday, and the Witches took full advantage that area with Danyon Hume and Dan Thompson racking up 11 (paid 14) between them, as Thompson in particular continued his excellent improvement during his fledgling Ipswich career.

Dan Thompson (blue) and Danyon Hume congratulate each other after a 5-1 in heat two (Image: Steve Waller)

The former Leicester youngster was involved in both early 5-1s which broke the deadlock, combining with Hume for a tapes-to-flag triumph in Heat 2 and then taking the scalp of Vadim Tarasenko for maximum points along with Doyle in Heat 4.

Sayfutdinov had won the opening race, which was shared, but the Panthers did take a 4-2 in Heat 3 with King splitting Benjamin Basso and Ben Cook to at least prevent a 5-1, and King then limited any damage by taking a re-started Heat 5 over Richie Worrall and Niels-Kristian Iversen after Erik Riss had come to grief.

Sayfutdinov and Doyle added clear wins in Heats 6 and 7 but the Panthers kept in touch with a series of 3-3s, and Heat 8 was also shared with a win for captain Richie Worrall over Keynan Rew and Thompson.

Stand-in Peterborough boss Laurence Rogers made his move in Heat 9 with a tactical substitute outing for Basso, but he came down on the second lap as he tried to get the better of Riss, with Tarasenko defeating King in yet another 3-3.

Erik Riss crashes out in heat five (Image: Steve Waller)

But the Witches then began to pull clear with back-to-back 4-2s even though Basso split Sayfutdinov and Rew in Heat 10, and there was a fine effort by Hume to keep Iversen at the back of Heat 11 as Doyle maintained his winning run.

After a shared Heat 12, the Witches finished strongly with Sayfutdinov and Doyle taking a convincing 5-1 over Tarasenko and Iversen in Heat 13 to extend the gap to 14 points, before Ben Cook produced a strong effort to defeat Hume in Heat 14 which again ended 3-3.

But there was one more maximum advantage for the Witches to enjoy and with Sayfutdinov sitting out Heat 15 on this occasion it was King who teamed up with Doyle for the 5-1, as Cook’s night came to an end with a fall coming out of the final corner.

Witches boss Ritchie Hawkins said: "I’m obviously happy to win, and to win convincingly. There were lots of positives to take from the meeting.

"We certainly can’t get carried away with beating Peterborough because they’re struggling - but we can only beat who’s in front of us, and tonight we did a good, solid professional job."

Danny King inside Benjamin Basso and Dan Thompson in heat 12 (Image: Steve Waller)

He added: “We have ten days off now and then we have three away meetings, and that’s when we’re going to need to up our game and perform in them.

"If we can pull off a win at Leicester that will get the ball rolling into the next two meetings.

"It’s important for us to get into the Knockout Cup final, where we’ve got great lead, and we’ve got a very important trip to King’s Lynn where we need to win."