Edinburgh Monarchs 48 Ipswich Witches 44

Ipswich Witches grabbed themselves a battling point after a tough night of racing at Edinburgh on Friday night.

The Suffolk side were not helped by the withdrawal of guest Thomas Jorgensen, who failed to score and crashed in his second ride. Without Jorgensen and with rider replacement already being used for Justin Sedgmen, the visitors were always up against it, but kept going to grab a losing point.

After seeing off Workington in the first part of this double header, the home side set about making it two straight wins and Sam Masters got them off to a good start in heat one, with Danny King giving chase all the way.

The Witches shared the reserves race after Connor Mountain recovered from losing a scoring position, to pass Mitchell Davey for third. Kyle Newman gave chase to Ricky Wells in the next but it was the home side who took a four-point lead.

Heat four was shared and the Witches were hanging on in there against a side buoyed by their first meeting win over the Comets.

Wells won his second race of the night as King again chased hard.

There was plenty of pushing and shoving coming out of the tapes in heat six and Masters ended up on the floor. He was up ok, but excluded. It allowed Rory Schlein to become the Witches first winner of the night.

There was an extraordinary incident in heat seven as Witches guest Thomas Jorgensen and Edinburgh’s Davey both fell almost alongside each other and both were excluded as neither took the other down. In a match race, Erik Riss beat Newman.

Edinburgh stretched their lead to seven and then nine as the Witches were struggling to get a race winner. Jorgensen withdrew from the meeting after his crash.

Newman passed Masters as King took a tactical ride in heat 11. The Ipswich skipper won as the visitors pulled three points back.

Ipswich reserves Mountain and Nathan Greaves were working hard and both were scoring well, as they shared heat 12. Masters was the next to pull out of the meeting as Schlein won again. Mark Riss gifted Mountain a point in heat 14 but while Schlein won heat 15, King was at the back.

- The Witches are part of another double header at leaders Sheffield Sunday afternoon (3.30pm) start in a Championship clash.

Redcar’s Jonas Andersen will guest for the Witches in place of Cameron Heeps. Mildenhall are in action at home to Cradley at West Row on Sunday (2.45pm).

Scorers

Edinburgh: S Masters 4, J Pickering 9, R Wells 14, M Riss 3, E Riss 11+1, M Clegg 7+1, M Davey 0.

Ipswich: D King 11, R/R, T Jorgensen 0, K Newman 9, R Schlein 13, N Greaves 5, C Mountain 6+3

Heat details

1 Masters, King, Pickering, Greaves 57.5 4-2

2 Clegg, Greaves, Mountain, Davey 59.1 7-5

3 Wells, Newman, M.Riss, Jorgensen 58.4 11-7

4 E.Riss, Schlein, Mountain, Davey 57.7 14-10

5 Wells, King, M.Riss, Newman 57.8 18-12

6 Schlein, Pickering, Greaves, Masters (f/x) 58.0 20-16

7 E Riss, Newman, Jorgensen (f/x), Davey (f/x) 58.3 23-18

8 Pickering, Mountain, Clegg, Greaves 58.2 27-20

9 Wells, Schlein, M.Riss, Greaves 58.7 31-22

10 Pickering, Newman, Masters, Mountain 59.5 35-24

11 King*, E.Riss, Clegg, Greaves 59.1 38-30

12 Wells, Greaves, Mountain, Clegg 59.8 41-33

13 Schlein, E.Riss, King, Davey 58.0 43-37

14 Newman, Clegg, Mountain, M.Riss 60.3 45-41

15 Schlein, Wells, E.Riss, King 58.8 48-44

*tac ride points count double

Edinburgh 3 pts. Ipswich 1 pt.