IPSWICH Evening Star Witches No.1 Jarek Hampel last night apologised to Witches fans for not being able to be at Foxhall for Thursday night's crucial double header with Coventry and Poole.

Mike Bacon

IPSWICH Evening Star Witches No.1 Jarek Hampel last night apologised to Witches fans for not being able to be at Foxhall for Thursday night's crucial double header with Coventry and Poole.

Hampel will be riding for his Polish club Leszno, as they attempt to reach the Gold Medal Extra League play-off finals, in a second leg clash with Czestochowa.

“I can't do anything about it,” Hampel said.

“If I don't ride for Leszno there will be about 30,000 people in the town try to kill me.

“I'm a Polish rider and this is their big finals. I'm so sorry to the Ipswich fans, but the meeting was rained off on Sunday and Thursday was the only date they could make it. I have no alternative but to be in Poland. There are no options.”

Witches captain Chris Louis confirmed the situation.

“There is absolutely nothing we can do about it,” Louis said.

“We can try and make Jarek ride, but firstly, and understandably, he won't, and secondly the repercussions for him in Poland would probably see him banned from riding for us again this season.

“It's a big shame and one of the pitfalls of having a mainly Polish team because the PZM have no agreement with the BSPA over this type of ruling. We have few options and we are doing all we can to see what we can do.”

As for the meeting last night at Peterborough, Ipswich's Piotr Swiderski, who was off-form said: “The track was very slick, and I had big problems at the gate. I dropped the clutch but nothing was happening and once behind it was very difficult to pass.”

Witches team boss Pete Simmons said: “I'm bitterly disappointed, the track conditions were not good, but the same for both teams.

“Rider replacement got six points, but Carl Wilkinson, despite giving 110 per cent failed to get a point, whereas Robert (Miskowiak) would have got a few.”