SPEEDWAY: Ipswich Witches director of speedway, Chris Louis, has hit out at Edinburgh Monarchs, after the Scottish side refused two dates to come to Foxhall for their KO Cup semi-final clash.

Ipswich had pencilled in the spare dates at Foxhall for rain-off or cup fixtures – one being tonight, the other being next Thursday.

But, despite having plenty of fixtures still to race, Edinburgh refused both dates, much to the fury of Louis.

“To say I’m not very happy about the situation is an understatement,” Louis said.

“All clubs were sent a memo recently from the BSPA to ask for co-operation to get meetings run after we had so many call-offs earlier on.

“We’ve had these two dates in August set aside for just the situation we find ourselves in, but Edinburgh’s excuses not to come are very poor.

“They couldn’t come this week because they are staging Matthew Wethers’ Testimonial on Friday. And they can’t come next week because two of their riders are racing in another Testimonial – I assume it’s Jason Lyons Testimonial at Birmingham.”

It leaves the Witches without a lucrative race meeting tonight in the middle of the school holidays, as well as meaning they could potentially have a huge fixture headache, should they beat the Monarchs in the semi-final, beat Workington in the League Cup semi-final and reach the end-of-season Premier League play-offs.

However, Ipswich will be staging the John Berry Tribute Meeting at Foxhall Stadium next Thursday, with Louis admitting it will be nice to pay respects throughout the night to a man so instrumental in making the Witches the club it is today.

“JB had a lot of friends here in Ipswich and it will be nice for everyone to get together to pay their respects.”

The meeting will take the shape of a 13-heat clash, a full champion of the evening second half, as well as a get-together of former Berry greats, including John Louis, Tony Davey, Preben Eriksen, Kevin Jolly, Mike Lanham, Ollie Nygren, Mick and Andy Hines, and more.