Sheffield Tigers 50 Ipswich Witches 42

IPSWICH ‘Sackers’ Witches boss Pete Simmons admitted to being frustrated at his side’s failure to grab a point at Sheffield on Thursday night.

The Suffolk side lost by eight points on the big Owlerton circuit, with Leigh Lanham and Mat Tresarrieu starring with 11 points each.

But when Ipswich got back to 32-30 with just five heats to go, the chance of at least a bonus point was on the cards.

“We didn’t start well, but got ourselves back into the meeting,” Simmons said.

“I though after Kevin (Doolan) and Dakota (North) got a 5-1 over their top two, we might go on and get a point, although to win was always going to be difficult.

“But we fell away a bit at the end which was a shame.

“The boys couldn’t be faulted though and gate four undone us a bit at the end. It was a graveyard.

“I could have used the tactical ride in heat five when we were ten points down, but Leigh Lanham and Morten Risager who were in the first heat were well beaten then, but sod’s law they rode superbly to get a 4-2 in heat five.

The Witches travel to Leicester in another Premier League fixture on Saturday night and will hope Rohan Tungate solves his mechanical problems that bugged him at Sheffield.

“Rohan had bike problems all night and Kevin Doolan was on his second bike too, after his first was bent in a crash with Chris Schramm.

“That didn’t help, but there were plenty of good things and we go to Leicester in good heart and to a track we have had some good meetings on in the past.”

Teams

Leicester: M Karlsson, L Eklof, L Bjerre, J Graversen, K Nieminen, J Makinen, L Blackbird.

Ipswich: L Lanham, M Risager, D North, K Doolan, R Tungate, M Tresarrieu, C Heeps.

Scorers – Sheffield: J Franc 5+3, R/R, C Schramm 4, R Hall 8+1, R Wells 14, H Skidmore 9, J Haines 10+2.

Ipswich: L Lanham 11, M Risager 4+1, D North 9, K Doolan 5+2, R Tungate 1+1, M Tressarieu 11, C Heeps 1.

Heat details

1 Skidmore, Franc, Risager, Lanham 62.0, 5-1

2 Tresarrieu, Skidmore, Haines, Heeps 63.1, 8-4

3 Hall, North, Schramm, Doolan 65.0 12-6

4 Wells, Haines, Heeps, Tungate (ret) 65.2, 17-7

5 Lanham, Schramm, Risager, Hall 65.8, 19-11

6 Haines, Franc, Tresarrieu, Tungate (f) 64.5, 24-12

7 Wells, North, Doolan, Skidmore 63.7, 27-17

8 Tresarrieu, Risager, Haines, Skidmore 64.8, 28-22

9 Hall, Tresarrieu, Tungate, Schramm (f) 65.2, 31-25

10 North, Doolan, Wells, Franc 65.0, 32-30

11 Wells, Lanham, Skidmore, Risager 65.3, 36-32

12 Haines, Tressarieu, Schramm, North, 65.5, 40-34

13 Lanham, Wells, Franc, Tresarrieu, 66.3, 43-37

14 Skidmore, Doolan, Hall, Heeps, 66.1, 47-39

15 Lanham, Wells, Hall, North 65.8, 50-42