Ipswich Witches 35 Lakeside Hammers 54
Ipswich Witches’ No.1 Danny King crashed out at Foxhall Stadium tonight as the Suffolk side’s hopes of a KO Cup run are as good as over.
King and partner Michael Haertel tangled while the pair chased the Lakeside Hammers’ duo of Nick Morris and Ben Morley in heat one.
Coming out of the second turn on lap two, the pair caught up and in a slow, but ugly, awkward crash the two fell to the floor.
It left King with a suspected arm injury and he was taken to hospital.
Already without Nico Covatti, who broke ribs two weeks ago, the Witches were down to just five fit riders. Lakeside took full advantage, as good as booking their place in the next round, even before Friday night’s second leg takes place.
It was cruel luck on the Witches who suffered so badly with injuries last year. This year hasn’t started much better.
Already out of the Shield and having to produce a miracle of a performance at Lakeside to stay in the Cup, the Championship League is likely to be all the team have to race for by the end of tonight – with King possibly facing a spell on the sidelines.
After a long break for King to be seen to, Rory Schlein took his place in heat one, duly bringing the crowd to their feet with a last to first ride. The Hammers gated to the front once more in the next and it took a good ride by Connor Mountain to split the pair. Heat three saw Adam Ellis and Kyle Newman hit the front for the visitors once more. Despite Cameron Heeps’ efforts, the visitors took an early six-point lead.
Lawson flew from the start to win the next as Lakeside turned the screw. But Heeps perked the Foxhall faithful up with a fine tapes to flag win in the next.
Lawson was looking quick though and he won his second race in three.
The impressive Ellis/Newman partnership hammered home another 5-1 as the Essex took a 10-point lead. Heeps thunderered under Morley on lap two as he won his second race of the night. Lawson was impressing and he won heat nine, but the tie was already beyond the Witches.
Ellis, gating superbly, was another who made it three wins out of three as Morris passed Schlein in heat 11 to seal the meeting.
There was still time for Heeps and Haertel to win races for the home side. But this was a horrible night for the home fans, who will now wait anxiously to find out long their skipper King will be out for.
Meanwhile, Mildenhall beat Isle of Wight 59-31 last night in a National Trophy clash. Drew Kemp and Josh Bailey both scored maximums.
Ipswich: D King 0, R/R, C Heeps 14+1, M Haertel 6, R Schlein 8, C Mountain 4+1, D Hume 3
Lakeside: N Morris 10, B Morley 4+1, A Ellis 13+1, K Newman 7+2, R Lawson 14+1, M Clegg 3, A Bowtell 3+1
Heat details
1 Schlein, Morris, Morley, Haertel (ex), King (ns) 57.5 3-3
2 Clegg, Mountain, Bowtell, Hume 59.0 5-7
3 Ellis, Newman, Heeps, Haertel 58.1 6-12
4 Lawson, Schlein, Bowell, Hume 57.7 8-16
5 Heeps, Morris, Haertel, Morley 57.9 12-18
6 Lawson, Heeps, Mountain, Clegg 56.7 15-21
7 Ellis, Newman, Schlein, Hume 57.4 16-26
8 Heeps, Morley, Bowtell, Mountain 58.4 19-29
9 Lawson, Haertel, Heeps, Clegg 58.2 22-32
10 Ellis, Hume, Newman, Haertel 57.8 24-36
11 Morris, Schlein, Morley, Mountain 58.4 26-40
12 Heeps, Ellis, Hume, Clegg 58.1 30-42
13 Morris, Lawson, Hume, Schlein (r) 57.8 31-47
14 Haertel, Newman, Mountain, Bowtell 58.5 35-49
15 Lawson, Ellis, Heeps, Mountain 58.0 35-54
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