By Henry Chard
All the details ahead of our ROWE Motor Oil Premiership R2 fixture with Oxford.
WHEN & WHERE
The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches travel to Oxford to face the Spires at the Oxford Stadium on Thursday 13th June in a ROWE Motor Oil Premiership R2 fixture that starts at 7.30pm.
TEAMS
OXFORD: 1. Rohan Tungate 7.38 2. Charles Wright 6.36 3. Lewis Kerr 5.26 4. Maciej Janowski 5.18 5. Chris Harris 6.64 © 6. Erik Riss 4.74 7. Ashton Boughen (RS). Team Manager: Peter Schroeck
IPSWICH: 1. R/R for Jason Doyle 9.36 2. Dan Thompson 4.46 (RS) 3. Adam Ellis 5.95 4. Norick Blödorn (G) 7.50 5. Emil Sayfutdinov 9.24 © 6. Keynan Rew 4.15 7. Jordan Jenkins 4.00. Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
REFEREE: C. Turnbull
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP TABLE
| Team | Meetings | Points |
| Ipswich | 11 | 21 |
| Sheffield | 10 | 17 |
| Belle Vue | 11 | 17 |
| Oxford | 11 | 13 |
| Leicester | 10 | 12 |
| Birmingham | 11 | 6 |
| King’s Lynn* | 8 | 1 |
TICKETS
Tickets are available to purchase online in advance here.
THE STORY
The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches travel to Oxford in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership on Thursday.
The Witches returned to league action on Monday at home to Sheffield and recorded a 50-40 win over the reigning champions to go four points clear at the top of the table.
The visitors will be operating rider replacement at number one for the injured Jason Doyle whilst Norick Blödorn comes in for the injured Danny King. Blödorn raced to an impressive 12+1 on his last guest appearance for the Witches away at Birmingham. The management continue to work on a replacement for Doyle, who is out for the season, whilst skipper King is edging closer to a return.
The Suffolk side won on their previous visit to the Oxford Stadium, picking up a 48-42 victory back in April.
FROM THE BOSS
Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins gives us his pre-match thoughts…
“We are expecting a really tough test, when you look at them on paper, they are a really good team. We won there earlier in the year, and we were very good that night, so we will need a similar performance from everybody. We will have rider replacement for Jason at one, so that means we can’t be carrying any passengers and Norick is coming in for Danny. After his performance at Birmingham, I’m sure everyone is delighted to see him in an Ipswich race jacket again and he will be very happy to come in and we look forward to having him.
“Danny is hoping to get back on the bike again later this week. After his practice last Thursday, he needed another week off, but we hope he will be back for our next home match next Thursday.
“I have heard a lot of rumours, talk and questions about who is coming in for Jason. At this current time, we have no progress to report, and we will be carrying on with guests and R/R for the time being. We will continue working on it as we would prefer to have a full one to seven if possible.”
THE SPIRES
Oxford have made a solid return to the top-flight and currently find themselves in fourth position in the table. It is their first time back at the top table of British speedway since 2007 and they’ve started strongly at home with five wins from six outings so far, that defeat coming at the hands of Ipswich. Their home meetings tend to be tight ones though with their biggest margin of victory being 47-43.
Rohan Tungate has moved to the number one position for the Spires since we last faced them with former Grand Prix rider Maciej Janowski moving to number four. Recent Ipswich guest Chris Harris captains Oxford and Lewis Kerr is now at number three having returned from injury.
AWAY DAYS
An adult ticket costs £22 with accompanied children under 16 going free if bought in advance. There is a £2 price increase for adult tickets purchased on the day. Due to limited parking at the stadium, free parking will be available thanks to Unipart at their site just a short walk from the stadium (approx 800m) on a first come first served basis, please remember to select this option if required when purchasing your tickets as this will be required when arriving at the car park. A free shuttle bus service will be provided to and from the stadium from the Unipart car park site. Unipart postcode is OX4 2PG. Limited disabled car parking is available at the stadium; these spaces are on a first come first served basis. For further information head here.
For more information about the club head to Oxford’s official website.
Digital Media Manager at Ipswich Speedway