By Henry Chard
All the details ahead of our League Cup fixture with Peterborough.
WHEN & WHERE
The ‘Tru Mix’ Witches travel to Peterborough to face the Panthers at the East of England Arena & Events Centre on Monday 4th April in a League Cup fixture that starts at 7.30pm.
TEAMS
PETERBOROUGH: 1. Michael Palm Toft 7.17 2. Scott Nicholls 6.71 © 3. Ulrich Ostergaard 7.09 4. Hans Andersen 7.05 5. Chris Harris 7.02 6. Benjamin Basso 4.00 7. Jordan Palin (RS) 8. Dan Gilkes. Team Manager: Rob Lyon
IPSWICH: 1. Jason Doyle 8.96 2. Cameron Heeps 4.96 3. Troy Batchelor 5.67 4. Erik Riss 5.08 5. Danny King 7.96 © 6. Paul Starke 4.58 7. Anders Rowe (RS). Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
REFEREE: D. Watters
GROUP B TABLE
| Team | Meetings | Points |
| Ipswich | 0 | 0 |
| King’s Lynn | 0 | 0 |
| Peterborough | 0 | 0 |
TICKETS
Tickets can be purchased online here and are available on the gate.
THE STORY
The ‘Tru Mix’ Witches get their 2022 campaign going with an away trip as they travel to fellow East Anglian side Peterborough on Monday in the League Cup. Ipswich were due to begin their season last Thursday at Foxhall with a local derby against King’s Lynn in Group B but snow and damp conditions in Suffolk forced the fixture to be postponed. That means the first action of the group stage will be against the 2021 Premiership champions Peterborough and it presents a chance to pick up some points on the road and start the cup competition in positive fashion.
Team manager Ritchie Hawkins has made a slight tweak to the riding order that was due to face the Stars last Thursday with Cameron Heeps moving to the number two position to partner fellow Australian Jason Doyle at the top of the team. Former world champion Doyle will be hoping the weather stays clear so he can finally make his Witches debut after much build-up following his winter move to Suffolk. Fellow debutant Erik Riss moves to number four to partner Troy Batchelor who will ride at number three. Skipper Danny King and reserve Paul Starke have already had some track time at the East of England Arena this season with both competing in last week’s Ben Fund Bonanza meeting. ‘Rising Star’ Anders Rowe completes the line-up.
FROM THE BOSS
Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins gives us his pre-match thoughts…
“It was a shame last Thursday’s meeting was postponed, especially with sun forecast in the afternoon. However, when you saw how bad the track was with the water, you would have needed 20–30-degree sun to dry it out. Snow melts and it was just getting wetter and wetter for a period of time. It was a big shame as we had such great weather the week before at press day and everyone was looking forward to the first meeting, but we now start with a couple of away meetings and a couple of good results will increase our enthusiasm for our first home meeting.
“We are going away from home to face the champions in our first meeting. It would have been nice to have had a meeting first but most of the boys have been doing individual meetings and testimonials so we shouldn’t be too rusty. It is a place we enjoy going to, but they are the champions, so it is going to be really tough. Maybe we catch them cold a little bit at the start of the year and that would be nice.
“The line-up for the first two meetings has been set for a while and I told the boys at press day how we would line up for the first two meetings. We will look at it and it might change again before we go to King’s Lynn. We are experimenting because we need to find out what our best riding order is going to be.”
THE PANTHERS
Peterborough will be hoping for another year like 2021 as they were crowned Premiership champions. The team became affectionately known by many as ‘Dad’s Army’ due to the considerable amount of experience throughout the side and as the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, which is exactly what the management had in mind during their winter team building.
There is just one enforced change to the line-up in 2022 with Benjamin Basso replacing the retired Bjarne Pedersen with the other six riders all returning for another year at the East of England Arena. Three riders who are well known to the Foxhall faithful are Scott Nicholls, Hans Andersen and Chris Harris who have all worn the Witch previously. Jordan Palin is their ‘rising star’ as Danish duo Michael Palm Toft and Ulrich Ostergaard complete the side. Their meeting against Ipswich will also be their first fixture of the new season.
AWAY DAYS
An adult ticket costs £20, concessions (over 65) and students £18, children (5-16) £5 and children under the age of 5 go free. Official programmes cost £3 with car parking priced at £1. Facilities include a 2200 capacity grandstand, grass banking on the back straight, fast food outlets on the grandstand side of the track and a licensed bar. For travel information head here.
For more information about the club head to Peterborough’s official website.
Digital Media Manager at Ipswich Speedway