By Henry Chard
All the details ahead of our Sports Insure Premiership R2 fixture with Peterborough.
WHEN & WHERE
The Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches host the Peterborough Panthers at Foxhall Stadium on Thursday 20th July in a Sports Insure Premiership R2 fixture that starts at 7.30pm.
MEETING SPONSOR
Allard and Co Farming
TEAMS
IPSWICH: 1. Emil Sayfutdinov 9.80 2. Keynan Rew 4.00 3. Danny King 6.73 © 4. Erik Riss 5.93 5. Jason Doyle 9.66 6. Danyon Hume 3.92 7. Dan Thompson (RS). Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
PETERBOROUGH: 1. Niels-Kristian Iversen 7.07 2. Richie Worrall 6.15 © 3. Benjamin Basso 5.98 4. Ben Cook 5.13 5. Vadim Tarasenko 5.00 6. Connor Mountain (G) 4.62 7. Sam Hagon (G) (RS). Team Manager: Laurence Rogers
REFEREE: C. Gay
SPORTS INSURE PREMIERSHIP TABLE
| Team | Meetings | Points |
| Belle Vue | 19 | 35 |
| Leicester | 13 | 25 |
| Wolverhampton | 15 | 24 |
| Sheffield | 13 | 20 |
| Ipswich | 16 | 15 |
| King’s Lynn | 14 | 7 |
| Peterborough | 14 | 3 |
TICKETS
Tickets are available to buy online (until 7pm on raceday) and on the gate and are priced at £22 for adults and £20 for concessions (65+). Children 16 and under go free. Official programmes are priced at £3 and are available at the stadium. Car parking is free for all supporters. Debit and credit card payments are accepted. Turnstiles open at 6.40pm.
THE STORY
The Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches host the Peterborough Panthers in the Sports Insure Premiership on Thursday evening. Ipswich were in action on Monday at Belle Vue and put in a spirited display against the league leaders before falling to a 49-41 defeat in Manchester. The Witches have faced the Panthers twice already at home this season in the league and Knockout Cup, racking up big wins on both occasions against the league’s bottom side.
The home team are unchanged from Monday and will be desperate to return to winning ways after three defeats on the trot has made them big outsiders to make the top four and the end of season play-offs.
FROM THE BOSS
Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins gives us his pre-match thoughts…
“We take on Peterborough and we have had good results against them already this year and I think we need to tackle the meeting in the same way we did a few weeks ago when they were last at our place. We put in a very professional and convincing performance on that occasion, and we need to do the same again on Thursday.
“They put in a great showing at Wolves and I’m sure that took Wolverhampton and a lot of people by surprise. We can’t afford to be lax because Peterborough are a team that have punished us in the past even when they have been struggling everywhere else. We are going to need to be on our toes and give them the respect they deserve so that we do not get upset again at home.
“After recent results, the play-off positions are looking a long way off so we need to treat one meeting at a time. We need the same effort that we saw at Belle Vue from the boys and there are still a lot of meetings to go and a lot to race for with the Knockout Cup as well. There are a lot of local derbies coming up as well against Peterborough and King’s Lynn, so we need to make sure we are winning them. We have provided great entertainment at home this year, but we have been on the wrong end of far too many results. We need to make sure we keep entertaining but getting the wins to reward our loyal supporters.”
THE PANTHERS
2023 has been a miserable year for Peterborough with the club sitting bottom of the table with just one win to their name after 14 fixtures. The club have little more than pride to race for in the league now and on Monday at Wolves they shocked many by taking the West Midlands outfit to a Super Heat before being defeated at the Ladbroke Stadium. That performance will give the bottom side a lot of confidence coming to Suffolk where they face an out of form Ipswich side.
The visitors are without captain Hans Andersen on Thursday due to a foot injury with a Connor Mountain guesting at number six. Sam Hagon guests for the injured Jordan Jenkins in the Rising Star position. Laurence Rogers is stand-in team manager for the Panthers with Rob Lyon on a pre-booked family holiday.
Digital Media Manager at Ipswich Speedway