By Henry Chard
All the details ahead of the opening round of the Premiership Pairs.
WHEN & WHERE
The ‘Tru Mix’ Witches pairing travels to Peterborough for the first round of the Premiership Pairs at the East of England Arena & Events Centre on Monday 23rd May which starts at 7.30pm.
TEAMS
BELLE VUE: Max Fricke, Brady Kurtz, Tom Brennan (RS). Team Manager: Mark Lemon
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Danny King, Danyon Hume (RS). Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
KING’S LYNN: Josh Pickering, Richard Lawson, Jack Thomas (RS). Team Manager: Alex Brady
PETERBOROUGH: Michael Palm Toft, Chris Harris, Max Clegg (g) (RS). Team Manager: Rob Lyon
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Adam Ellis, Connor Mountain (RS). Team Manager: Simon Stead
WOLVES: Sam Masters, Ryan Douglas, Joe Thompson (RS). Team Manager: Peter Adams
REFEREE: A. Steele
PREMIERSHIP PAIRS TABLE
| Team | Points |
| Belle Vue | 0 |
| Ipswich | 0 |
| King’s Lynn | 0 |
| Peterborough | 0 |
| Sheffield | 0 |
| Wolves | 0 |
TICKETS & HOW TO WATCH
Tickets are available on the gate. The meeting will also be streamed online here.
A BSN+ subscription is required to watch. BSN+ passes are available for £49, with a £6 discount available to existing BSN subscribers. Each round can be purchased individually, priced at £12.99. BSN’s coverage of the first round will start at 7.00pm. BSN’s web URL is watch.britishspeedway.co.uk. BSN also has an App which is now available on Amazon Fire TV and on all IOS (Apple) devices.
THE STORY
The ‘Tru Mix’ Witches pairing heads to Peterborough on Monday for the opening round of the Premiership Pairs. The competition is a new addition to the calendar with all six Premiership clubs staging a round throughout the season. Each club will have two riders and a ‘Rising Star’ at each round with scores accumulated over all six rounds before the overall aggregate winner is declared after the final round of the competition at Belle Vue in September. 12 points will be awarded to each round winner, eight points to second, six points to third, four points to fourth, two points to fifth and no points to sixth.
There will be 15 qualifying heats of action at each round with the top scoring team from the qualifying heats going directly to the final. The teams placed in second and third will compete in a semi-final with the winning side from that race progressing to the final to decide the round winners. Each team has five qualifying heats each and the ‘Rising Star’ must take at least one ride during the meeting. The points scoring system for the competition in each race will be 4-3-2-0.
Team manager Ritchie Hawkins has chosen to field Jason Doyle and Danny King for the first round at the East of England Arena & Events Centre and can elect to change this pairing throughout the competition if he desires. ‘Rising Star’ Danyon Hume will also be in attendance and is guaranteed at least one ride as part of the regulations. Doyle is in sublime form having recorded a paid maximum from five rides in our last fixture against Sheffield, whilst skipper King is the current track record holder at Peterborough.
FROM THE BOSS
Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins gives us his pre-match thoughts…
“It’s a new competition so it will be interesting and exciting to be involved in. Looking at our pairing, we are going in confident as we will have a strong pairing in each round. We have certainly got a strong pair for Peterborough, and I know Doyley, Danny and Danyon are going there to win the meeting.
“Doyley is the best rider in the league, so he is an obvious pick and Danny is the current track record holder there, which is quite something, so he is very good around the Showground. For this round it was quite an easy choice.
“We will have to improve on our team riding from our last fixture. Danny and Doyley are very experienced and will get something worked out. Team riding nowadays on the modern bikes is a lot more difficult than it used to be but at their level they should be capable of it.
“The line-up is very strong; all six teams look like they have strong pairings out so it should be a cracker of a meeting and the boys will need to be on top of their game.”
THE LINE-UP
The nature of the competition means it is a high-quality field at Peterborough with the league’s top riders clashing every heat. Current Premiership league leaders Belle Vue have Warsaw Grand Prix winner Max Fricke partnered by club captain Brady Kurtz with Great Britain’s Speedway of Nations winner Tom Brennan as their ‘Rising Star’. Sheffield are unbeaten in 2022 and have Grand Prix rider Jack Holder alongside current British champion Adam Ellis with Connor Mountain their ‘Rising Star’. Wolves have captain Sam Masters and Ryan Douglas representing them with Joe Thompson completing their line-up. King’s Lynn have skipper Josh Pickering, Richard Lawson and Jack Thomas in their ranks whilst hosts Peterborough have elected to go with Michael Palm Toft and Chris Harris for their home round of the competition with Max Clegg standing in as their ‘Rising Star’.
AWAY DAYS
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