By Henry Chard
All the details ahead of the second round of the Premiership Pairs.
WHEN & WHERE
The ‘Tru Mix’ Witches host the second round of the Premiership Pairs at Foxhall Stadium on Thursday 16th June which starts at 7.30pm.
TEAMS
BELLE VUE: Matej Zagar, Brady Kurtz, Tom Brennan (RS). Team Manager: Mark Lemon
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor, Danyon Hume (RS). Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
KING’S LYNN: Richard Lawson, Josh Pickering, Jake Mulford (RS). Team Manager: Alex Brady
PETERBOROUGH: Chris Harris, Hans Andersen, Jordan Jenkins (RS). Team Manager: Rob Lyon
SHEFFIELD: Adam Ellis, Tobiasz Musielak, Connor Mountain (RS). Team Manager: Simon Stead
WOLVES: Sam Masters, Ryan Douglas, Leon Flint (RS). Team Manager: Peter Adams
REFEREE: W. Jarvis
PREMIERSHIP PAIRS TABLE
| Team | Points |
| King’s Lynn | 12 |
| Sheffield | 8 |
| Belle Vue | 6 |
| Wolverhampton | 4 |
| Ipswich | 2 |
| Peterborough | 0 |
TICKETS
Tickets are available to buy online (until 7pm on raceday) and on the gate and are priced at £20 for adults (17+) and 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 meeting will also be streamed online here. A BSN+ subscription is required to watch. BSN+ passes are now available for £42 which covers the five remaining rounds. Each round can be purchased individually, priced at £12.99. BSN’s coverage of the 2nd 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 host the second round of the Premiership Pairs on Thursday at Foxhall. The first round of the new competition was held last month at Peterborough where King’s Lynn were victorious on the night to give them the early lead in the overall standings. The Witches finished a disappointing fifth that evening, meaning they have work to do to get themselves back into contention for the title and they will be looking to make the most of their home advantage in this round.
Jason Doyle was in fantastic form in the first round scoring 17 of Ipswich’s total of 21 points and after a 15-point maximum in the Witches’ last league outing, his name was a given on the teamsheet for this event. Team manager Ritchie Hawkins has elected to field Troy Batchelor as his partner for this round who comes in for Danny King. ‘Rising Star’ Danyon Hume keeps his place and is guaranteed at least one ride as part of the regulations.
For those still getting to grips with the competition, here is what it is all about…
The competition is a new addition to the calendar for 2022 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.
FROM THE BOSS
Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins gives us his pre-match thoughts…
“I hope everyone comes out to back the event. The line-up is extremely strong, and you are seeing all the top boys in one night. I think it will be a cracker of a meeting, in the last few seasons we have produced some brilliant meetings at Foxhall and having all these boys here will be extremely competitive.
“Doyley picks himself with the form he is in at the moment. We then had a choice to make with his partner. Danny is improving his form and Erik was another consideration, but Troy has had a lot of heat 15s this season and has proved his worth. I felt with Troy having ridden in so many heat 15s and done a solid job he is our strongest pick for the night.
“We still have Danyon involved and I think it’s good that the gates are not allocated so we have to decide between ourselves about the gates. The programme and the scores can be quite difficult to follow in this type of meeting, so we need to make sure we are up on that and improve a lot from the first meeting and give ourselves a shot of at least getting into the semi-final.”
THE LINE-UP
Current Premiership Pairs leaders King’s Lynn have been forced into two changes to their desired line-up for this round with Thomas Jorgensen and Jack Thomas both facing a spell on the sidelines with injuries. That means the Stars have the same pairing that won at Peterborough with captain Josh Pickering partnering Richard Lawson again in Suffolk. Sheffield have elected to field British champion Adam Ellis again, but Tobiasz Musielak comes in for Jack Holder at Foxhall. The Belle Vue Aces bring Matej Zagar and Brady Kurtz to Suffolk with both riders scoring double figures in their Premiership fixture at Ipswich in May as Max Fricke sits this round out. Wolves have selected track specialist Sam Masters who scored 16 in his last visit to Foxhall, and Ryan Douglas is in as a late replacement as his partner after Nick Morris picked up an injury on Monday at Belle Vue. Bottom side Peterborough have Chris Harris leading their side again and he is joined by Hans Andersen instead of Michael Palm Toft for their trip across East Anglia and they will be hoping their experience as former Witches riders can make a difference.
Digital Media Manager at Ipswich Speedway