By Henry Chard
THE SCORES
BELLE VUE 58: Brady Kurtz © 10, Norick Blödorn 8+2, Jaimon Lidsey 12 (Maximum), Ben Cook 8+2, Dan Bewley 10, Tate Zischke 3+1, Connor Bailey (RS) 7+2. Team Manager: Mark Lemon
IPSWICH 26: Tom Brennan (G) 2, Dan Thompson (RS) 1, Danny King © 2+1, Adam Ellis 5, Emil Sayfutdinov 10, Keynan Rew 5, Jordan Jenkins 1. Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
REFEREE: A. Steele
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP TABLE
| Team | Meetings | Points |
| Ipswich | 14 | 26 |
| Belle Vue | 14 | 21 |
| Sheffield | 12 | 20 |
| Oxford | 14 | 15 |
| Leicester | 12 | 12 |
| King’s Lynn* | 10 | 7 |
| Birmingham | 12 | 6 |
THE STORY
The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches fell to a heavy defeat away at Belle Vue on Monday evening in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership.
The visitors had Tom Brennan guesting for the injured Jason Doyle at number one whilst the Aces were at full strength with captain Brady Kurtz back in the side and new signing Tate Zischke making his debut at reserve. The home team dominated from start to finish and the Suffolk side had no answers as the Manchester club raced to a big victory with the meeting abandoned after 14 races following a heavy crash for Zischke. Emil Sayfutdinov top scored with 10.
The Aces got things started with a 5-1 in heat one and another quickly followed in heat two. The horror start continued in heat three as Belle Vue hit another maximum. Sayfutdinov stopped the rot in heat four, winning in a 3-3 but it left the away side with a mountain to climb already, being 18-6 down.
The hosts piled further misery on the Witches in heat five with another 5-1. A 4-2 to the home team followed in heat six as Sayfutdinov retired from the race. Heat seven was stopped as Zischke fell and was excluded but the away side couldn’t take advantage as Dan Bewley won the re-run. There was a return to the maximums in heat eight making it 35-13 to Belle Vue.
Belle Vue were not easing up and recorded a heat advantage in heat nine as Jaimon Lidsey held off Sayfutdinov to win. The night couldn’t end soon enough for the away side as Kurtz and Norick Blödorn raced to a 5-1 in heat 10. Sayfutdinov came in as a tactical substitute in heat 11 and he won with Brennan third for the first and only heat advantage of the night to Ipswich. Mark Lemon’s side registered a further 4-2 in heat 12 putting them 50-22 up with the tie well and truly over.
Bewley got the better of Sayfutdinov to take the chequered flag in heat 13 in what was a Belle Vue 4-2. Heat 14 was awarded as a 4-2 as Keynan Rew was excluded for bringing down Zischke late on in the race with the Belle Vue debutant taken to hospital after a heavy fall. Due to the medics looking after Zischke the meeting was abandoned with the result standing at 58-26 on what was a night for forget for Ipswich.
REACTION FROM THE BOSS
Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins reflects on Monday’s defeat to Belle Vue.
“It was a really bad night, and we did not perform. As a unit I suppose it is good that we all have it on the same night and get it out of the way and we will regroup for Thursday. I don’t think we need to dwell on it at the moment because it is a very important meeting coming up on Thursday, even more so now. Let’s look forward and then we have 10 days off and we can reflect on this and where we are going wrong at Belle Vue.
“The boys certainly didn’t throw the towel in, and we fought very hard and got in good positions, but we have said it before and it was the case again today, we were not quick enough. There is a lot of head scratching going on as to why and if we end up coming here for the play-offs it is something that we certainly need to massively improve.
“If I knew the answer, we would have solved it by now, but we look lacking in speed and that has not been the case anywhere else, just Belle Vue. We need to get our thinking caps on and improve that.
“The meeting was a great result for Belle Vue but was overshadowed by Tate’s crash and all of us at Ipswich wish him a quick and speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with him tonight and he looked impressive before his crash.”
RIDER OF THE NIGHT
Sayfutdinov was the only Witch to offer up any real resistance scoring 10 points.
WHAT IT MEANS
Ipswich suffer just their third defeat of the campaign but stay top of the table. Belle Vue pick up two points and move second in standings.
UP NEXT
The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches travel to Oxford to take on the Spires on Thursday 4th July in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership. Tickets can be purchased on the gate and in advance here.
Digital Media Manager at Ipswich Speedway