THE SCORES

BIRMINGHAM 47: Fredrik Lindgren © 9+2, Piotr Pawlicki R/R, Simon Lambert (G) 5, Zach Cook 9+1, Tom Brennan 15+1, Michael Palm Toft 6+1, Leon Flint (RS) 3. Team Manager: Sam Ermolenko

IPSWICH 43: Richard Lawson (G) 13+1, Dan Thompson (RS) 3+1, Sam Masters (G) 10, Troy Batchelor (G) 6+1, Danny King © 4+1, Cameron Heeps (G) 3, Jordan Jenkins 4+2. Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins

REFEREE: C. Ackroyd

ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP TABLE

Team	Meetings	Points
Sheffield	23	41
Belle Vue	23	36
Leicester	21	34
Ipswich	23	34
Oxford	23	26
King’s Lynn*	20	16
Birmingham	23	8

THE STORY

The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches were beaten at Birmingham on Monday night in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership.

It was a depleted Witches side that went into the fixture with Richard Lawson, Sam Masters, Troy Batchelor and Cameron Heeps guesting for the injured quartet of Jason Doyle, Emil Sayfutdinov, Adam Ellis and Keynan Rew. The hosts were without the duo of Piotr Pawlicki and Wiktor Lampart with rider replacement covering Pawlicki and Simon Lambert in for Lampart. There was nothing to separate the two sides after eight heats before two maximums from the hosts put them in the box seat for victory. Ipswich pulled some points back but didn’t have enough on the night to get a positive result. Lawson top scored with 13+1.

Lawson won a shared heat one before the Brummies went ahead in heat two with a 5-1. The Witches struck back in heat three with a maximum of their own courtesy of Masters and Batchelor. Heat four was a 3-3 leaving it all square at 12-12.

Lawson won again in heat five as the away side went ahead with a 2-4. Heat six ended in a 3-3 as Fredrik Lindgren finished ahead of Danny King and Jordan Jenkins went past Michael Palm Toft for a point. It was level again after heat seven as the home team recorded a 4-2 and it was a shared heat eight with Dan Thompson winning the battle at the back against Leon Flint, making it 24-24.

The hosts went in front in heat nine with a 5-1 and made it back-to-back maximums in heat 10 to extend their lead. The visitors got two points back in heat 11 as Lawson was a winner again and Thompson finished third. Lawson was brought in as a tactical substitute in heat 12 and it worked out well as he followed Masters home for the maximum to leave the score finely poised at 37-35.

Birmingham put themselves on the brink of a rare victory with a 5-1 in heat 13. Heat 14 was stopped as Palm Toft crashed with the visitors on a 2-4 at the time of the stoppage. Ipswich were on a heat advantage again in the re-run, but Zach Cook passed Batchelor to win the race, ensuring a 3-3 that won his side the meeting. Masters won heat 15 as the Witches recorded a 2-4 to make the final score 47-43.

REACTION FROM THE BOSS

Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins reflects on Monday’s defeat at Birmingham.

“We were beaten by the better side tonight. The guests came in and all contributed and gave us everything, but we weren’t good enough and I have no complaints. We started the meeting well and had the good gates, but we let it slip too much when they had the better of the gates mid-meeting and gave ourselves too big a task to pull back later on, we all had a good go at it.

“We know the result does not matter but it does in the fact that we wanted to win the meeting and get some wins under our belt before the important meetings next week, so that is disappointing. We have to work and focus on Thursday now and getting that win and hopefully by next Monday we will have a few members of the team back.”

RIDER OF THE NIGHT

Guest Lawson was superb at number one, top scoring with 13+1 which included three race wins.

WHAT IT MEANS

Birmingham pick up just their third win of the season to end their home campaign but stay bottom. Ipswich remain fourth.

UP NEXT

The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches host the Birmingham Brummies at Foxhall Stadium on Thursday 29^th August in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership. Tickets can be purchased on the gate and in advance here.