The ‘Tru7.com’ Witches pulled off a dramatic last heat victory to take three points away at Scunthorpe on Sunday in the Championship with a 46-44 win.
It was a ding-dong battle between the two sides throughout with neither side ever being more than two points ahead at any stage. The Witches struck in the last heat to take the win as Danny King sealed a 15 point maximum from five rides to lead the Suffolk side to victory.
Things didn’t go to plan for the Scorpions in heat one as Carl Wilkinson broke the tapes and was replaced by debutant Tero Aarnio in the re-run. King was a comfortable winner in the second attempt ahead of Aarnio as Cameron Heeps and Kyle Howarth threw everything at each other with the Witches man coming out on top for an early heat advantage. Heat two had to be pulled back too after Josh Bailey was adjudged to have jumped the start. Bailey was the winner in the re-run after passing Nathan Greaves on the second lap in a shared heat. Former Witches man Lewis Kerr won heat three as Kyle Newman and Ryan Douglas produced another fine battle for second with Newman getting the edge over his opponent but the 4-2 to the Scorpions levelled the score. Josh Auty seemed to jump to start in heat four but Rory Schlein reeled him in and passed the home rider coming out of the second bend on the third lap to take the win with Greaves third to make the score 13-11 to the Witches.
King won heat five in a 3-3 as Heeps did well to stay on the bike after a close encounter with the fence on the second lap. Schlein made it two wins from two in heat six as the points were shared again. The home side recorded their only 5-1 of the meeting in heat seven as Auty and Aarnio kept out Newman who tried everything he could to split the home pair but to no avail. Bailey went through the tapes in heat eight and was forced to go off 15 metres in the re-run. Wilkinson had an early lead but Heeps had other ideas and passed the home rider on third bend of the first lap to take three points with Greaves third to level the scores again at 24-24.
Douglas was the next Scorpions rider to go through the tapes in heat nine and was replaced by Aarnio in the re-run. The re-run also had to be stopped after Connor Mountain was a faller with the visiting rider excluded for the incident. Kerr was the eventual winner as Schlein gave everything to pass Aarnio on the last lap and prevent a 5-1. Howarth was impressive in heat ten as he won ahead of Witches duo Justin Sedgmen and Newman. King’s 100% record continued in heat 11 in another shared heat. Aarnio suffered an engine failure on the start line in heat 12 as Kerr’s good form continued by taking another win ahead of Sedgmen and Greaves making the score 37-35 to the home side.
It was King and Schlein who produced the goods in heat 13 as they raced to a maximum to give the Witches a slender lead with two heats to go. However, Douglas won heat 14 as Aarnio claimed third to level the scores and take it to a last heat decider. Witches captain King was the man for the occasion in the re-run of heat 15 as Schlein ensured victory by passing Kerr for third on the third bend of the second lap to make the final score 46-44 to the Witches.
Scunthorpe ‘Henderson Insurance’ Scorpions 44
Kyle Howarth (g) 8
Carl Wilkinson 3+1
Lewis Kerr 11
Ryan Douglas 5+1
Josh Auty 6+1
Tero Aarnio 8+1
Josh Bailey 3
Ipswich ‘Tru7.com’ Witches 46
Danny King (c) 15 (Maximum)
Cameron Heeps 4
Justin Sedgmen 4
Kyle Newman 6+1
Rory Schlein 11+1
Connor Mountain 1+1
Nathan Greaves 5+1
Championship Table
| Team | Pl | Pts |
| Edinburgh | 12 | 26 |
| Witches | 11 | 23 |
| Glasgow | 9 | 22 |
| Workington | 8 | 17 |
| Sheffield | 7 | 16 |
| Redcar | 10 | 14 |
| Newcastle | 8 | 13 |
| Peterborough | 9 | 12 |
| Scunthorpe | 13 | 10 |
| Berwick | 10 | 4 |
Next Meeting: C1 Saturday 27th May vs Workington (away)