Ipswich Witches make it to last eight in Premiership Pairs but fail to retain title
Witches fell just short of the semi-final - with Belle Vue ultimately taking the title
Last updated 30th Jun 2023
Ipswich Witches made it to the last eight of the Premiership Pairs last night but failed to retain the title.
Witches were without top two Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov, with Erik Riss and Danny King representing the side in Leicester.
Dan Thompson was also involved in the Rising Star position.
Witches remained competitive throughout the fixture but a controversial incident whcih saw Riss excluded in heat 19 ended their hopes of retaining the title.
Heat 19 saw Ipswich come up against East Anglia rivals Peterborough.
The race was stopped on the first lap after Riss hit the fence after Richie Worrall came up the inside of the Ipswich rider.
Despite allegations of contact involving the Peterborough man, it was Riss who faced the penalty.
Peterborough progressed to the final, which was ultimately won by Belle Vue.
Speaking after the fixture, manager Richie Hawkins said: “I thought it was a decent performance and we were leading for most of the qualifying heats and then made a hash of the fifth qualifying race and it put the pressure on the last one.
"I felt it was pretty clear on the BSN coverage that Erik had his leg taken but the ref said he fell over on his own.
“Danny started the meeting flying, he was making such good gates and that is brilliant to see for everyone.
"Erik improved every race and by the end of the meeting looked like his old self, I was pleased with the boys.
"Dan did well in his ride and got stuck in and I can’t fault the team. It was one of those incidents that could have gone the other way and we could have been in the semi-final and then who knows what would have happened.
“I suppose Belle Vue would have been pre-meeting favourites and in the semi-final, they looked really good.
"In a sense it was good to see Peterborough do well, which was a turn up for the books.
"They took a lot of criticism before the start of the meeting and then won the qualifying heats; it goes to show there is a lot more to racing than what is on paper and people’s opinions.”