Speedway: Ipswich win the East Anglian Derby
Ipswich are top of the league
A 57-33 victory over local rivals King's Lynn has consolidated Ipswich's position at the top of the league.
The hosts had regular guest Scott Nicholls in at number one for the injured Jason Doyle, whilst the Stars had Lewis Kerr and Simon Lambert in for the injured Nicolai Klindt and Tobiasz Musielak who has left the club.
The visitors were also using rider replacement for the injured Benjamin Basso.
The Norfolk side took a shock early lead and were level after six heats, but it was one way traffic from there as Ipswich eased to yet another win against their local rivals, picking up the aggregate bonus point in the process.
Emil Sayfutdinov top scored with a faultless 12-point maximum.
"I thought we looked a bit sluggish"
Witches' team manager Ritchie Hawkins says the result was hard-earned: “We got the result in the end, the first third of the meeting was really close and I thought we looked a bit sluggish and rusty in the first bit of the meeting.
"The boys then got dialled in and we dominated after that. King’s Lynn put up a good showing to start with and maybe it wasn’t quite as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.
“We have all needed to contribute to cover Jason and other injuries this season and we certainly did tonight...
“We have been dominating the derby for the last few years and this year with their injury problems in the last two meetings it has meant we should be winning when a team is so hampered with missing riders. I guess that takes a bit of gloss off it but I’m sure next season they will want to come back and get on top of us which hasn’t happened for a long time."
The Witches are next in action on 8th August against Sheffield.