A large Bank Holiday crowd saw the Evening Star Ipswich Witches defeat the Peterborough Panthers 60-31 in an Elite League A meeting sponsored by The Back Straight Gang this afternoon at Foxhall Stadium.

Many supporters took advantage of the opportunity to walk the track and look around the pits before the meeting and the riders were available for photographs and autographs. Ipswich lined up operating the rider replacement system at number 1 for the injured Chris Louis. For Peterborough Claus Vissing moved up from the reserve berth into the team proper at number 4 following the issue of new averages and with Sam Simota injured, Redcar’s young Australian, Ty Proctor rode at reserve at number 6.

There was a minute’s silence before the start of the meeting in memory of the Newport Promoter Tim Stone who passed away suddenly last weekend.

Piotr Swiderski raced into the lead in the opening heat and held off Hans Andersen coming out of the second bend only for the Panthers’ captain to grind to a halt at the next corner. Steve Johnston came through for second place to gives the home side the best possible start to the meeting. In the reserves heat there was drama at the first bend with Chris Schraam parting company with his machine with the two Peterborough riders at the front. With the fallen Witch still on the track referee Dan Holt was forced to stop the race and exclude Schraam as being the prime cause of the stoppage. In the rerun Tobi Kroner outgated the two Panthers to score his seventh win in the reserves heat in seven matches at Foxhall this season. Heat 3 saw Kenneth Bjerre win comfortably from Steve Johnston and Robert Miskowiak before the Witches extended their lead to six points after four heats courtesy of a 4-2 from Jarek Hampel and Chris Schraam over Daniel King and Henrik Moller.

In heat 5 Hans Andersen continued his nightmare start to the meeting by being rather controversially excluded after an incident which saw Steve Johnston finish in the fence on the second bend. In the rerun Johnston won from Robert Miskowiak to stretch the Witches lead to ten points. The very next heat witnessed a further incident on the second bend when Piotr Swiderski tangled with Robert Miskowiak and both riders crashed through the safety fence. Fortunately neither rider was injured but Swiderski was excluded from the rerun in which Miskowiak held off Daniel King and Ty Proctor for a shared heat. Peterborough team manager Trevor Swales gave a tactical ride to Kenneth Bjerre in the seventh race but the young Dane was unable to prevent Jarek Hampel and Tobi Kroner from racking up a further 5-1 for the Witches. Team manager Swales played another card in heat 8 by bringing in Hans Andersen as a tactical substitute off a fifteen metre handicap in place of Henrik Moller. Chasing hard from the start Andersen fell on the first bend but remounted to give chase to the others. Meanwhile Chris Schraam fell on the third bend and was excluded whilst the remounted Andersen was eligible to ride in the rerun. In the rerun Morten Risager led Piotr Swiderski for three and three quarter laps before the Pole executed a perfect pass off the last bend. With Andersen’s third place scoring double points the Witches led 31-18 after eight races.

The Witches put the meeting beyond doubt in the next two heats with 5-1s from firstly Robert Miskowiak and Steve Johnston and then Jarek Hampel and Piotr Swiderski. Heat 11 was drawn with Hans Andersen winning his first race of the afternoon from Jarek Hampel and Tobi Kroner. The Witches scored yet another 5-1 in the next race when Robert Miskowiak and Chris Schraam held off Kenneth Bjerre before the young Dane suffered engine failure on the last lap. With three races left the Witches led 49-24.

Piotr Swiderski took victory in heat 13 from Hans Andersen with Jarek Hampel third and then Tobi Kroner and Steve Johnston scored the Witches’eighth 5-1 of the meeting in the penultimate heat. The Panthers gained gained some small consolation in the final race with a 4-2 from Daniel King and Hans Andersen over Robert Miskowiak and Steve Johnston.

For the Witches Robert Miskowiak showed a welcome return to form by scoring fourteen points and two bonus points. Jarek Hampel notched twelve and Steve Johnston was paid for 14 including three bonus points.

Hans Andersen scored 8+1 for the Panthers and Daniel King 8.

The injured Chris Louis was at the meeting and seemed in good spirits when commenting “I find it very frustrating being unable to ride especially when it looked as if all the boys were having fun out there. If we continue to ride like that we will surely climb up the Elite League table.”

Stand-in captain Steve Johnston was awarded the rider of the afternoon prize and he praised his team mates saying “It has been a little disappointing that in some meetings one or two of us have been a little off the pace but today everyone rode well and we showed just what we can do as a team”.

The Witches now look forward to Thursday with a home meeting against Wolverhampton where they will attempt to avenge being knocked out the Cup last month by the side from the Black Country.

Ipswich Witches:
Chris Louis rider replacement,  Piotr Swiderski 11+1, Robert Miskowiak 14+2, Steve Johnston 11+3, Jarek Hampel 12, Tobi Kroner 9+2, Chris Schramm 3+1.

Peterborough Panthers:
Hans Andersen 8+1, Morten Risager 4, Kenneth Bjerre 5, Claus Vissing 1, Daniel King 8, Ty Proctor 4+1, Henrik Moller 1+1.