The Evening Star Ipswich witches are back in action this Thursday 10th July with a Sky Sports Elite League clash against 2007 champions Coventry Bees in a meeting sponsored by the Evening Star.
The Witches welcome back leading points’ scorer Piotr Swiderski after he was forced to miss the match against Peterborough due to illness. His replacement that day was Rory Schlein, who turned out to be a magnificent choice of guest. The young Australian narrowly missed out on a paid maximum when he suffered a mechanical breakdown in his final outing, and will be a threat to the Witches as he will be lining up in the Bees colours on Thursday.
Swiderski himself appeared as a guest for the Bees last Friday evening in their 37-56 defeat at home to Poole, scoring a credible 8 points. Coventry also welcome back Chris Harris to their ranks after the Grand Prix star suffered facial injuries in a hefty fall with Niels-Kristian Iversen in the British Round of the series at Cardiff.
Missing from the side is Bees stalwart Billy Janniro. The tough American aggravated a shoulder injury in a heat 1 crash against Lakeside at Purfleet just over a week ago. The Bees will use rider replacement in his absence. Missing also will be Norwich born Bees regular Olly Allen, who also damaged a shoulder in the home defeat to Poole.
Coventry’s 2007 Championship winning side suffered from the change in team building averages brought in during the winter months. As a result key members of that triumphant side have moved on the pastures new, notably Scott Nicholls and the Witches stand-in captain Steve Johnston. The Bees retained Chris Harris and also snapped up Belle Vue’s Great Britain International Simon Stead whose low average made him an attractive addition.
With the injuries to Janniro and Allen, it will be a somewhat patched up side that lines up on Thursday. What is certain is that Harris, Stead and Schlein will form the heat leader backbone on a side that currently sit at the foot of the table, albeit that they have ridden in only 14 league matches this year. Number 3 Simon Stead will want to avoid a repeat of the terrible crash that forced him to withdraw from his first Belle Vue outing at Foxhall last season. The British international lifted and smashed into the airfence on the third turn of his second ride last June. Thankfully he was okay, and he showed his true class in his ‘B’ fixture return meeting in August, when he scored 16 points from 6 rides.
Number 1 Chris Harris ran into controversy last season when Coventry visited Foxhall shortly after he had won the 2007 British Grand Prix. Harris scored 11+1 despite an exclusion in his third ride for some hard riding against Zibi Suchecki. When the Bees returned in September Harris managed 13+1, as the title winners beat the Witches at Foxhall on both occasions. Rory Schlein is at Number 5 and scored well as a guest for Ipswich on a few occasions last season as well as against Peterborough a fortnight ago. In Coventry colours in 2007 at Foxhall he underlined his ability, scoring 10 and 13 in his two appearances.
The rest of the Bees side are a mixture of new and old faces. Firstly, standing in at number 2 for Olly Allen is 19 year old Cornishman Ben Barker, who has ridden for Stoke in the Premier league for the last two seasons. He rode for Coventry’s Conference League team in 2004 and scored 6 points for the Bees as they lost narrowly to Belle Vue on Monday evening. At reserve are the 30 year old Pole Stanislav Burza and 21 year old Swede Andreas Messing. Burza lined up for the Bees in the early part of last year, but a foot injury ended his season prematurely. He impressed at Berwick in the Premier League for the last two years, and has now taken the reserve role at Coventry on a full time basis. Messing made late season appearences for Lakeside in recent years and is highly regarded throughout Europe as a rising star. Coventry offered him a place after Lakeside decided not to use him as a reserve this year.
So while Coventry may be at the foot of the table, the Witches will be keen to reverse the two home defeats they suffered to a dominant Bees side in 2007. While some of the more familiar faces may be missing from the side on Thursday, the Bees still have heat leaders who are capable of scoring handsomely at Foxhall, and will be desperate to gain some Elite League points after a recent run of defeats. The Bees have not won a meeing since June 20th, and have lost their last five fixtures. Witches fans will need to get behind their side on Thursday and with the quality that the Bees have in their side it should certainly be an entertaining meeting.
