Tonight’s meeting between the Evening Star Ipswich Witches and the Coventry Bees at Foxhall Stadium was abandoned after one attempt to stage the opening heat.

Before the start of the meeting the crowd stood for a minute’s silence as a mark of respect to the sponsor of tonight’s meeting Keith Martin who passed away on Monday.

The rain that had threatened for some time finally began to fall at about 7.20pm but the riders lined up for the opening heat. Unfortunately the race only lasted as far as the first bend where Piotr Swiderski lost control of his machine and went straight through the air fence at high speed and finished lying on the stock car track just short of the metal barriers.

The crash looked potentially to be one of the worst to be seen at the track and the popular Pole was taken back to the pits in the ambulance. Thankfully it was announced to the crowd that he was uninjured although having been momentarily knocked out he would take no part in the remainder of the meeting.

In the meantime whilst repairs were being made to the air fence the rain returned with a vengeance and the referee was left with no option but to abandon the meeting.