IPSWICH boss Ritchie Hawkins said the win against Leicester in last night’s semi-final play-offs of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership was “much needed”.
However, there were mixed emotions with the 49-41 win at Foxhall as they threw away an eight-point lead after a 16-point advantage was raced to earlier in the meeting.
Lions battled strongly, finishing Heat 15 with a 5-1 after some team riding from Max Fricke and Sam Masters blocking the Witches’ guests Tom Brennan and Jan Kvech.
Hawkins said: “It was good to get our first win for a while by eight points and all the boys contributed.
“It felt a lot more like a performance we had earlier on in the season with everyone chipping in with points, and it was much-needed tonight.
“We built a big lead early on, but we knew they would come back strong as the track slickened off a bit and they had the better gates in the latter stages of the meeting.
“Heat 15 is a bit of a blow to us, but we go into Thursday in a decent position being eight up and ready to fight for a place in the final again.”
The Witches started the meeting incredibly well, with Keynan Rew and Brennan taking the first 5-1 of the night in just Heat 3, followed closely by a 5-1 from Danny King and Dan Thompson in Heat 4.
Top scoring for the hosts was guest Kvech with 10+1 points with fellow stand-in Brennan and captain Danny King, both notching nine.
For the Lions, skipper, Max Fricke, scored the highest with 10+1 after recovering from a slow start to the meeting to dominate his latter rides.
The 5-1 with Sam Masters in Heat 15 could prove vital in the return race at Leicester on Thursday.
Masters equally scored well, finishing with 10 points.
Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “We tried to keep it together and not let it get totally out of reach, and the 5-1 in Heat 15 was pivotal because I would have been happy to walk away with a 12-point gap, I was thinking that was as good as we could get.
“We didn’t race well but that’s taking nothing away from Ipswich, they did race well.
“They asked questions of us, and we didn’t quite have the answers. But the tie is still bubbly for Thursday.
“We need to ride better, Ipswich were the better side tonight, but we’ve kept the tie alive for the second leg.”
Words by Freya Taylor.
Images by Taylor Lanning.