Thursday July 20, 2023
PETERBOROUGH went down 54-36 at Ipswich on Thursday as the Witches’ top order dominated once again at Foxhall.

The Crendon Panthers were unable to stop the home side’s star duo of Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov, and with Danny King again reserving one of his best nights for a match against Peterborough, it meant the visitors were able to take just four race wins.

And whereas they would generally have looked to counter-balance that with scoring lower down, the absence of both regular reserves was also a significant handicap.

Deputy captain Richie Worrall, Benjamin Basso, Ben Cook and Vadim Tarasenko all managed to take the flag in one race apiece, and the gap was only six points heading into Heat 10 before the Witches pulled clear in the closing stages.

Basso was the Panthers’ first winner in Heat 3 when they gated on a 5-1 before King manged to get the better of Ben Cook, and that race fell in between two early Ipswich 5-1s.

But the gap was then pegged in a succession of shared races with Tarasenko an early leader of Heat 6 before Sayfutdinov took charge, whilst Worrall took a clear win over Keynan Rew and Dan Thompson in Heat 8.

The next race was key with Panthers bringing in Basso for a tactical substitute ride, but whilst one half of the equation was a success with Tarasenko taking the win, Basso came to grief in a battle with Erik Riss and the outcome was another 3-3.

Ipswich then recorded consecutive 4-2s, although Basso got straight back out to split Sayfutdinov and Rew in Heat 10, but there was a blow in the next when Danyon Hume held third place over Niels-Kristian Iversen with Doyle ahead of Worrall out-front.

Basso and guest Connor Mountain packed in behind King in Heat 12 but the Ipswich top-end always looked likely to extend their team’s lead, and they did so in Heat 13 as Sayfutdinov and Doyle made the meeting mathematically safe with a 5-1.

Cook got the win his efforts deserved in Heat 14 as he got the better of Hume in the early stages, but another Witches 5-1 completed the meeting as Cook came to grief off the final turn of Heat 15.

Stand-in boss Laurence Rogers said: “It was a tough one for the boys, we kept it close and we were six points down at Heat 9 when we brought Basso in for a tactical substitute ride, but he fell off and hurt his hand – but he kept going, which was good.

“We were just missing the heat wins. When you’re up against Emil and Doyley it is a hard thing, and the real Danny King was here tonight.

“We were missing two reserves, but give Connor Mountain his due because he battled really hard, and I felt bad taking him out of Heat 9 but I had to put the tac sub in there, and Niels had an off-meeting tonight which didn’t help.”

Panthers are straight back into action next week with the A47 derby double against King’s Lynn, starting at the East of England Arena on Monday.

IPSWICH 54: Jason Doyle 14+1, Danny King 12+1, Emil Sayfutdinov 12, Dan Thompson 6+2, Danyon Hume 5+1, Keynan Rew 3, Erik Riss 2+2.
PETERBOROUGH 36: Richie Worrall 9+1, Benjamin Basso 9, Vadim Tarasenko 7, Ben Cook 5+1, Connor Mountain 3+2, Niels Kristian Iversen 3+1, Sam Hagon 0.

*PETERBOROUGH Speedway are delighted to be supported by Crendon Timber as team sponsors and City Auction Group and PurpleRock as club sponsors.

Photo credit: PHIL HILTON