Ipswich Witches take on Poole Pirates at Foxhall Stadium tonight (start time 7.30pm) with progression in the Craven Shield hanging in the balance.
Defeat at Arena Essex last week, and in Dorset last night, leaves the Witches ideally needing to pick up the bonus point at Foxhall tonight, but it will not be easy.
Despite holding the Pirates over the first six heats last night, the Suffolk side then conceded five maximum race wins to trail 43-24 after 11 stages and, although they steadied the ship in the next two, things collapsed in spectacular fashion in the final heat.
After a ferociously fought first lap the riders entered the first bend for the second time with the Pirates pair just in front.
Piotr Protasiewicz took the inside line, with Hans Andersen on the outside when disaster struck.
As Andersen was about to cut back to get a run under Krzysztof Kasprzak, down the back straight, the two Witches team-mates touched and ended up in a heap on the track.
Protasiewicz was understandably excluded, but amazingly the referee then decided to award the race, with Poole being given a 5-1 maximum to take the meeting 58-33 and leave the Witches needing to win by a huge 26-point margin to grab the bonus point.
Last week's scheduled home meeting against Arena was rained off just as the riders were about to take to the track for the first heat and that meeting will now take place a week today.
More in today's Evening Gazette
Published Thursday, September 22, 2005
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