Stars beaten by Witches

King’s Lynn got halfway towards pulling off a massive upset in their local derby clash at Ipswich on Bank Holiday Monday, before going down to a 53-37 defeat.With the Witches having won their previous three home matches this season by huge margins, topping the 60-point mark on each occasion, expectations were very much that they would maintain that momentum – but they were stunned by the PSH Environmental Stars who raced into a 24-18 lead after seven races.At that stage, the visitors had provided five of the race wins and looked in great shape to pull off an upset, but the Witches then hit back strongly and dominated the second half of the meeting.Stars boss Rob Lyon said: “It’s a little disappointing to be six up and lose by 16, but I think the score flatters Ipswich a little bit to be quite honest.“Fair play that they’ve got it over the line, but I think our boys are a little shell-shocked that we were well in it after Heat 9 and then we dropped off a cliff a bit, which is a bit of a puzzle.“But that’s speedway. It’s the first time I’ve seen a blue groove around Ipswich but it’s always difficult with an afternoon meeting with the sun and the wind.“For us it was okay, but we were disappointed that we fell away so badly. We used all our options to the best possible way we could, and it was working a treat, but fair play to Ipswich, they dug in and did the job.” Jan Kvech got Lynn off to a terrific start with wins in Heats 1 and 3, whilst captain Nicolai Klindt took the flag in Heat 2 as he neatly rounded Dan Thompson off the second bend, and Kvech’s second win was backed up by a third place for Richard Lawson in Heat 3 to edge the Stars ahead. Heat 4 appeared to see the Stars on a 5-1 from the gate only for the race to be stopped with Klindt receiving a warning, and the re-run was shared as the Lynn riders tucked in behind Emil Sayfutdinov.But the position got better for the visitors with Klindt taking a rider replacement outing in Heat 5 and notching his second win, whilst Chris Harris provided third place ahead of Tom Brennan.Ipswich narrowed the margin to two points with a 4-2 in Heat 6 after a re-run when Danny King came down, with all four allowed back in the re-run where Jason Doyle passed Niels-Kristian Iversen. But there was then a great result for the Stars in Heat 7 as Lawson and Kvech stunned Sayfutdinov with a 5-1 to put them six points up.At that stage, the Lynn gating had been far superior to their hosts, but things began to turn after the next track grade with a run of Ipswich 4-2s. Klindt managed to split King and Jordan Jenkins with a good pass on Jenkins in Heat 8, before a battle between Iversen and Adam Ellis in Heat 9 saw the Stars rider again salvage second place.There was a close finish to Heat 10 with Jason Doyle out front for Ipswich as Lawson just took the verdict for second place over King, but that was still enough to level the scores with five heats to go. Ipswich finally went ahead for the first time as Sayfutdinov rounded Harris in Heat 11 with Thompson in third place, and the hosts suddenly then found their form in the closing stages.Thompson and Ellis got the better of Klindt and Kvech for their first 5-1 in Heat 12, with their top two of Sayfutdinov and Doyle then repeating the feat against Iversen and Harris in the next.Another stoppage in Heat 14 saw Brennan get a second chance after coming down, with the re-run seeing Thompson defeat Lawson with Brennan third for a 4-2.And a final race 5-1 from Doyle and Sayfutdinov over Lawson and Iversen took the margin in the end to 16, which was thoroughly unreflective of the way the meeting had gone. Lynn’s next meeting in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership is an important trip to play-off rivals Leicester on Thursday, May 15.Ipswich 53: Jason Doyle 12+2, Emil Sayfutdinov 12+1, Dan Thompson 9, Danny King 7, Tom Brennan 6, Adam Ellis 5+1, Jordan Jenkins 2+1.King’s Lynn 37: Nicolai Klindt 11, Richard Lawson 9, Jan Kvech 8+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 6+1, Chris Harris 3, Ashton Boughen 0, Ben Cook r/r.