Stars victorious in East Anglian derby

King’s Lynn will take a six-point lead to Ipswich on Thursday after a hard-fought 48-42 win in the first leg of their KO Cup semi-final at the Adrian Flux Arena.Czech charger Jan Kvech starred at reserve for the PSH Environmental Stars with 16+2 from seven rides, and with Chris Harris also in double figures it was enough to see the home side to a win on the night, and to put points on the board as they head into the return fixture.The Witches, who have a great record at the Adrian Flux Arena, proved to be stubborn opponents and pulled back the six-point margin on one occasion to leave the scores level with four races to go on the night, but the Stars regrouped to get their noses in front once more for a confidence-boosting result.Stars manager Rob Lyon said: “I’m happy with the win, and it’s morale boosting to get a win against Ipswich at any given time even though they were a little bit weaker.“We’ve had our own problems this year already, so we’ll take the win. Six points isn’t ideally where we wanted to be, but we’ve proved already this year that we can go to Ipswich and do some damage, so I think it’s all to play for.“The win was the main thing, and at least we’ve got a lead to go with and something to fight for. We’ve definitely got the riders to do it, and it’s up to them to produce it on the night and take us through to the Final.“Peter Kildemand will be with us again on Thursday but we’re probably going to need a guest for Ashton. I think everybody can see he’s struggling for confidence, it’s not good for him and he needs to probably have a reset, but we’ll see where we go with that over the next day or so.” There was a shock in Heat 1 when visiting No.1 Emil Sayfutdinov retired as Richard Lawson got Lynn off to a winning start, which was followed up by victories from Kvech and Harris – the latter with a classic effort from the Stars rider to get the better of Tom Brennan and Adam Ellis. But Ipswich levelled the scores with a 4-2 in Heat 4, with Ashton Boughen coming off at the back and being withdrawn with a shoulder injury, whilst Danny King won the re-run when Niels-Kristian Iversen had initially held the lead.Sayfutdinov roared past Harris to win Heat 5 and the visitors edged ahead with a 4-2 in the next, which was immediately cancelled out in Heat 7 with an early 5-1 position from Kvech and Iversen being split by Brennan.Kvech and guest Peter Kildemand then combined for an excellent 5-1 in Heat 8, and they had that position going again in Heat 9 only for King to make a passing move on Nicolai Klindt – although he couldn’t get to Harris, which put Lynn into a 30-24 lead. However, Ipswich came fighting back again with a 4-2 in Heat 10 as Kildemand just missed out to Adam Ellis for third place, and the Witches then inflicted a damaging 5-1 in Heat 11 to level the scores on the night as Brennan and Sayfutdinov team-rode Kvech out of contention.But Kvech was still set for a busy end to the meeting, and he duly replied by winning Heat 12 as Jordan Jenkins edged out Klindt in a great scrap for second place, and the Stars maintained a narrow lead as Lawson and Iversen kept King at the back of Heat 13 behind the flying Sayfutdinov. Lynn needed a big result from Heat 14 and they got it through Harris and Kvech, who got the better of Jenkins in the early stages for a 5-1 to open the gap back to six points.And that was the way things stayed because Sayfutdinov was a clear winner of Heat 15 as the Stars did enough for a 3-3 with Kvech just holding off the challenge of Brennan. King’s Lynn 48: Jan Kvech 16+2, Chris Harris 13, Richard Lawson 9, Niels-Kristian Iversen 4+1, Peter Kildemand 3+1, Nicolai Klindt 3+1, Ashton Boughen 0.IPSWICH 42: Emil Sayfutdinov 11+1, Tom Brennan 10, Danny King 10, Jordan Jenkins 7, Adam Ellis 2+1, Simon Lambert 2+1, Jason Doyle r/r.