Ipswich 109 : Leon Mower 17, Josh Brooke 16 , Jordan Stant 16, Jamie Chittock 16 , Lewis Roberts 12, Ashley Hill 11, Charlie Rumbold 11, Matthew Hill 10 .
Birmingham 67 : Paul Heard 20 , Marcus Wadhams 14, Paul Timms 8 , Steve Hodginson 6, Chris Timms 6 , Reece Winwood 5, Phil Widdas 4, Ewan Hancox 4 .
Referee : Terry Ashford ( Suffolk ) .
On a hot Saturday afternoon Ipswich went into this Elite league fixture looking to continue the good progress they have shown over the recent weeks and welcomed the Monarchs of Birmingham to Whitton raceway. After their bright start to the season with people starting to tip the team from the Midlands to be Horspath’s main competition in this years title race, they have suddenly hit a brick wall and were looking themselves to get back to winning ways after three successive defeats had seen their title hopes disappear .
Both teams went into this match with key riders missing from their line ups ,the home team looking once again to promote from within with call ups to Charlie Rumbold and Matthew Hill who have impress in the combination league so far this season. As for Birmingham Harrold, Millward and Winwood were missing .
Ipswich knew this was the day they could finally pick up that elusive first win of the season and in the first heat laid down the marker for the rest to follow and from the outside grids Brooke and Hill secured a maximum 7-3 heat win after the the defenceless Wadhams had to succumb to the pressure from the Ipswich riders .
Heat two brought a 5-4 to Ipswich after Widdas was excluded ,Paul Heard went on to collect the first of his five heats wins and looked elegant all afternoon like a ballerina on a speedway bike and was rarely troubled.
Ipswich continue to pile on the pressure in heats three and four ,firstly with Chris Timms picking up the first of his three exclusions as he allowed his frustrations get the better of him ,resulting re run 7-2.
Ipswich this follow by a 7-3 in four . Heats five and six shared ,before Ipswich finish the half on a high 7-3,6-4,and 6-4 .
Half time Ipswich 55 Birmingham 33 .
The second half went very much as the first with the home team continuing to dominate proceedings. It wasn’t until heat twelve went Birmingham finally recorded their only heat advantage when Heard and Timms pairing scored a maximum 7-3 heat win. Ipswich went on to secure five heat advantages from the remaining six heats with the other being shared .
For Birmingham Paul Heard looked untouchable while veteran Paul Timms work tirelessly for the team and was never far off the pace scoring eight points. Young Reece Winwood who never once dropped his head. For the home team it can be said this was an around team performance with all eight contributing to the overall score line . Club stalwart Jordan Stant take a confidence boost from his performace for the remainer of the season .