ELITE LEAGUE
Ipswich 77 : Josh Brooke 16 , Leigh Cossey 12, Leon Mower 11, Lewis Roberts 10 , Jamie Chittock 9 , Ashley Hill 8 , Phil Adams 7, Jordan Stant 4 .
Horspath 95 : Lewis Bates 20 , Mark Boaler 16 , Lewis Osborne 14, Mark Carmichael 14 , Errol Thaw 10, Mateusz Szymczak 10, Chris Osborne 10,
Pete Payne 1 .
Referee : Colin Simmons (Gwent ) .
Ipswich faced their toughest test to date when they welcomed reigning champions and British team winners to their Whitton raceway for an Elite fixture, knowing that last season Horspath recorded one of the biggest away wins in the history of the competition . But this is a different team to last term’s ,though they may be still not picking up the points they are no push overs unlike last season when only too often would throw in the towel.
Horspath started the match with a 6-4 in the first heat ,then in heat two saw two exclusions to both teams leaving Lewis Osborne to claim the spoils over Leon Mower 4-3 Horspath . Heats three and four were shared ,heat five saw another 6-4 to Horspath with Bates /Boaler tot strong for Hill/Adams ,but the Ipswich lads did well to limit the damaged against such fierce opposition.
Heat six 6-4 to Horspath ,and this well drilled machine was doing what they do best keeping
the score board ticking over slowly piling on the pressure . Two more shared heats and a 7-3 to the visitors saw Horspath take an interval lead 49 – 38 .
Disaster struck for Ipswich in the very first heat after the break when Lewis Roberts suffered the first of his two tape exclusions , giving the visitors a comfortable 7-2 over the hapless Adams ,the next three heats went the way of Horspath 6-4,7-3,6-4 and suddenly the match was slipping away all too quickly for the home team .
The home team did manage to stop the rot in heat fourteen with a shared heat and duely claimed the inside grids for the remainer of the match which to their credit saw heats fifteen to eighteen go the way of the Ipswich lads winning 6-4 ,5-4,6-4,and finally 5-4. Final score 77-95 Horspath.
Lewis Bates continued his fine form with a maximum twenty point haul and looks to be once again really enjoying his racing his hunger and desire to win ,but my pick of their riders today would be be young Welsh wizard Mark Carmicheal who showed great bike control and passing of the highest order and another who looks on top of his game.
For the home team Josh Brooke scored wel but all to often is seemily left on his own.Over all the Ipswich should take heart that they are slowly getting closer but will need to cut out silly basic errors. Ipswich face two more difficult matches at home in the coming weeks with Birmingham and Sheffield our guests .