20 April 2010
Posted in
Ipswich Witches
Ipswich Witches were heavily beaten 55-37 at Belle Vue last night in front of the Sky Sports cameras and for Danny it was a frustrating night as a first ride crash left him nursing a re-aggravated shoulder injury that he first suffered at the tail end of last season.
The Witches Skipper made a decent start to heat 3 and was challenging Toby Kroner in second place when he found a grippy patch and reared up on the back straight on the third lap at Kirkmanshulme Lane. Luckily the two trailing riders took evasive action to ensure the situation didn’t get any worse for him. The end result however was a sore shoulder and meant that Danny had trouble holding onto his bike for the rest of the evening and didn’t score the sort of points return that he admits he should have.
He bravely continued amidst the natural adrenalin rush and won his rider replacement ride in the very next race after powering around Leigh Lanham on the first/second bend to keep Ipswich in the hunt at that stage at 15-9. Despite gating in heat 7, Danny was passed on the inside by Simon Stead but managed to hold onto second place. He was then nominated for a tactical ride for double points for his team in heat 10 with the Witches already 34-20 down but both he and Olly Allen managed to get in each other’s way and by the time Danny had managed to get past his team mate the opportunity had gone.
A further second in heat 12 and a last place in the nominated heat followed but Danny was pretty relieved afterwards to have come out of the meeting relatively safely and relieved also that had not done any further damage to himself or his machinery. A meeting where the Witches were confident of success beforehand finished in a heavy 55-37 defeat and Danny said afterwards;
“It was a disappointing evening for the team and we should have got some sort of result out of the meeting. After my crash I was getting a lot of pain from the shoulder but I managed to carry on”.
He will now seek some physiotherapy treatment ahead of Thursday’s important clash with the Poole Pirates at Foxhall Heath (7.30pm).
Belle Vue Autogate Aces 55
1. Chris Harris (G) - 2, 2, 3, 2, 2 = 11
2. James Wright - 1*, 3, 1*, 3, 2*, 1* = 11+4
3. Patrick Hougaard R/R
4. Tobias Kroner - 2*, 1*, 1, 3, 3 = 10+2
5. Simon Stead (G) - 1*, 3, 3, 3, 1* = 11+2
6. William Lawson - 3, 1, 1, 0 = 5
7. Leigh Lanham - 1, 2, 2, 2*, 0 = 7+1
Ipswich Witches 37
1. Scott Nicholls - 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3 = 19
2. Claus Vissing - 0, 0, F, 0 = 0
3. Daniel King - FX, 3, 2, 1, 2, 0 = 8
4. Oliver Allen - 1, 0, 2, 0, 1* = 4+1
5. Robert Miskowiak R/R
6. Ritchie Hawkins - 2, 0, 0, 1*, 0 = 3+1
7. Carl Wilkinson - 0, 0, 1, 2 = 3