Panthers climbed back up the Elite League table after a comfortable home win over local rivals Ipswich Witches. They are now just two points adrift of table toppers Reading.
Team manager Trevor Swales described the home win and Panthers’ success at Oxford the previous night as “absolutely brilliant” but admitted that no one – himself and Colin Horton included – was happy with track conditions.
Ryan Sullivan’s performance alone reflected that. Normally famed for his pits bend over-taking manoeuvre he just simply couldn’t find the grip round the outside. His best ride of the night came in heat 12 when he led all the way.
In the post-meeting press conference Sullivan admitted: “It’s not really been my best night round here but we had a good win and that’s the main thing.”
And that ‘good win’ included three 5-1’s and 17 points from Captain Hans Andersen. In fact, Andersen opened the meeting with his now customary heat 1 win. The real delight for fans, however, was the return to form of Ulrich Ostergaard as he held onto second place ahead of last year’s Panther Ales Drym (guesting for Piotr Protasiewicz).
The second 5-1 of the night came in heat 5 (from the pairing of Niels Kristian Iversen and Sullivan) to take the score line to 19-11 in Panthers’ favour.
The next three races all featured Ostergaard as he took a replacement ride for the injured Jesper B Jensen in heat 7.
He teamed up with Andersen for a 4-2 in heat 6, which very nearly could have been another 5-1 (Ipswich’s Mark Loram cut in front of Ostergaard after a spirited chase to take second spot).
In heat 8 it was battle between Ostergaard and former Puma Daniel King which the latter won (with partner Kim Jansson finishing third) to take the score line to 28-20.
And that race marked an Ipswich resurgence. Loram recorded a win in the next heat to keep the scores level before the pairing of Chris Louis and Robert Miskowiak managed a 4-2 over Andersen and Ostergaard in heat 10.
In fact it was that heat which caused Andersen to joke: “The referee cheated me out of a maximum today”.
Having missed the gate Andersen cut up the inside of the other riders on the back straight to take second spot before pursing race-leader Chris Louis. On the final bend Andersen went wide and sped to the tapes but the referee ruled that Louis had just got there before him.
That meant that the points gap was narrowed to just six. But a 4-2 from Andersen and Iversen (who endured a tussle for second spot with Dryml) in heat 13 opened it up to eight points.
It was back to six points again after heat 14, however, as Louis found a way past Iversen and King went past Richard Hall. Hall incidentally was still suffering the effects of a crash at Oxford and had to use an ice pack to nurse his shoulder. He said that he couldn’t hold on to the bike any longer when King went by him.
In the end, Ipswich’s efforts in heat 14 were undone by a 5-1 from Andersen and Iversen in the final race. The question is: will 10 points be enough to take to Ipswich on 5th August?
