Wolves put up fight
Wolves bounced back in the best possible way from their heavy speedway defeat at Poole on Wednesday, as they left Ipswich last night with only an eight-point deficit to overturn in their opening Knockout Cup tie.
Wolves bounced back in the best possible way from their heavy speedway defeat at Poole on Wednesday, as they left Ipswich last night with only an eight-point deficit to overturn in their opening Knockout Cup tie.
The team put together a much more solid performance than that shown the previous evening, with all the riders showing flashes of brilliance when it mattered.
Wolves were ten points down after only six races and looked to be heading for another big defeat, but they fought back with some fine gating and careful use of the few grippy patches on the perennially slick Foxhall Heath oval, producing arguably their best performance at the Suffolk venue in some years.
Freddie Lindgren looked revitalised after his low score in Dorset, defeating ex-Wolf Steve Johnston and Ipswich legend Chris Louis in heat 5 and teaming up with Niels Kristian Iversen for a 5-1 in the last race, ending home star Jarek Hampel's hopes of a maximum.
Nicolai Klindt surprised many on his maiden visit to Ipswich, with a superb burst around the outside of Louis to head home heat 9, mirroring Ales Drym's move on Tobias Kroner in the previous heat.
The young Dane then produced a similar manoeuvre in heat 14 with a daring swoop around Johnston to take his second win, with Dryml also taking Kroner for third.
Iversen came down on the first turn of heat 7 after clipping Chris Schramm's back wheel and looked to be in some discomfort at first, but soon recovered to continue, and scored four points from a tactical ride in heat 10.
Witches reserve Schramm took an even more spectacular spill in heat 11, clipping the fence midway down the back straight and valiantly trying to hang on to his machine before finally falling at turn three and suffering what appeared to be a foot injury.
With Kenneth Hansen receiving treatment for hip injuries back in Denmark, Wolves No 8 Chris Neath made his 2008 seasonal debut after top scoring for Rye House at Birmingham the night before, and picked up a couple of points after defeating Schramm in the restaging of heat 7.
Christian Hefenbrock failed to score, but gated well in heat 4 and attempted to team ride with David Howe, only to fall prey to fellow countryman Kroner late on.
Wolves team manager Peter Adams was pleased with the performance, but warned against complacency heading into Monday's second leg with the tie so finely balanced.
"We should never underestimate Ipswich, as they have a good record at Monmore – we should take nothing for granted," he said.
He was also unable to comment on the fitness of Hansen ahead of the return leg.
