Witches soar to Speedway's Premiership Grand Final

Ipswich Witches have marked their return to top flight speedway with a place in this season's Premiership Play-Off Grand Final.

But they did it the hard way, overturning a 10 point deficit to beat reigning champions Poole Pirates in the two-legged semi-final.

The Witches now await the winners of the other semi-final between Wolverhampton and the Swindon Robins.

Poole were pre-race favourites having established a strong first leg lead on home soil - this after initially trailing by 12 points at their Wimborne Road track.

And that first leg defeat acted as a spur for the Witches at Foxhall Stadium.

They managed to wipe out the deficit by Heat 9 before establishing an unassailable 6 point aggregate lead in the penultimate Heat 14.

Ipswich won by 54 points to 36 on the night, 94-86 on aggregate.

The fact that Ipswich were racing in the Premiership at all owed much to the investment made by businessman Keith 'Buster' Chapman.

He was already a co-promoter at King's Lynn Stars but threw his financial weight behind Ipswich and Peterborough Panthers to give the sport's top flight a much needed boost, with three other clubs choosing not to race in the Premiership in 2019.

Reaction from Ipswich Witches Team manager Ritchie Hawkins & captain Danny King