Ipswich Witches 52,

Oxford Cheetahs 38 GRESHAM Oxford Cheetahs paid the price of going into official action without any practice when they were beaten by a confident Witches side in last night's Craven Shield speedway opener.

Things started well with Todd Wiltshire flying out of the gate in heat one, only to lock up on the first bend and watch the Witches pairing of Chris Louis and Savalas Clouting fly past him.

By heat six, Cheetahs were 14 points behind.

Richard Palmer made a tactical substitution in heat 8, replacing the out-of-sorts Jan Staechmann with Wiltshire, and swapping his reserves around to partner him with Lawrence Hare. The Cheetahs pairing leapt out of the gate to pick up the visitors first heat advantage of the night. However, they would not repeat the feat in the next.

Witches sealed it in heat 13 with a maximum heat win courtesy of Louis and Tomasz Gollob, with Wiltshire giving up the ghost halfway round. The Witches then managed a 4-2 in the penultimate heat despite Steve Johnston being used as a tactical substitute.

In the new-look heat 15, this year being run over six laps, Johnston and Gollob had a battle royal until Gollob fell and was excluded.

Hare finished with a score of paid 11.

Ipswich: Louis 14+1, Clouting 6+1, Svab 6+1, Howe 9, Gollob 11+1, Jason Bunyan 3, Brett Woodfield 3+2.

Oxford: Wiltshire 10+1, Staechmann 1, Johnston 11, Hurry 7+1, Hare 8+3, Rossiter 1.

Heat 1: Clouting, Louis, Wiltshire, Staechmann 60.0secs. Heat 2: Hare, Bunyan, Woodifield, Rossiter (f/ex) 61.8. Heat 3: Svab, Johnston, Howe, Hurry 60.8. Heat 4: Gollob, Woodifield, Staechmann, Rossiter 61.1. Heat 5: Wiltshire, Howe, Svab, Staechmann 61.0. Heat 6: Louis, Clouting, Rossiter, Hurry 61.5. Heat 7: Gollob, Hurry, Johnston, Bunyan 61.3. Heat 8: Wiltshire, Hare, Clouting, Woodifield 61.6. Heat 9: Howe, Wiltshire, Svab, Hare 60.8. Heat 10: Louis, Johnston, Hurry, Clouting 60.4. Heat 11: Gollob, Hurry, Wiltshire, Bunyan (f/ex) 61.8. Heat 12: Johnston, Hare, Svab, Woodifield 62.1. Heat 13: Louis, Gollob, Johnston, Wiltshire (ef) 60.9. Heat 14: Howe, Hurry, Bunyan, Johnston (ef) 61.3. Heat 15: Louis, Johnston, Hare, Gollob (f/ex) awarded.

Story date: Friday 19 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.