Premiership Knock-out Cup semi-final first leg
Ipswich Witches 57-33 Peterborough Panthers
The Ipswich Witches roared to a 24-point first leg advantage over Peterborough Panthers at Foxhall Stadium.
With Keynan Rew finding top gear racing to a paid maximum, along with Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov and skipper Danny King also in fine form, the visitors had no answer to the home side.
Erik Riss was again missing after failing a late fitness test, with the rider replacement facility used and the Panthers drafted in a guest in Frederik Jacobsen at number one.
Jason Doyle took the chequered flag in the opening heat, in a share of the spoils, before Peterborough got their noses in front with Jordan Jenkins taking the win, from Danyon Hume and Ben Cook in the second.
Rew then went round Ritchie Worral to join team-mate King at the front, for a 5-1 in the third, which put the home side two points up.
Sayfutdinov was well away in the fourth, from Niels-Kristian Iversen and Joe Thompson doing well to hold off Jordan Jenkins, until the Panthers reserve crashed out on the third lap.
Jenkins broke his nose in the fall and was to take no further part in the meeting.
The awarded 4-2 took the Witches four in front before King and Rew recorded their second 5-1 of the night in the fifth, to double the advantage to eight.
Jason Doyle then won the sixth in a shared heat, with Hume unlucky to be left with little room on the outside of his partner, on the first turn and then getting passed by Ben Cook, when looking to get past Iversen.
The visitors pulled a couple of points back in the next. Worrall doing well to hold off a determined Sayfutdinov and Basso getting the better of Hume.
Rew, out for Riss, won the eighth, in a share of the spoils and then he combined with King in the next for their third 5-1 to stretch the Witches lead.
Another maximum advantage followed in the tenth, with King winning his rider replacement outing and Doyle surviving a first lap clash with the Panthers Worrall, to join his team-mate at the front.
Sayfutdinov and Hume continued the trend in the eleventh, with their maximum, stretching the lead to 18.
Ben Basso stopped King's maximum hopes with a win in the twelfth and then Doyle and Sayfutdinov hammered home another Witches 5-1 in the next.
Heat 14 saw Hume unlucky to be disqualified when he fell on a crowded entry to the third bend and in the rerun Rew completed his paid maximum, before King and Sayfutdinov rounded the evening off in style with a heat fifteen maximum.
The comfortable victory puts the Suffolk side in with a great chance of progressing through to the KO Cup final with a healthy first leg advantage to defend in the return.
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle 11+1, Danny King 17, Keynan Rew 12+3, Emil Sayfutdinov 12+2, Danyon Hume 4+1, Joe Thompson 1
PETERBOROUGH: Frederik Jakobsen 5, Hans Andersen 2+2,Benjamin Basso 5, Richie Worrall 6, Niels-Kristian Iversen 6, Ben Cook 6+2, Jordan Jenkins 3
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