Magic win for Diamonds to stop Witches

NEWCASTLE Diamonds stopped high-flying Ipswich Witches from soaring to the top of the SGB Championship table at Byker last night, beating the men from Suffolk, 46-44, in a nail-biting finish that had the crowd enthralled.

With Robert Lambert and Steve Worrall back from their World Cup exploits in Poland, the Diamonds were at full strength, albeit with Ben Hopwood carrying a leg injury.

Ipswich went into the match on the back of an away victory at Berwick on Saturday, 47 – 45, and with former Diamonds Danny King and Kyle Newman in their ranks along with Rory Schlein, winner of the British Championship semifinal at Byker in April, fancied their chances of bagging a win or a draw that would have seen them take over from Edinburgh at the top.

But they found the Diamonds in miserly mood, fighting for every point to notch their seventh home win of a disappointing league campaign, especially away from the comfort of Byker.

The Witches showed why they are challenging for the title when they stunned the home side by taking two 5-1 wins in the space of ten minutes. Firstly, King and Newman outpaced Ludvig Lindgren after Lewis Rose fouled the tapes in the fifth race, and then Aussies Schlein and Cameron Heeps did the same to Worrall and Hopwood to put Ipswich ahead, 25-17.

Rose and Lindgren made amends in the ninth with a powerful 5-1 over another Australian Justin Sedgmen, but then Schlein inflicted on Lambert his only defeat of a terrific performance to send the Witches into the interval leading, 33-27, and looking on course for victory.

But the Witches suffered a severe blow when King was leading in the eleventh heat but crashed into the fence aggravating a shoulder injury and taking no further part. A 5-1 by Lambert and Worrall after both made a fast start put the Diamonds level, 39-39, and another piece of misfortune for the Witches, when Heeps crashed out of the penultimate race enabled Diamonds Lindgren and Hopwood to notch a 4-2 and take the lead. Lambert’s start-to-finish win in the final race meant Newcastle took three league points and Ipswich one.

NEWCASTLE (46): Robert Lambert 13, Steve Worrall 10, Ludvig Lindgren 8, Lewis Rose 7, Ben Hopwood 4, Ashley Morris 4, Alfie Bowtell 0.

IPSWICH (44): Rory Schlein 12, Kyle Newman 10, Nathan Greaves 7, Connor Mountain 5, Justin Sedgmen 4, Cameron Heeps 3, Danny King 3.