Ipswich Witches missed out on any points after their meeting at Sheffield was abandoned with two heats to go after a long night in Yorkshire.

The Witches lost Danny King after a frightening heat seven crash that put him out of the meeting. The hold up of almost 45 minutes meant the meeting was running late throughout and with the curfew reached it ended two heats short, as the Witches went down 35-43.

How the dramatic night unfolded

It was a disappointing end to the night for the visitors, who were still hoping to grab a late point with Jason Doyle set to have two more races. But it wasn't to be and the Suffolk side were grateful to see Paul Starke walk away from a heat 14 crash. The re-run of which never took place.

Doyle flew from the outside to victory in heat one in a shared first race. Heat two saw Sheffield's Connor Mountain crash down the back straight on the outside of Broc Nicol.

It looked a racing incident and Mountain was excluded, with Justin Sedgmen, guesting for Jake Allen, winning comfortably.

Starke made a great gate off the outside to take advantage of Kyle Howarth's mistake down the back straight. But Howarth got Starke back in another shared race.

The Witches broke the deadlock in heat four, Danyon Hume and Erik Riss gating to the front, as Adam Ellis packed up for the home side. Doyle stalked and superbly passed Howarth on the final bend in the next to keep the Witches four ahead at 13-17.

The home side drew level in the next, Sedgmen and Holder gating to an easy 5-1.Danny King made a great start in heat seven, but coming out of turn two his bike reared alarmingly and he smashed into the second bend fence. It was a horrible impact. King did get up but walked into the ambulance.

King was back in the pits moments later, but withdrew from the meeting.

Ellis won the re-run of heat seven, as Howarth passed Hume on the final bend in a thrilling next heat. Sheffield went four ahead in the next and maintained that lead despite Riss taking the chequered flag.

Doyle made it three out of three before the Tigers took a vital 5-1 in heat 12. Again Doyle was to the fore for the Witches in heat 13, but he was starting to fight a lone furrow.

Starke took a huge crash in heat 14 on turn four, but got up to walk back to the pits as the meeting was abandoned.

Doyle was again superb for Ipswich, with Riss and Hume also doing well. But with King's injury, the Witches had a long tail as the Tigers leapfrogged above Ipswich in the table.


Sheffield: 1. Jack Holder (2,2*,1*,1*) 6+3; 2. R/R; 3. Tobiasz Musielak (0,1*,3,2,3,) 10+1; 4. Kyle Howarth (3,2,3,1,) =9; 5. Adam Ellis (ret,3,2,2) 7; 6. Justin Sedgmen (1*,3,3,Ex,1*,2*)= 10+3; 7. Connor Mountain (Ex,1,2,0,) =3

Ipswich: 1. Jason Doyle (3,3,3,3,) =12; 2. Troy Batchelor (0,0,1*) =1+1; 3. Danny King (1*,f/x) =1+1; 4. Paul Starke (2,2,0,0,) =4; 5. Erik Riss (3,1,2,3,0,) =9; 6. Broc Nicol (1*,0,0) =1+1; 7. Danyon Hume (2,2*,2,0,1,) =7+1

*denotes bonus point.

Heat details

1. Doyle, Holder, Sedgmen, Batchelor 3-3

2. Sedgmen, Hume, Nicol, Mountain (f/x) 6-6

3. Howarth, Starke, King, Musielak 9-9

4. Riss, Hume, Mountain, Ellis (r) 10-14

5. Doyle, Howarth, Musielak, Batchelor 13-17

6. Sedgmen, Holder, Riss, Nicol 18-18

7. Ellis, Starke, Mountain, Sedgmen (ex/t), King (f/x) 22-20

8. Howarth, Hume, Batchelor, Mountain (15m) 25-23

9. Musielak, Riss, Howarth, Nicol 29-25

10. Riss, Musielak, Holder, Starke 32-28

11. Doyle, Ellis, Sedgmen, Hume 35-31

12. Musielak, Sedgmen, Hume, Starke 40-32

13. Doyle, Ellis, Holder, Riss 43-35

Meeting abandoned, curfew

Tigers 3pts. Witches 0pts.

Top Witch: Jason Doyle, a super maximum from him.


Premiership

P Pts.

Sheffield 8 20

Ipswich 10 19

Wolves 9 18

Belle Vue 9 17

King's Lynn 7 8

Peterborough 9 7