The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches raced to victory over Leicester in the first leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final at Foxhall on Monday night.

The Suffolk side entered the play-offs without the likes of Jason Doyle, Emil Sayfutdinov and Jordan Jenkins due to injury and were without a win in eight having finished fourth in the regular campaign.

Jan Kvěch, Tom Brennan and Ashton Boughen were guesting for the missing home trio. In contrast, second-placed Leicester came into the play-offs in form but lost Ryan Douglas and Craig Cook to injury ahead of this fixture, with Lewi Kerr in for Cook and rider replacement in operation for Douglas.

Despite the injury issues and lack of form, it was Ipswich who started strongly as they raced to a 16-point lead after 10 races. The Lions clawed back eight points in the second half of the meeting and will be relieved to leave Suffolk just eight points behind having been second best for the majority of the night. Kvěch top scored with 10+1.

Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It was good to get our first win for a while by eight points and all the boys contributed. It felt a lot more like a performance we had earlier on in the season with everyone chipping in with points and it was much-needed tonight.

"We built a big lead early on, but we knew they would come back strong as the track slickened off a bit and they had the better gates in the latter stages of the meeting. Heat 15 is a bit of a blow to us, but we go into Thursday in a decent position being eight up and ready to fight for a place in the final again.

“All the guests did well. Tom has obviously done a few with us now and did very well again with three wins. I thought Jan was superb on his second ever visit to Foxhall and he is a really nice lad, it is good to have him over in Britain and with us tonight. It was great to see the progress Ashton has made over the last year since he last rode for us and there is a lot more to come from him in his career.

“Everyone has contributed and done well, it was a good performance. They all stepped up to the occasion and it is something we will need to replicate on Thursday.

“I know we have been underdogs since Emil’s crash, and we go into Thursday concentrated on trying to win the meeting and we will aim to do that. We will worry about the aggregate score later on in the meeting.

“People will have seen that Emil rode in Poland on Sunday night but did not ride for us today. He is not fit enough yet to take on a full schedule. There is a big difference in racing one meeting at your home club and then having four or five days recovery when you are injured. That is a big difference to racing one day, taking a flight and travelling to another meeting in a different country and then doing the same again and not having any days off or rest.

"The facts are that he is not fit enough to race for us at the moment. I know he would love to and maybe if we were in the second semi-final he would be back with us but that is not the case.”

Ipswich take an eight-point lead to Leicester for the second leg on Thursday as the two sides battle for a place in the play-off final.

IPSWICH 49: Jan Kvěch (G) 10+1, Adam Ellis 6+2, Keynan Rew 7+1, Tom Brennan (G) 9, Danny King © 9, Ashton Boughen (G) 3+1, Dan Thompson (RS) 5+2. Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins

LEICESTER 41: Max Fricke © 10+2, Richard Lawson 9+1, Sam Masters 10, Luke Becker 6+1, Ryan Douglas R/R, Lewi Kerr (G) 6, Sam Hagon (RS) 0. Team Manager: Stewart Dickson

Referee: W. Jarvis