Ipswich set sights on title after first-leg win

Danny King is in his 16th season for Ipswich Witches

Ipswich Witches have a first league title since 1998 in their sights after beating Leicester Lions in the first leg of the Premiership play-off final.

Emil Sayfutdinov led the scoring for the Witches with 11 points despite being excluded from the final race as they came out on top 47-43.

Ipswich lost the 2023 final against Sheffield Tigers despite winning the first leg 54-36 and are taking nothing for granted despite having home advantage for Thursday's second leg against Leicester.

"We're not getting carried away - we believed we could win here and it's nice to do that but we need to make sure we finish the job [on] Thursday," Ipswich captain Danny King told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"They have won at our place this year so it's not going to be a walk in the park. We'll need to be on our 'A' game.

"This club means everything to me and I'm going to leave nothing on the line, I'm going to give everything."

Ipswich had to overcome the loss of Adam Ellis, who crashed out of the meeting in his first race.

"He was fully committed, maybe a little too committed for the first one and went down, not particularly hard but very awkwardly, and he's in a bit of pain," said promoter Chris Louis, a member of the 1998 title-winning team.

"If you lose a rider in his very first ride the team can go flat quite quickly but they didn't, they picked themselves up and fought even harder."

The results of a scan have shown that Ellis has no fractures, but the club said he is in a lot of pain, and Australian Keynan Rew has been brought in as a guest replacement for Thursday.

Ipswich's most recent silverware came in the 2023 Knockout Cup, when they beat Sheffield 97-83 over two legs to claim their 10th trophy since they were founded in 1950.

And they will again look to Sayfutdinov and former world champion Jason Doyle to lead the way when they meet Leicester at Foxhall on Thursday.

King described Russia-born, Poland-based Sayfutdinov as "phenomenal" and Louis added: "Emil is riding very well. He wants another gold medal, he got one in Poland and he wants one here. I'm hoping he's going to get one.

"It's half-time, we're four points up - that's a good position to be in but it's by no means over. They've beaten us by four points at Foxhall this year - we were without Jason and Dan that night - and it's certainly not over."