Witches stars to square up

By Elvin King

IPSWICH Evening Star Witches' two star riders will be competing against each other for speedway's top team prize at Poole on Saturday.

Hans Andersen scored 13 points as Denmark made it through to the final in last night's Event Two of the FIM Euphony Speedway World Cup staged at Eastbourne.

Witches skipper Scott Nicholls helped Team Great Britain win Event One on Monday and along with Denmark Britain will line up on Saturday along with the first two finishers in tomorrow's Run-Off that features holders Sweden, Australia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Andersen, who was second top scorer behind Nicki Pedersen last night, added: “It was a good team effort that paid off and we're delighted to have gone straight through to Saturday's final.

“I believe that this team is more suited to the Poole track and we're looking forward to it.”

Showing great determination and team spirit, the Danes collected 60 points for their efforts, pushing 2001 and 2002 champions Australia into second place on 52 points with the Czech Republic (32pts) and Italy (14pts) finishing third and fourth respectively.

World champion Pedersen said: “The team were awesome. We knew we could do it. We made a couple of small mistakes, but we kept it together and didn't let it bother us.

“We just kept the team spirit and that is very important to the success of the team and it's great to be involved with it.”

Andersen was involved in a bizarre incident when half of the floodlights went out in one heat. The referee was unable to put on the red stop lights, and the race continued in semi-darkness for two laps until track staff raised red flags.

Australia were winning with Andersen third, but the Aussies' request to have the result stand was turned down by the referee.