MATCH REPORT: Fitness sees Whirlwinds through against Stars

On a cold Sunday afternoon, the Ipswich whirlwinds welcomed the Norwich Stars to Whitton Raceway, and with both teams missing some of their big hitters, a very tight match looked on the cards.

Ipswich had the perfect start, recording a 6-4 in heat 1, before 4 consecutive 5-5’s, Ipswich providing all the heat winners, but Norwich doing well to fill the middle places.

Heat 6 was another 6-4 to the home side with Jamie Chittock and Phil Clarke again combining to good effect, before the Brooke brothers matched them with a 6-4 of their own.

The 6 point lead took a dent as Norwich finished the half with the first 7-3 of the match to leave the home side 2 up at the interval.

As has been the norm with the home side so far this year, the fitness kicked in in the second half and with a couple of strong pairing changes the Whirlwinds were able to record two more 6-4’s and two 7-3’s while only losing the nominated heat as Norwich finished off with a 6-4.

For Ipswich Josh Brooke and Jamie Chittock both went unbeaten, with this being the latter’s third maximum in a row in local league racing. But the real stars for Ipswich were the young and ‘old’ of the team, Oscar Webb, Charley Brooke and Phil Clarke, claiming the all important 3rd places that kept the score board ticking over, against much more experienced opponents.

For Norwich Lee ‘Wildcard’ Grange topped the score charts, and was well backed up by Paddy Wenn and Gary Colby.

Next up for the Whirlwinds is the ‘very short journey’ to face sister team Ipswich Eagles , while Norwich entertain East London

Ipswich Whirlwinds 86
Jamie Chittock 20, Phil Clarke 11, Charley Brooke 8+1, Josh Brooke 18+2, Oscar Webb 10+1, Ben Harvey 19

Norwich Stars 74
Lee Grange 15+1, Scott Colby 9, Gary Colby 15, Alex Dyball 13+3, Paddy Wenn 14+1, Jamie Medler 8+1