SPEEDWAY: Substitute Jan Kvech bagged 10+1 points as the Ipswich Witches ended their recent run of wretched form by leading from the first tape to beat Leicester 49-41 in the first leg of their Premiership play-off semi-final.

Max Fricke top-scored with 10+2 for Leicester who host the second leg at Beaumont Park on Thursday before Belle Vue take on regular season champions Sheffield in the second semi-final.

MEN’S CRICKET: England begin a three-match Twenty20 series against Australia at Southampton tomorrow.

The Aussies arrive on the back of a conclusive 3-0 series win over Scotland and sit second behind India in the international rankings, with Travis Head rated as the world’s best short-format batsmen.

England are the world’s fourth-best team with Adil Rashid topping the bowling rankings. Five one-day matches will follow the Twenty20 series.

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL: Celtic have been drawn against Vorskla Poltava, previously known as Zhytlobud-2 Kharkiv, for a place in the Champions League group stages.

The Ukrainians are ranked 53 places above Celtic by Uefa.

Arsenal are paired with Sweden’s Hacken, who reached the quarter-finals last time around, while Manchester City will need to overcome Paris FC, who finished behind Chelsea and Hacken in last season’s group stages.

CYCLING: Europe’s road racing championships begin on the former Belgian formula one race track at Heusden-Zolder tomorrow with a pan-flat 31.1 kilometres long men and women’s time trials.

Neither Wales’s Josh Tarling nor Switzerland’s three-time champion Marlen Reusser are defending their titles, men’s Olympic gold medallist Remco Evenepoel is also missing and there will be no British representation at the competition for the third time in four years.