A highly skilled and highly professional Poole thrashed Ipswich in this Elite League fixture at Wimborne Road on Wednesday night.

A highly skilled and highly professional Poole thrashed Ipswich in this Elite League fixture at Wimborne Road on Wednesday night.

The Witches must have feared for the worst against a side with hardly a weak link – and so it proved with the league points sorted well before the half-way point.

When skipper Daniel King was passed by home reserve Leon Madsen while riding for double points in heat seven it showed the hold the league leaders had over their opponents, and ended any slim hopes Ipswich had of getting back into the meeting.

The rest of the evening was academic for an Ipswich side that will be hoping to recover from this hiding to get back to form in the home meeting against Lakeside at Foxhall Stadium tonight.

Likened by some to the Ipswich treble-winning 1998 side, Poole vintage 2010 will certainly take some beating on their home track and their fans lapped up one good Pirates race after another.

If the Witches are to finish in the top four and qualify for the end of season play-offs they will have to improve on this – although to be fair Poole on this evidence will take some stopping in their title quest.

They were looking for a double after winning by two points in a thrilling meeting at Foxhall Stadium last month.

The Pirates had won their previous six home league meetings and it was obvious from the start that they were not in the mood to take any prisoners.

Scott Nicholls was the only Ipswich race winner when he donned the black and white helmet colour in heat 11 with the Pirates plundering eight maximum 5-1 heat wins in the 15 races.

There was no denying Ipswich’s application but they were outclassed through virtually the whole of the team with the visiting reserves not in the same league as the home bottom two.

This was Ipswich’s biggest defeat of the season at a place where every team will be in danger of being thrashed by a magnificent home seven.

Backed by a eager management team hell bent on making up for last year’s poor year when only Ipswich’s late win at Belle Vue saved the Pirates from the wooden spoon, Poole have put much effort in tracking a strong side – and Ipswich were taught a lesson of how far they need to improve to even think of any silverware this term.

A black cloud hovered overhead Poole as the riders began warming up their machines and the rain that it brought – although not heavy – put the meeting in doubt.

But a reasonably-sized crowd was already in the stadium there were some bright breaks in the skies with the meeting starting on time and the drizzle having died away.

The pre-action parade was abandoned however and the first race got underway soon after the scheduled 7.30pm start time.

And there was hardly a break between heats as the home promotion whizzed through the early stages in their efforts to beat the threat of more rain.

The meeting was over before 9pm with Ipswich left to lick their wounds after being left chasing the tails of the Pirates for most of the night.