Ipswich Witches Aussie star Cameron Heeps says it was through no lack of effort on his team’s part that they didn’t lift the Championship trophy at Foxhall on Saturday night.

The Suffolk side, roared on by a near 4,000 crowd, lost by 18 points to Sheffield Tigers on aggregate.

But Heeps says he and his team-mates did all they could to bring the trophy home.

“We are gutted, really gutted,” he said.

“Sixteen points was always going to be difficult we knew that but we gave it our best shot.

“It has been a tough season with injuries to so many riders, but I suppose that’s what you get when you put together a team of out and out racers.”

Heeps was the Witches star of the show on Saturday night, coming back from a shoulder injury to win two heats at Sheffield and then only beaten once by Scott Nicholls in the final heat on Saturday.

It was a brilliant performance from the youngster who time and again came from the back to thrill the large crowd. A crowd he admits inspired him.

“When me and Kyle (Newman) got that 5-1 in heat five, on the lap of honour, I’ve never heard a roar like it at Foxhall Stadium. The fans were awesome, just sorry we couldn’t do it.”

However, the Witches have an opportunity for quick revenge on the Tigers – the two meet in the KO Cup semi-final on Thursday and Friday, 12 and 13 of October – the Witches home leg is on Friday 13.

“Yeah, 100% we want to win the KO Cup,” Heeps added.

“We have got a chance to do that and we must go to Sheffield on the Thursday and keep it close and finish it off here the next night.

“It’s been a brilliant year and such good fun riding in this team, we’ll be fighting for that cup, make no mistake.”

Meanwhile Witches team boss Ritchie Hawkins was in no doubt the turning point of the meeting on Saturday – heat eight!

“It’s a shame Kyle (Newman) crashed in heat eight,” he said.

“He made a mistake and it’s been costly because we would have been just eight down and they were starting to get ruffled in the pits.”