Ipswich Witches 55 Rye House Rockets 40

Ipswich Witches stretched their unbeaten Premier League run to six meetings with a comfortable win over Rye House Rockets at Foxhall Stadium.

The Rockets missed Swedish star Anders Mellgren, but quite honestly his presence may have made the scoreline a bit closer, but he would have made no difference to the result.

The Witches are looking in good form at Foxhall, gating well and racing hard, they are becoming a strong team unit – and they need to be – with fellow play-off challengers Berwick winning comfortably on their travels at Redcar last night and the likes of Peterborough and Workington with meetings in hand.

The ‘Sackers’ Witches however are doing the business right now and can do no more. On Thursday night they were too strong for the visitors from Hertfordshire.

Every Witches rider won a heat, something that is rarely done, and there was some great action, with skipper Ritchie Hawkins leading the way as he battled his way to 10 exciting points.

Richie Worrall continued his good form at No.1 and although reserves Adam Ellis and Cameron Heeps weren’t as dominant as the last couple of weeks, they were too good for the Rocket’s equivalent.

The Suffolk side will now sit and watch as the play-off protagonists do battle over the next 10 days, the Witches not having a home meeting at Foxhall until August 21 when Workington Comets are in town.

Heat details

1 Worrall, Hawkins, Kennett, Bowen 56.9 5-1

2 Ellis, Bunyan, Heeps, Greenwood 58.8 9-3

3 Manzares, Boxall, Garrity, Risager 57.3 12-6

4 Tungate, Ellis, Owen, Bunyan (ret) 58.0 17-7

5 Kennett*, Risager, Manzares, Bowen 57.8 20-13

6 Worrall, Hawkins, Greenwood, Owen 57.5 25-14

7 Boxall, Garrity, Tungate, Heeps 58.3 26-19

8 Hawkins, Bowen, Bunyan, Ellis (f) 58.9 29-22

9 Risager, Manzares, Greenwood, Owen 58.7 34-23

10 Worrall, Boxall, Hawkins, Garrity 58.5 38-25

11 Tungate, Heeps, Bowen, Kennett (r) 58.7 43-26

12 Risager, Boxall*, Greenwood, Ellis 59.1 46-31

13 Kennett, Worrall, Greenwood, Tungate (15m) 58.5 48-35

14 Heeps, Manzares, Garrity, Bunyan 59.7 53-36

15 Garrity, Hawkins, Boxall, Worrall (ef) 59.8 55-40

*tac ride points count double

Ipswich 3 pts. Rye House 0 pts.

Ipswich: R Worrall 11, R Hawkins 10+2, M Risager 8, G Manzares 8+3, R Tungate 7, C Heeps 6+1, A Ellis 5+1

Rye House: E Kennett 10, L Bowen 3, S Boxall 12, J Garrity 7+2, M Owen 1, O Greenwood 4+1, J Bunyan 3+1

Man of the match: Ritchie Hawkins