Lakeside Hammers 52 Ipswich Witches 37

Ipswich Witches had nothing to show after defeat at Lakeside Hammers tonight, the Essex side getting revenge for their defeat at Foxhall on Thursday.

The Suffolk side went down and only Rory Schlein and guest Scott Nicholls got among the Hammers riders.

Lakeside have a perfect league record on their tight Purfleet bowl this season and it was always going to be a tough ask for the Witches go claim the spoils.

Yet, Schlein and Cameron Heeps both made decent starts in the opener, but Heeps, who has been dropped by his Premiership club Wolverhampton, found himself at the back in an opening drawn heat.

The Witches reserves were on the end of a heat two 5-1 to their Hammers counterparts.

Again the Witches made decent starts in heat three, alongside Hammers’ Adam Ellis. But Ellis sped off and Kyle Newman joined him at the front.

Scott Nicholls was guesting for the Witches once more after his fine performance at Foxhall on Thursday. He won heat four and it was a shared heat five as Schlein and Heeps picked up the minor placings.

Nicholls and Richard Lawson had a good dice for the lead in the next, but it was the Hammers man, who was another in good form at Foxhall on Thursday, who came out on top.

The visitors were 10 points down now and they went further behind as Ben Morley rode inside both Nico Covatti and Mark Riss on turn three, lap one, to join Nick Morris at the front.

Heeps and Coty Garcia provided the Witches with their first heat advantage of the night in heat eight, but the Suffolk side still trailed by 12 at 30-18.

Schlein came into heat nine as a tactical rider, but it was Nicholls who led for the Witches. However, Schlein nipped past Newman to claim third. Lawson was a faller on lap one of heat 10 and was excluded as Riss hit the tapes in the re-run and was replaced by Garcia.

Zach Wajtknecht won the third re-run after pipping Garcia on the run-in to the line.

Morris and Schlein had a great battle in heat 11 with Morris passing Schlein on the last lap as Morley and David Wallinger fell in an awarded heat 12, won by Ellis. It left Morris to win heat 13 to seal the victory for the home side.

The Witches travel to Peterborough Sunday afternoon in another Championship clash (5pm). Adam Ellis guests for Danny King in the Witches side.

Heat details

1 Schlein, Lawson, Wajtknecht, Heeps 58.8 3-3

2 Bowtell, Morley, Garcia, Wallinger 61.3 8-4

3 Ellis, Newman, Covatti, Riss 59.1 13-5

4 Nicholls, Morris, Bowtell, Garcia 59.3 16-8

5 Ellis, Schlein, Heeps, Newman 59.3 19-11

6 Lawson, Nicholls, Wajtknecht, Wallinger 58.5 23-13

7 Morris, Morley, Covatti, Riss 59.6 28-14

8 Heeps, Wajtknecht, Garcia, Bowtell 60.4 30-18

9 Nicholls, Ellis, Schlein*, Newman 60.1 32-22

10 Wajtknecht, Garcia, Covatti, Lawson(f/x), Riss (t/ex) 60.9 35-25

11 Morris, Schlein, Morley, Heeps. 59.5 39-27

12 Ellis, Covatti, Wallinger (r), Bowtell(f/x) no time 42-29

13 Morris, Nicholls, Schlein, Lawson 59.3 45-32

14 Morley, Newman, Riss, Garcia 60.6 50-33

15 Nicholls, Morris, Schlein, Ellis 59.3 52-37

*tac ride

Lakeside 3 pts. Ipswich 0 pts.

Scorers

Lakeside: R Lawson 5, Z Wajtknecht 7+1, A Ellis 11, K Newman 4+2, N Morris 13, B Morley 8+2, A Bowtell 4+1.

Ipswich: R Schlein 10+1, C Heeps 4+1, N Covatti 5+1, M Riss 1, S Nicholls 13, D Wallinger 0, C Garcia 4