Newcastle Diamonds 45 Ipswich Witches 45

Ipswich Witches director of speedway Chris Louis heaped praise on his side after they grabbed a thrilling draw at Newcastle Sunday night.

In the second meeting of their northern tour the Witches showed huge determination to grab two points with a terrific 45-all result. Newcastle are one of the best teams in the Premier League, as they showed on Thursday night with a last-heat victory over the Witches at Foxhall Heath. But if the Diamonds thought the Witches would roll over for them to complete a quick-fire double, then they were badly mistaken.

“We were excellent,” said Louis after the Newcastle draw.

“I felt we should have got a few more points at Berwick and we made such a sloppy start there. But here we got everything we deserved.”

The Witches went toe-to-toe with the Diamonds and again it was Ben Barker who proved the value of a big-hitting No.1. as his last-heat pass of Ritchie Worrall secured the draw for the Witches.

“Ben has been brilliant for us over these last few nights,” Louis added.

“His problem has always been machinery, not his riding ability. But hopefully that’s sorted out now.”

But while Barker was back on track, it was another quiet night for skipper Leigh Lanham, who only scored four points.

“Leigh is having a tough time right now,” said Louis.

“Just as Morten did a while back and all riders do. He will get it right, it’s no good knocking him.”

The Witches grabbed the initiative at Brough Park last night from the off and were two points ahead after five races.

Cameron Heeps won his second race of the night in heat eight, with Ritchie Hawkins third, to keep the scores level.

Barker and Tungate both won races before Risager and Heeps levelled matters up in the penultimate race.

Barker did the rest in heat 15 to bring to an end a satisfying northern tour for the Suffolk side.

Scorers: Newcastle: S Robson 9+1, A Tully 5+2, C Henry 7, L Lindgren 4, R Worrall 13, S Worrall 0, L Kerr 7+1.

Ipswich: B Barker 14, R Hawkins 4+1, R Tungate 8+1, M Risager 7+1, L Lanham 4, A Ellis 1, C Heeps 7.

Heat details: 1 Barker, Robson, Tully, Hawkins 63.0 3-3; 2 Heeps, Kerr, Ellis, S Worrall 63.3 5-7; 3 Lindgren, Risager, Tungate, Henry (f\x) 62.4 8-10; 4 R Worrall, Kerr, Lanham, Heeps 63.6 13-11; 5 Barker, Hawkins, Henry, Lindgren 64.6, 14-16; 6 Robson, Tully, Lanham, Ellis 63.3 19-17; 7 R Worrall, Tungate, Risager, S Worrall 63.2 22-20; 8 Heeps, Tully, Hawkins, Kerr 64.0 24-24; 9 Henry, Lanham, Lindgren, Ellis 28-26; 10 Tungate, Robson, Risager, Tully 62.9 30-30; 11 Barker, R Worrall, Hawkins, S Worrall 62.5 32-34; 12 Henry, Tungate, Kerr, Heeps 64.5 36-36; 13 R Worrall, Barker, Robson, Lanham 62.8 40-38; 14 Risager, Kerr, Heeps, Lindgren 63.8 42-42; 15 Barker, R Worrall, Robson, Tungate 63.0 45-45

Newcastle 1 pt. Ipswich 2pts