Ipswich Witches 59 Sheffield Tigers 34

Ipswich Witches kept their play-off hopes well and truly alive with another powerhouse Foxhall performance on Thursday night.

The Suffolk side made it six straight home victories as their late charge for a top-six place continues to gather pace.

Friday they travel to Redcar in a Premier League clash and if they can reproduce this type of form, they have every chance to grab the victory they need to keep their play-off momentum going.

The Witches are currently in great shape.

Sheffield may not have arrived in the best of form, but they are fifth in the table, yet the Witches blew them away.

Danny King stretched his sequence of unbeaten heat wins at Foxhall to 30, before Sheffield skipper Simon Stead brought that record to an end in heat 13.

But this was a complete performance from Ritchie Hawkins’ side, every rider being involved in a 5-1 maximum at one stage or another of the meeting, with the points in the bag for the Witches by the end of heat 10.

Sheffield weren’t helped by the withdrawal of Jason Garrity after a heat four crash saw him sustain an arm injury, but his presence would not have altered the result.

Danyone Hume continued his steady rise up the speedway ladder, while Morten Risager showed some great gating skills.

Ipswich: D King 11, J Sarjeant 6+2, N Covatti 9+1, M Risager 10+2, B Barker 9+3, J Jacobs 8+2, D Hume 6.

Sheffield: S Stead 16, D Berge 0, K Howarth 7, J Bates 1, J Garrity 2, A Sissis 2, N Greaves 6.

1 King, Sarjeant, Stead, Berge 56.2 5-1

2 Greaves, Jacobs, Sissis, Hume (f) 60.2 7-5

3 Covatti, Risager, Howarth, Bates 57.7 12-6

4 Hume, Barker, Greaves, Garrity (f/x) 58.6 17-7

5 Stead, Covatti, Risager, Berge (15m) 58.2 20-10

6 King, Garrity, Sarjeant, Sissis 56.7 24-12

7 Jacobs, Barker, Howarth, Bates 59.5 29-13

8 Hume, Sarjeant, Greaves, Berge 59.1 34-14

9 Risager, Covatti, Greaves, Sissis 58.2 39-15

10 King, Howarth, Sarjeant, Bates 57.7 43-17

11 Stead*, Barker, Jacobs, Berge 56.8 46-23

12 Howarth, Covatti, Sissis, Hume 58.9 48-27

13 Stead, King, Barker, Greaves 57.9 51-30

14 Risager, Jacobs, Bates, Greaves 58.6 56-31

15 Stead, Barker, Risager, Howarth 58.5 59-34