Ipswich Witches 56 Plymouth Devils 35

Ipswich Witches produced a red-hot performance on a red-hot, sultry evening at Foxhall Stadium on Thursday night.

The home side ran out comfortable 56-35 victors against Plymouth with a mixture of good gating and fine passing to send their fans home more than happy.

The Devils, buoyed by victory at Peterborough on Sunday, could have proved tricky opponents, but the ‘Sackers’ Witches started strongly and never looked back.

This was much more like it from the Witches, with every rider involved in a 5-1 maximum, Danny King and Nico Covatti the exciting stars of the night, both producing some thrilling action in front of a good-sized crowd who lapped up the good weather and good performance.

The Witches, with Cameron Heeps back in the fold, were back to full strength for the first time since April – and it showed as they regained their mojo in style.

“It was fresh start and a fresh performance,” said Witches team boss Phil Hilton.

“Everyone did their bit and Ashley Morris settled in really well. We dominated the second half of the meeting and that is what I really wanted us to do.

“It was a very good night.”

Ipswich: D King 10, C Heeps 5+1, G Manzares 7+1, R Tungate 8+2, N Covatti 13, S Nielsen 5+1, A Morris 8+2

Plymouth: R Fisher 7+1, M Risager 5, J Holder 9+2, T Kurtz 6, K Newman 6, R Konopka 2, S Simota 2.

1 King, Heeps, Fisher, Risager 56.8 5-1

2 Morris, Nielsen, Konopka, Simota 58.5 10-2

3 Holder, Tungate, Manzares, Kurtz 58.1 13-5

4 Covatti, Newman, Morris, Simota 57.7 17-7

5 Fisher, Manzares, Tungate, Risager 58.6 20-10

6 King, Newman, Heeps, Konopka 57.8 24-12

7 Covatti, Kurtz, Holder*, Nieslen (e/f) 58.6 27-16

8 Risager, Heeps, Morris, Simota 59.1 30-19

9 Tungate, Newman, Manzares, Konopka 58.3 34-21

10 Kurtz, Holder, Morris, King (e/f), Heeps (ex) 59.2 35-26

11 Covatti, Risager, Fisher, Nielsen 58.2 38-29

12 Manzares, Morris, Konopka, Holder (ex) 59.0 43-30

13 King, Fisher, Covatti, Newman 59.0 47-32

14 Nielsen, Tungate, Kurtz, Simota 59.3 52-33

15 Covatti, Holder, King, Fisher 59.2 56-35

*tac ride points count double

Ipswich 3 pts. Plymouth 0 pts.

Full meeting report and two-page picture spread in Friday’s EADT and Ipswich Star papers and the EADT and Ipswich Star E-Editions