Newcastle Diamonds 48 Ipswich Witches 42

IPSWICH Witches got their away Premier League season off to a fine start with a battling point at Newcastle.

The Suffolk side were well served by reserve Rohan Tungate and No.1 Leigh Lanham.

The Witches were never more than six points adrift of the north-east team and indeed could still have claimed a draw with a maximum 5-1 in the final heat.

Although that didn’t arrive, Lanham and Mat Tresarrieu made sure at least one point came back down the A1 to Suffolk.

Team boss Pete Simmons was pleased with his side’s efforts.

“There aren’t many teams going to come here and get a point,” he said.

“We needed to get something out of the final race and Mat (Tresarrieu) rode a really sensible race, keeping Stuart Robson at the back for a lap.

“That allowed Leigh (Lanham) to get away, but Robson was closing all the time, although he went in a bit too close to Leigh and messed himself up a bit.

“But I have no complaints at all about the way we rode. I thought we were very good, although again we didn’t win enough heats for my liking. We only won six, and we only won five on Thursday against Plymouth.

“But, no complaints.”