Edinburgh Monarchs 56 Ipswich Witches 34

Ipswich Witches have it all to do if they are to reach the League Cup final after a 56-34 defeat at Edinburgh Monarchs.

A patched-up Suffolk side rarely threatened to put the home team under any serious pressure. And it will take some performance from the Witches to pull the points back at Foxhall against a Monarchs team bursting with talent and who drew at Foxhall earlier in the season.

The Witches had three guests in their ranks and used rider replacement too, with Danny King, Nico Covatti, Gino Manzares and Stefan Nielsen all unavailable for one reason or another.

One of the Witches guests Richard Lawson never made it to the start in heat one as he was stuck in traffic! Home star Craig Cook won that in a new track record before Cameron Heeps fell on the final lap in heat three and already the Witches were six points down.

Lawson arrived in time to take a ride in heat five, but it was Kevin Wolbert who won easily on his way to a six-ride maximum, as the Witches struggled to find a heat winner.

Eventually, it was Richie Worrall, one of the Witches guests for the night, who took the chequered flag in heat eight to give Ipswich a timely first place. But by then the visitors were already 12 points down. It got worse and by heat 10 the Witches were 20 points behind. Guests Lawson and Worrall grabbed a 5-1 in heat 11 and Lawson beat Cook in heat 13 as the Witches made a late fight of proceedings.

But too much damage had been done and it is the Monarchs who will be favourites to finish the job off at Foxhall in a couple of weeks.

1 Cook, Worrall, Sedgmen, Morris 54.0 4-2

2 Clegg, Morris, Nielsen, Branford 56.5 7-5

3 Wolbert, Riss, Nielsen, Heeps (f) 55.6 12-6

4 Cook, Tungate, Morris, Branford 54.3 15-9

5 Wolbert, Lawson, Worrall, Riss 56.3 18-12

6 Cook, Sedgmen, Nielsen, Tungate 55.1 23-13

7 Wolbert, Heeps, Clegg, Morris 56.7 27-15

8 Worrall, Sedgmen, Branford, Morris 56.2 30-18

9 Wolbert, Riss, Tungate, Nielsen 56.7 35-19

10 Cook, Sedgmen, Heeps, Morris 56.3 40-20

11 Worrall, Lawson, Sedgmen, Clegg 56.7 41-25

12 Wolbert, Heeps, Nielsen, Branford 56.5 44-28

13 Lawson, Cook, Tungate, Riss 56.6 46-32

14 Riss, Branford, Heeps, Morris 58.3 51-33

15 Cook, Wolbert, Worrall, Lawson 56.9 56-34

Edinburgh: C Cook 17, J Sedgmen 8+2, K Wolbert 17+1, E Riss 7+2, R/R, M Clegg 4, R Branford 3+2

Ipswich: R Lawson 7+1, R Worrall 10+1, R/R, C Heeps 6, R Tungate 4, Simon Nielsen 4+2, A Morris 3+1