Berwick Bandits 40

Ipswich Witches 50

Ipswich Sackers Witches put together one of their best performances of the season to enjoy victory in Berwick on Saturday evening.

With an Ipswich rider taking the chequered flag in 10 of the 15 heats it was an impressive result for the Suffolk side.

So often this year they have fallen away when it has come to the business end of away fixtures, but on this occasion they put in a particularly strong finish to take control and pull away to a ten point win, which brought with it all four league points.

With Chris Mills still unfit the Witches drafted in Ashley Birks as a guest and continued to use the rider replacement facility at number 2 for Taylor Poole.

Birkes did his job with victory in the reserves race whilst Poole’s rides accrued 9 points, in a meeting where every Witch contributed at least one race win.

Speaking immediately after the meeting Witches team manager Pete Simmons said: “This goes to show what we can achieve with all the riders performing as they can, something which we haven’t seen enough of this year.

“Morten (Risager) picked up his game after engine problems early on and Kevin (Doolan) was flying on Chris Louis-tuned engines. “Jerran (Hart) carried on his form of the last few meetings and won a race at a vital time in the meeting and with Mat (Tresarrieu) and Lasse (Bjerre) also scoring well and our guest winning the reserves heat I am thrilled with this performance”.

On a night when the Witches had their gating boots on Tresarrieu and Doolan got the visitors off to the best possible start with a 5-1 maximum in the opening heat and Birkes then won the reserves heat with Hart finishing third as they extended their advantage to six.

Josef Frank and Kozza Smith closed things up with a maximum for the home side in the third and then Bjerre won a shared heat four. Smith dropped a chain in the fifth, allowing Hart through for a point in a race won by Doolan as the Witches extended their lead to four.

Heat six saw the home side level things up with a Ludvig Lindgren and Seb Alden 5-1 and following a share of the spoils in heat 7, Jade Mudgway and Lindgren scored a heat 8 4-2 to take the home side into a narrow advantage for the first time.

Any thoughts that the Witches were about to slide to defeat were dispelled in heat 9 with Hart scoring a timely victory and Bjerre bringing home his faltering machine in third spot to level things up again.

Following a shared heat 10 Risager and Doolan ensured the Witches were back in the driving seat with a maximum advantage in the eleventh, to take them four points to the good, before Tresarrieu won the twelfth.

With Hart finishing third behind Smith the Witches were six ahead and they extended this to eight points when Bjerre won heat thirteen from Lee Complin, with Doolan picking up the third placed point.

Risager made sure of a Witches win on the night when he took the chequered flag in the penultimate heat and then Bjerre won the final heat in style to ensure all four points were heading the Witches way.

Berwick: S Alden 5+1, L Lindgren 5, K Smith 4+1, J Frank 9, L Complin 10, M Davey 0, J Mudgway 7

Ipswich: K Doolan 9+2, R/R, M Tresarrieu 11, M Risager 8+2, L Bjerre 13, J Hart 6, A Birkes 3

Ipswich 4pts, Berwick 0pts

1 Tresarrieu, Doolan, Lindgren, Alden 65.3 1-5

2 Birkes, Mudgway, Hart, Davey 66.6 3-9

3 Franc, Smith, Tresarrieu, Risager 65.6 8-10

4 Bjerre, Complin, Mudgway Birkes 66.0 11-13

5 Doolan, Franc, Hart, Smith (ret) 64.4 13-17

6 Lindgren, Alden, Bjerre, Hart 65.2 18-18

7 Complin, Tresarrieu, Risager, Davey 65.7 21-21

8 Mudgway, Bjerre, Lindgren, Birkes 65.9 25-23

9 Hart, Franc, Bjerre, Smith 65.9 27-27

10 Alden, Tresarrieu, Risager, Lindgren 66.2 30-30

11 Risager, Doolan, Complin, Mudgway 66.2 31-35

12 Tresarrieu, Smith, Hart, Davey, 66.6 33-39

13 Bjerre, Complin, Doolan, Alden 65.2 35-43

14 Risager, Franc, Mudgway, Hart 66.3 38-46

15 Bjerre, Complin, Doolan, Franc 65.9 40-50