Ipswich Witches v Edinburgh Monarchs

We headed for Ipswich to face a Witches’ team which has been finding points easier to gather away than at home. First good sight was to see Smiling Sam in the pits helping the team.

The track proved to be in excellent condition, good enough in heat 1 for Danny King to go off 15 metres after touching the tapes, ride wide and pass our pair who were sticking too much to the line.

Max Clegg touched the tapes in heat 2 and got his partner but not the opposition!

We made the gate again in heat 3 but again, could not hold it as Tungate caught both Wolbert and Riss for another excellent victory.

Cook easily won heat 4 and there was a very close finish to heat 5, Manzares just failing to catch Richie Worrall as we cut the gap to 2. Tungate was a stoppage early in this heat.

Cook met King in heat 6 and though Danny gated, Craig cut past him off the second bend and went on to a track record breaking ride – 0.3 off his own record!

We shared heat 7 behind Covatti, and Sedgmen comfortably won heat 8 to keep us 2 behind.

The unfortunate Manzares crashed through the second bend fence in heat 9 and there was a delay while he was taken off to hospital. It’s been a troubled season for Gino. Cook beat Tungate in the rerun and we were now level.

Heat 10 went badly with King and Heeps easily taking a 5-1, but we followed up with two of our own! Sedgmen and Worrall over Covatti, then Wolbert and Clegg ahead of Ashley Morris in a heat Manzares would have been in.

King v Cook again in heat 13 and what a ride by Craig, chasing for two laps then a perfect inside turn to come out on the back straight of lap two ahead, pulling away from there.

Heat 14 featured a hideously unfair start with Morris away long before everyone else, and Tungate backing him for a 5-1. Scores level again.

So that left King v Cook III and this time from the start, Craig securing the drawn match.