THANK goodness the away meetings are running out for Ipswich Evening Star Witches as they suffered yet another defeat on their travels last night. The Suffolk side are currently not competitive when riding away from Foxhall Stadium and their chances of being involved in the Elite League play-offs remain very slim.

By Elvin King

THANK goodness the away meetings are running out for Ipswich Evening Star Witches as they suffered yet another defeat on their travels last night.

The Suffolk side are currently not competitive when riding away from Foxhall Stadium and their chances of being involved in the Elite League play-offs remain very slim.

Mike Smillie's side still have to go to Eastbourne, Wolverhampton and Oxford and they will need to show a marked improvement to stand any chance of gaining much needed victories.

There was never any chance that the Witches would stretch the losing run of Poole Pirates to a record-equalling eight meetings at Wimborne Road last night.

The Pirates won in a canter to get their act together again and revive their hopes of a play-off place.

Mark Loram won three races to again fly the flag for the visitors and Piotr Protasiewicz dropped just one point in his final three heats.

Otherwise, it was pretty woeful stuff from Ipswich, with their two reserves putting in plenty of effort but only beating rookie Matthew Wethers.

John Louis, the Ipswich promoter, missed the meeting as he was helping to get the Foxhall track ready for tonight's meeting after a stockcar event last weekend.

With his son Chris out of action with a broken collarbone, there was no Louis in the Ipswich pits for the first time for many meetings.

The meeting started promptly with the interval after 12 races coming at 8.35pm and the threat of rain did not materialise, ensuring a comprehensive Poole victory.

Smillie's tactical rider moves normally pay off, but on this occasion Loram could only finish third in heat nine while Robert Miskowiak also failed to beat an opponent when wearing the black and white helmet in heat 14.

A full strength home team were well served by Poles Krzysztof Kasprzak and Greg Walasek who both only missed out on maximums in the final race.

Carl Wilkinson was passed by Jonas Davidsson on the third lap of heat two with Tobi Kroner suffering clutch problems from the start.

Loram won his first heat, but with Kroner on his second machine making a good start before being passed by Antonia Lindback down the back straight, Ipswich gained the first of only three heat advantages.

Kasprzak did well to hold off Protasiewicz on the first circuit of heat five before Loram flew from the inside gate to win heat six.

Lindback went beyond Miskowiak on the second lap of race seven with Davidsson passing Wilkinson for third place at the same time.

Kim Jansson, who rode in Sweden on Tuesday having recovered from a head injury, chased hard in the next race but the home side still collected a 5-1.

They repeated the feat in the next race when the Polish pair made electric starts and Loram scored just one point as a tactical rider.

Loram passed Craig Boyce on the second lap of heat ten before Ipswich claimed a welcome 5-1 in race 11 when Smillie decided against using a tactical rider.

Protasiewicz did not want to be named a tactical rider from gate two in heat 13, but he still made the best start before being passed by Bjarne Pedersen down the back straight.

Loram went beyond Lindback on the second circuit and looked to have held on to third place only for the referee to award the one point to the fast finishing Lindback.

Miskowiak was three yards behind going into the first turn of race 14 when riding for double points, but Ipswich gained some consolation in the final race when Loram and Protasiewicz both passed Kasprzak to record a maximum.