It may have been a bad year for injuries and rain affected meetings but after reaching the Knock Out Cup final on Tuesday there is still much to race for this season for the Ipswich Witches.

The fixture congestion has led to a shortage of available dates at Foxhall so the KO Cup semi-final second leg against the Oxford Cheetahs had to be raced as part of a double header, with the team's First racing in their outstanding Elite League fixture.

Amazingly after the meetings only two points separated the teams.

First up was the Elite League fixture, Scott Nicholls and then Chris Louis found their way past Todd Wiltshire in heat 13, in separate moves, while keeping Australian GP star Leigh Adams at the back.

It gave the home side a four-point advantage going into the penultimate race where the Cheetahs again squared the points with their own 5-1.

This set up a last heat decider where the Oxford's Adams and Wiltshire were quite happy to fill the minor places which was enough earn them a draw and with it the two points they needed to lift the Elite League title.

It was on with the second and most important meeting, as far as Ipswich were concerned, the KO Cup semi-final second leg.

Once again it all came down to the final heat, with both teams level on points and knowing that a heat advantage to either side would be enough to see them through to a potentially lucrative cup final.

Winning the toss for gate positions Ipswich took the inside. This proved vital with Nicholls and Hampel combining for a match winning heat advantage over Leigh Adams that takes the Witches through to a final against Peterborough.

The first leg is set to be staged on Sunday, October 21, in the middle of what will be a frantic week for the East Anglian club.

They take on Coventry in the league at Foxhall next Tuesday, travel to Kings Lynn for a Craven shield clash on Wednesday before having an ideal chance get set up for the final at Peterborough's East of England showground circuit on Friday when they race their final craven shield meeting at the venue.

It's then back to Kings Lynn on Saturday in the league followed by the KO Cup final first leg on Sunday, then off to Wolverhampton on Monday, October 22, in the league.

To make it seven matches in eight days Ipswich then entertain Belle Vue at home the Tuesday.

Before that skipper Chris Louis and Scott Nicholls will be racing in Slovinia this Saturday, when they take their places in the Grand Prix Challenge meeting where both will be aiming for a top six finish to book their places in next years GP series .

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.