Reading Bulldogs 55, Lakeside Hammers 37

Hammers were defeated by 18 points at Reading in the Elite League on Monday night, despite being only six points down at the halfway stage.

The Hammers provided five of the first eight heat winners at Smallmead - the highlight of which was a victory for reserve Leigh Lanham over current World number two Greg Hancock.

Reading started to pull away once they had successfully seen off the Hammers use of the tactical ride, with Danny Bird defeating Dean Barker in heat eleven.

Pole Kris Kasprzak continued his good form by scoring 14 points from his six rides, and will look to carry this into Friday's home match against Oxford.

Reading: 1. Greg Hancock 3 1 3 2 3 12+2; 2. Janusz Kolodziei 2 2 1 1 6+2; 3. Matej Zagar 3 2 3 3 1 12; 4. Mark Lemon 0 0 1 1; 5. Travis McGowan 2 3 0 3 7; 6. Danny Bird 2 1 3 1 7+2; Sam Simota 3 1 2 1 3 10+1.

Hammers: 1. Rider replacement; 2. Dean Barker 0 1 3 4 0 8; 3. Krzysztof Kasprzak 2 3 3 2 2 2 142+1; 5. Adam Shields 3 0 2 1 1 0 7+1; 6. Leigh Lanham 1 3 0 0 2 6; Paul Hurry 0 0 0 0.

Hat-by-heat

1: Hancock, Kolodziej, Hefenbrock, Barker (5-1) (5-1) 60.4

2: Simota, Bird, Lanham, Hurry (5-1) (10-2) 62.0

3: Zagar, Kasprzak, Hefenbrock, Lemon (3-3) (13-5) 59.0

4: Shields, McGowan, Simota, Hurry (3-3) (16-8) 61.1

5: Kasprzak, Zagar, Barker, Lemon (2-4) (18-12) 61.3

6: Lanham, Kolodziej, Hancock, Shields (3-3) (21-15) 61.6

7: Kasprzak, McGowan, Bird, Hefenbrock (3-3) (24-18) 61.2

8: Barker, Simota, Kolodziej, Hurry (3-3) (27-21) 61.7

9: Zagar, Shields, Lemon, Hurry (4-2) (31-23) 60.2

10: Hancock, Kasprzak, Kolodziej, Hefenbrock (4-2) (35-25) 61.2

11: Bird, Barker (tactical ride), Shields, McGowan (3-5) (38-30) 61.5

12: Zagar, Kasprzak, Simota, Lanham (4-2) (42-32) 59.8

13: McGowan, Hancock, Shields, Barker (5-1) (47-33) 61.0

14: Simota, Lanham, Bird, Hefenbrock (4-2) (51-35) 61.3

15: Hancock, Kasprzak, Zagar, Shields (4-2) (55-37) 61.1