Lakeside Hammers finished their Elite League programme with a victory at home to Birmingham Brummies on Saturday.

The victory, secured in the last heat at Arena Essex Raceway, saw Hammers third in the table.

They must now wait to see whether it is enough to qualify for the end of season play-offs.

Either way, Hammers' co-promoter Jon Cook was delighted with the three-point haul.

“That was one for the fans,” he said. “They have been absolutely superb this year and their level of support has never dipped even during our lean form of the early season.

“Crowd figures are up for the fifth year running and to get the level of support we enjoyed last night on a rearranged fixture, with England playing football, blew us away.

“The atmosphere created was superb and the reception afforded to Lee (Richardson) and JD (Jonas Davidsson) on their extra lap of honour after Heat 15 sent all the team and our hardworking backroom staff away absolutely buzzing.”

The match started with two shared heats before Peter Ljung won a 5-1 to put Lakeside 11-7 up.

Brummies hit back with a 4-2 before Jonas Davidson guided Hammers to a 4-2 to make it 17-13.

Back-to-back 4-2s, with Lee Richardson, Davidsson and Ljung all winning, put Lakeside 30-18 up after heat eight.

Daniel Nermark clawed back six points with a tactical win to make it 33-24 before two shared heats were sandwiched by a 5-1 with Birmingham guest rider Aaron Summers winning to make it 40-35.

Richardson secured a 4-2 in heat 13 but Summers won a shared heat 14 to make it 47-40. But Richardson and Davidsson made it a 4-2 in the the final heat for a 51-42 success.