Arena Essex 57, Oxford Silver Machine 38: Oxford Silver Machine were easily defeated at Purfleet in last night's Elite League speedway encounter.

And to add to their troubles, the Hammers even pinched the aggregate bonus point to put pressure on Oxford's end-of-season play-off aspirations.

Mark Loram flew clear in the first race and as Oxford's pair of Travis McGowan and Rafal Dobrucki tucked in for a shared heat, Paul Hurry squeezed past Dobrucki to give the Hammers the lead.

Things went from bad to worse. The home reserves made the Oxford pairing of Jonas Davidsson and Niels-Kristian Iversen look very ordinary with an easy maximum in the second heat.

Dobrucki seemed to have got his act together in the third with a great win over Dean Barker, and there was a brilliant race for the all-important third spot between Ryan Fisher and Greg Walasek, with Fisher coming out on top.

Controversy followed in the fourth heat after an appalling start which referee Frank Ebdon allowed to go, and it was the Hammers pair who had made the most of it for another maximum.

With Oxford eight points down, boss Nigel Wagstaff introduced Greg Hancock as a tactical rider and together with McGowan, raced to a maximum 8-1 to give the visitors a lifeline.

But any thoughts of an Oxford fightback were quickly dispelled as Arena hit back with a 4-2 in the seventh and another maximum in the eighth when Hurry appeared to push McGowan into the fence.

McGowan somehow managed to stay on his machine, but once again, referee Ebdon saw nothing wrong with it.

A heat advantage for Oxford in the ninth heat was something of a gift after Walasek fell while in second place, but another 5-1 against a poor looking Dobrucki/Fisher pairing in the tenth saw the Hammers take the aggregate lead for the first time.

McGowan came in as a tactical in heat 11 and battled hard for his second place, while Iversen hung on for the vital third spot to level the aggregate scores.

Again the rally was short-lived, with the Essex reserve pairing scorching to another maximum over Fisher and Iversen to take a four-point advantage on aggregate.

Oxford fought hard in the next, with McGowan leading Loram for two laps, allowing Hancock to blast away and move two points closer to the home side.

However, a maximum 5-1 in the penultimate heat from the home side saw the Silver Machine having to admit defeat.

Arena Essex: Loram 14, Hurry 6+2, Walasek 4, Barker 7, Povazhny 5+1, Larsen 10+2, Lanham 11+2. 57pts.

Oxford: Ulamek rr, McGowan 9+1, Fisher 2, Dobrucki 5, Hancock 16, Davidsson 1, Iversen 5+1. 38pts.