Belle Vue Aces 57, Oxford Silver Machine 38: Oxford Silver Machine's hopes of reaching the Skybet Elite League play-offs all but disappeared as they crashed to yet another heavy away defeat in Manchester last night.

Silver Machine got off to an abysmal start with the Aces racing to an immaculate maximum first-heat win.

Niels-Kristian Iversen won heat two win by a country mile, but with Jonas Davidsson rooted to the back, there was still a four-point deficit.

Things got worse then in heat three when Ryan Fisher and Rafal Dobrucki were subjected to Belle Vue's second maximum-heat win.

With Jason Crump then getting the better of Greg Hancock in heat four and Davidsson collecting his second duck of the night, the Aces were ten points up.

Hancock then came in as a rider replacement for heat five and was nominated as a tactical rider.

He challenged Joe Screen for the first half a lap, before dropping back to protect Travis McGowan from the attentions of Carl Stonehewer.

It was close throughout, but Oxford just held on to gain a slim two-point heat advantage.

Hancock got his first victory in the next, but Crump was another easy winner in the seventh and, with Neil Collins beating Davidsson, Belle Vue were back to a ten-point lead.

McGowan was nominated as a tactical rider in heat eight and he made a fantastic start along with Iversen.

It looked as though Silver Machine were on for the magical eight-one.

But Iversen went from second to last on one turn, although with McGowan hanging on to the win it did reduce the deficit to seven points and put Oxford slightly ahead on aggregate.

Hancock was made to look very ordinary in heat nine with Stonehewer and Screen from second to last on one turn, although with McGowan hanging on to the win it did reduce the deficit to seven points and put Oxford slightly ahead on aggregate.

Hancock was made to look very ordinary in the heat nine with Stonehewer and Screen pushing him all over the place for another Aces maximum to leave Silver Machine dead and buried.

Oxford were 15 points down by the interval stage and the meeting was lost, although they still had an outside chance of fighting back for the bonus point.

In was not to be though as they were unable to claw back the points needed.

Belle Vue: R Correy RR, R Schlein 7+3, C Stonehewer 12, Joe Screen 12+3, J Crump 18, N Collins 3, S Robson 5+1. 57pts.

Oxford: S Ulamek RR, T McGowan 10+3, R Fisher 7, R Dobrucki 2+1, G Hancock 14, J Davidsson 0, N-K Iversen 5. 38pts.