diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7b477de..1b59c47 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -34,11 +34,11 @@ index_ref = indxr_pipe.index(dataset.get_corpus_iter(), batch_size=128)
 # Retrieval
 
 Similarly, SPLADE encodes the query into BERT WordPieces and corresponding weights.
-We apply this as a query encoding transformer. It encodes the query into Terrier's matchop query language, to avoid tokenisation problems.
+We apply this as a query encoding transformer.
 
 ```python
 
-splade_retr = splade.query_encoder(matchop=True) >> pt.terrier.Retrieve('./msmarco_psg', wmodel='Tf')
+splade_retr = splade.query_encoder() >> pt.terrier.Retriever('./msmarco_psg', wmodel='Tf')
 
 ```
 
diff --git a/pyt_splade/__init__.py b/pyt_splade/__init__.py
index e20a4ce..edcdfc7 100644
--- a/pyt_splade/__init__.py
+++ b/pyt_splade/__init__.py
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@
 from pyt_splade._model import Splade
 from pyt_splade._encoder import SpladeEncoder
 from pyt_splade._scorer import SpladeScorer
-from pyt_splade._utils import Toks2Doc, MatchOp
+from pyt_splade._utils import Toks2Doc
 
 SpladeFactory = Splade # backward compatible name
 toks2doc = Toks2Doc # backward compatible name
 
-__all__ = ['Splade', 'SpladeEncoder', 'SpladeScorer', 'SpladeFactory', 'Toks2Doc', 'toks2doc', 'MatchOp']
+__all__ = ['Splade', 'SpladeEncoder', 'SpladeScorer', 'SpladeFactory', 'Toks2Doc', 'toks2doc']
diff --git a/pyt_splade/_model.py b/pyt_splade/_model.py
index 3a5d3e9..0d85f28 100644
--- a/pyt_splade/_model.py
+++ b/pyt_splade/_model.py
@@ -58,27 +58,22 @@ def doc_encoder(self, text_field='text', batch_size=100, sparse=True, verbose=Fa
         out_field = 'toks' if sparse else 'doc_vec'
         return pyt_splade.SpladeEncoder(self, text_field, out_field, 'd', sparse, batch_size, verbose, scale)
 
-    indexing = doc_encoder  # backward compatible name
+    indexing = doc_encoder # backward compatible name
 
-    def query_encoder(self, batch_size=100, sparse=True, verbose=False, matchop=False, scale=100) -> pt.Transformer:
+    def query_encoder(self, batch_size=100, sparse=True, verbose=False, scale=100) -> pt.Transformer:
         """Returns a transformer that encodes a query field into a query representation.
 
         Args:
             batch_size: the batch size to use when encoding
             sparse: if True, the output will be a dict of term frequencies, otherwise a dense vector
             verbose: if True, show a progress bar
-            matchop: if True, convert the output to MatchOp syntax
             scale: the scale to apply to the term frequencies
         """
         out_field = 'query_toks' if sparse else 'query_vec'
         res = pyt_splade.SpladeEncoder(self, 'query', out_field, 'q', sparse, batch_size, verbose, scale)
-        if matchop:
-            res = res >> pyt_splade.MatchOp()
         return res
 
-    def query(self, batch_size=100, sparse=True, verbose=False, matchop=True, scale=100) -> pt.Transformer:
-        # backward compatible name w/ default matchop=True
-        return self.query_encoder(batch_size, sparse, verbose, matchop, scale)
+    query = query_encoder # backward compatible name
 
     def scorer(self, text_field='text', batch_size=100, verbose=False) -> pt.Transformer:
         """Returns a transformer that scores documents against queries.
diff --git a/pyt_splade/_utils.py b/pyt_splade/_utils.py
index 635c16a..856c898 100644
--- a/pyt_splade/_utils.py
+++ b/pyt_splade/_utils.py
@@ -1,32 +1,7 @@
-import base64
-import string
 import pandas as pd
-import pyterrier_alpha as pta
 import pyterrier as pt
 
 
-class MatchOp(pt.Transformer):
-    """Converts a query_toks field into a query field, using the MatchOp syntax."""
-
-    def transform(self, df: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
-        """Converts the query_toks field into a query field."""
-        pta.validate.query_frame(df, ['query_toks'])
-        rtr = pt.model.push_queries(df)
-        rtr = rtr.assign(query=df.query_toks.apply(lambda toks: ' '.join(_matchop(k, v) for k, v in toks.items())))
-        rtr = rtr.drop(columns=['query_toks'])
-        return rtr
-
-
-def _matchop(t, w):
-    """Converts a term and its weight into MatchOp syntax."""
-    if not all(a in string.ascii_letters + string.digits for a in t):
-        encoded = base64.b64encode(t.encode('utf-8')).decode("utf-8")
-        t = f'#base64({encoded})'
-    if w != 1:
-        t = f'#combine:0={w}({t})'
-    return t
-
-
 class Toks2Doc(pt.Transformer):
     """Converts a toks field into a text field, by scaling the weights by ``mult`` and repeating them."""
     def __init__(self, mult: float = 100.):
diff --git a/pyt_splade/pt_docs/api.rst b/pyt_splade/pt_docs/api.rst
index 072fd9a..785d9a8 100644
--- a/pyt_splade/pt_docs/api.rst
+++ b/pyt_splade/pt_docs/api.rst
@@ -6,22 +6,12 @@ API Documentation
 .. autoclass:: pyt_splade.Splade
     :members:
 
-Utils
+Utils / Internals
 ------------------------------------------
 
-These utility transformers allow you to convert between sparse representation formats.
-
 .. autoclass:: pyt_splade.Toks2Doc
     :members:
 
-.. autoclass:: pyt_splade.MatchOp
-    :members:
-
-Internals
-------------------------------------------
-
-These transformers are returned by :class:`~pyt_splade.Splade` to perform encoding and scoring.
-
 .. autoclass:: pyt_splade.SpladeEncoder
     :members:
 
diff --git a/pyt_splade/pt_docs/index.rst b/pyt_splade/pt_docs/index.rst
index 77cf523..63eafe0 100644
--- a/pyt_splade/pt_docs/index.rst
+++ b/pyt_splade/pt_docs/index.rst
@@ -44,11 +44,11 @@ Retrieval
 ---------------------------------------------
 
 Similarly, SPLADE encodes the query into BERT WordPieces and corresponding weights.
-We apply this as a query encoding transformer. It encodes the query into Terrier's matchop query language, to avoid tokenisation problems.
+We apply this as a query encoding transformer.
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
-    splade_retr = splade.query_encoder(matchop=True) >> pt.terrier.Retrieve('./msmarco_psg', wmodel='Tf')
+    splade_retr = splade.query_encoder() >> pt.terrier.Retriever('./msmarco_psg', wmodel='Tf')
 
 
 Scoring
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index c5dcc6e..6a748b3 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -19,6 +19,6 @@
     license="Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike",
     long_description=readme,
     install_requires=[
-        'splade', 'python-terrier', 'pyterrier_alpha',
+        'splade', 'python-terrier>=0.11.0', 'pyterrier_alpha',
     ],
 )
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test_matchop.py b/tests/test_matchop.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 5428cb4..0000000
--- a/tests/test_matchop.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-import unittest
-from pyt_splade._utils import _matchop
-
-class TestMatchop(unittest.TestCase):
-
-    def test_it(self):
-        
-        self.assertEqual(_matchop('a', 1), 'a')
-        self.assertEqual(_matchop('a', 1.1), '#combine:0=1.1(a)')
-        self.assertEqual(_matchop('##a', 1.1), '#combine:0=1.1(#base64(IyNh))') 
-
-        self.assertTrue("#base64" in _matchop('"', 1))
-