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Isle of Wight Islanders v Sheffield Tigers
KO Cup (1st Round), 07 June 2005
Smallbrook Stadium, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight 55
1Craig Boyce33331 ..130
2Glen Phillips2*112*. ..62
3Krister Marsh2*12*2. ..72
4Ulrich Ostergaard33333 ..150
5Tomas Suchanek030M. ..30
6Jason Doyle02*2M2* ..62
7Steen Jensen3200. ..50
Sheffield 34
1(g)Ray MortonFx232. ..70
2Paul Cooper110M1 ..30
3Ricky AshworthR0R30 ..30
5Andre Compton321R2 ..80
6Ben Wilson20131 1190
7Trevor Harding1*12*00 ..42

* = BP. ^ = TR . ! = TS (15m Handicap). # = TR (Points Not Doubled). & = TS (Points Not Doubled, 15m Handicap).

The Isle of Wightwere at full strength for this cup tie but Sheffield had ex-Islander Ray Morton as a guest replacement for Sean Wilson and were forced to use R/R for Richard Hall out with broken fingers.

The Tigers went into this match with a 12 point lead from the first leg but with no tactical rides available to them this never seemed likely to be enough. So it proved as the Isle of Wight had too much all round strength for Sheffield although the Tigers recovered with a late rally which was stopped dead in its tracks with a cruel engine failure for Andre Compton in heat 13.

The Isle of Wight quickly made inroads into the Sheffield first leg lead with two 5-1s in the opening three heats. Ray Morton fell in heat 1 and was excluded and Craig Boyce and Glenn Phillips took full advantage in the rerun for a 5-1. Heat 2 was shared but, when Ricky Ashworth suffered an engine failure in heat 3, Ulrich Ostergaard and Krister Marsh added another 5-1 to wipe 8 points from the lead leaving Sheffield just 4 ahead overall. However Andre Compton won heat 4 with Trevor Harding third as Sheffield scored a 2-4 to make the score after the first four heats 15-9.

The next three heats saw the Islanders go ahead on aggregate with two 4-2s and a 5-1 from Suchanek and Doyle to make the score 28-14 but Sheffield struck back with a 1-5 in heat 8 from Ben Wilson and Trevor Harding to cut the gap to 10 points at 29-19 and put Sheffield two up on aggregate again.

Heats 9 and 10 seemed to have killed the Tigers off completely both ending in 5-1s to the Islanders from Ostergaard and Marsh then Boyce and Phillips. This took the score to 39-21 with Sheffield now six points down on aggregate. However Sheffield weren’t quite finished. They took a 2-4 in heat 11 through Morton and Cooper then another 2-4 in heat 12 from Ashworth and Wilson to cut the lead to 14 points at 43-29, two points overall.

After the interval, things looked even better for Sheffield. In heat 13 firstly Jason Doyle replaced Tomas Suchanek but he failed to meet the time allowance so was in turn replaced by Steen Jensen. Incredibly he too couldn’t beat the two minute time allowance so the Islanders had to go with only one rider – Craig Boyce. Then Sheffield were winning the race 1-5 when Andre Compton suffered an engine failure. Craig Boyce eventually won the race from Ray Morton for a 3-2 to the Islanders to end Sheffield’s hopes. A 5-1 in heat 14 from Ostergaard and Doyle was followed by a 4-2 again won by Ulrich Ostergaard who completed a full five ride maximum stretched the winning lead to 21 points, 9 on aggregate as Sheffield bowed out of the competition.

Match Report by Merlin