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Sheffield Tigers v Newcastle Diamonds
Premier Trophy (Group), 21 April 2005
Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield

Sheffield 58
1Sean Wilson332*33 ..141
2Ben Wilson1133. ..80
3Richard Hall31*2*31 ..102
4Ricky Ashworth2*23R. ..71
5Andre Compton2*3FxR. ..51
6Paul Cooper0122. ..50
7Kyle Legault3312*. ..91
Newcastle 38
1(g)Robbie Kessler26^322 ..150
2Christian Henry000T. ..00
3Claus Kristensen1001. ..20
4Josef Franc0216^0 ..90
5James Grieves12R1*. ..41
6(g)Richie Dennis1*010. ..21
7Jamie Robertson20211 ..60

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

Sheffield were at full strength for this match and were looking to pull back a seven point deficit they incurred at Newcastle . The Diamonds were without Phil Morris and had Robbie Kessler as a guest at number one. Christian Henry had recovered and took his place at number two but Lubos Tomicek was also out with injury and Newcastle had Ritchie Dennis in his place at number six.

It didnÆt take Sheffield long to wipe out NewcastleÆs first leg lead. An opening heat 4-2 to the Tigers when Robbie Kessler finished second to Sean Wilson and a shared heat 2 were followed by two 5-1s from Richard Hall and Ricky Ashworth from Claus Kristensen and then from Kyle Legault and Andre Compton who beat James Grieves. The score after heat 4 was 17-7 and already Sheffield had a three point aggregate lead.

In heat 5, though, Newcastle quickly gave a TR to Robbie Kessler and he obliged by winning the heat from the Hall/Ashworth pairing for a 3-6 to pull the lead back at 20-13 and tie up the aggregate scores again. Sheffield followed this with three 4-2s before adding another two 5-1s in heat 9 from Ashworth and Hall and then heat 10 from the two Wilsons to put the Tigers 42-21 ahead and kill off NewcastleÆs hopes of taking anything from the match.

In Heat 11 Christian Henry burst the tapes and was replaced by Jaimie Robertson then Andre Compton fell and was excluded from the rerun. In the rerun Robbie Kessler took his second race win of the night from Paul Cooper and, with Jaimie Robertson an unchallenged third, Newcastle won the heat 2-4 to pull back to 44-25. However, Sheffield scored another 5-1 in heat 12 from Hall and Legault from Kristensen to move the score to 49-26.

There was some respite for the Diamonds when Andre Compton suffered an engine failure in heat 13. Although Sean Wilson won the heat he was followed home by Robbie Kessler and James Grieves for a shared heat. Heat 14 was even better for the Diamonds. Josef Franc took a TR and Ricky Ashworth had an engine failure. Franc won the heat and, with Jaimie Robertson picking up another unchallenged point, the heat resulted in a 2-7 to put a better complexion on the score at 54-36. A final heat 4-2 to Sheffield resulted when Sean Wilson beat Robbie Kessler with Richard Hall in third place.

Match Report by Merlin