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Sheffield Tigers v Workington Comets
Premier Trophy (Group), 28 April 2005
Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield

Sheffield 53
1Sean Wilson32321* ..111
2Ben Wilson1022*. ..51
3Richard Hall2*213. ..81
4Ricky Ashworth31*32. ..91
5Andre Compton3331*2 ..121
6Paul Cooper22*1*10 ..62
7(g)Jan Jaros011.. ..20
Workington 39
1Carl Stonehewer230^33 ..110
2Kevin Little000.. ..00
3Scott Robson110.. ..20
4Kauko NieminenR001. ..10
5Shaun Tacey23200 ..70
6(g)Jamie Birkinshaw31312 4^3170
7(g)Danny Norton100.. ..10

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

Sheffield had King’s Lynn rider, Jan Jaros, as a guest at reserve in place of Kyle Legault. Workington had a reserve pairing of James Birkinshaw, in place of James Wright, and Danny Norton.

This match was of crucial importance to Sheffield. The Tigers have completed their programme of seven away matches without a point having gone down by two points at Hull last night. With Edinburgh and Sheffield looking best placed at present to finish behind Workington in the northern section it is very important for Sheffield to take every bonus point they can. They went into this match having to pull back the 13 points by which they lost at Workington if they were to take this one.

The two teams exchanged 4-2s in the opening two heats. Sean Wilson beat Carl Stonehewer in the opening heat and James Birkinshaw won heat two from Paul Cooper. Sheffield then struck a 5-1 in heat 3 from Ricky Ashworth and Richard hall and Andre Compton beat Shaun Tacey with Jan Jaros third for a 4-2 in heat 4. So the score after four heats was 15-9.

Carl Stonehewer won heat 5 for a shared heat and Workington struck back with a 2-4 in heat 6 when Shaun Tacey beat Sean Wilson with James Birkinshaw third to pull back to 20-16. Andre Compton and Paul Cooper hit back with a 5-1 from Scott Robson to stretch the lead to eight points before James Birkinshaw won heat 8 for another shared heat. The score was now 28-20 and the bonus point was looking precarious for Workington.

Shaun Tacey could only split the Ashworth/Hall pairing in heat 9 for a Sheffield 4-2 then the Tigers struck another major blow with a 5-1 from the two Wilsons over James Birkinshaw to take the score to 37-23 and Sheffield were now one point ahead on aggregate for the bonus point. Heat 11 was won by Andre Compton from James Birkinshaw but Paul Cooper did well to keep Carl Stonehewer at the back for another 4-2 to Sheffield who stretched their lead to 16 points. Cooper’s point was to prove decisive in the destination of the bonus point! It was still 16 points after a 4-4 in heat 12 from Richard Hall ahead of James Birkinshaw, who took a TR, and Jan Jaros with Scott Robson keeping up his record, along with Kauko Nieminen and Kevin Little of failing to beat an opponent all match. The score was now 45-29.

In heat 13 Carl Stonehewer beat the Sheffield top two for a shared heat then James Birkinshaw passed Ricky Ashworth in heat 14. With Kauko Nieminen taking the third place point from Paul Cooper the Comets took a 2-4 to pull the score back to 50-36. This left Workington needing a 2-4 in the final heat for the bonus point. In the final heat Carl Stonehewer again beat Sheffield’s big two but, with Shaun Tacey at the back, the 3-3 meant that Sheffield had won the bonus by just one point.

Match Report by Merlin